Advanced Research Institute in Geriatric Mental Health

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This competitive renewal application requests five additional years of support to continue and extend the efforts of the "Advanced Research Institute (ARI) in Geriatric Mental Health". ARI is a national program in which mid-career and senior investigators work together to promote the career advancement of new investigators through helping them achieve independent research funding, with the longer term goal of expanding the field's capacity to address the significant, but complex, problems related to mental illness in the fast growing elderly population. The goals of the Advanced Research Institute in Geriatric Mental Health are designed to contribute to Geriatric Mental Health's mission to reduce the burden of mental disorders in late life. Specifically, the ARI's goals are to increase the capacity of the field of Geriatric Mental Health research to conduct innovative and significant research by increasing the number of: 1. Independent scientists (e.g., R01-level investigators) conducting translational, intervention, and services research in areas related to late-life mental health; 2. Senior leaders taking responsibility for the long term growth and development of the field through helping to develop independent investigators and assuming other responsibilities of academic citizenship; Outcomes, to date, suggest that ARI has been effective in meeting these aims, as evidenced by: 1. Two-fold increases (through several indices) in the likelihood of new investigators achieving R-level funding; 2. Two-fold decrease in the likelihood of a year or more gap between career development award and R-level funding; and 3. Increased involvement and skill development of the field's midcareer researchers in mentoring and leadership activities. We have achieved these results by implementing an educational program that provides focused mentoring and consultation. The program supports 16 ARI new investigators (called Scholars) annually; each Scholar's formal involvement lasts up to two years. In this renewal application we propose some programmatic changes in order to focus the educational activities on those components having the greatest impact, including: 1. Sustained mentoring by a member of the program faculty; 2. Structured opportunities for individualized mentoring and consultation including: an intensive annual 3-day ARI Spring Retreat attended by Scholars, mentors, methodologists, and program officers; small group, web-based works-in-progress seminars; and consultation with NIH program officers; 3. Targeted consultation on substantive and methodological issues from senior experts; 4. Mentor training. "Advanced Research Institute (ARI) in Geriatric Mental Health" is a national program in which mid-career and senior investigators work together to promote the career advancement of new investigators. The aim of the program is to increase the number of independent scientists conducting research in geriatric mental health, with the long range goal of reducing the burden of mental disorders in late life.