Together: Transforming and Translating Discovery to Improve Health

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The overall goal of the Mentored Career Development Program (KL2) of the University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) is to educate and train diverse, multidisciplinary investigators who aspire to leadership roles in research translation. CTSA KL2 Programs have mostly enrolled MD’s or PhD’s; opportunities for development of translational research careers in nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, veterinary medicine and other health professions have been limited across the National CTSA Program. The University of Florida CTSI is uniquely positioned to enhance its current KL2 Program to create a novel multidisciplinary, interprofessional career development program to train successful investigators from diverse academic and professional backgrounds in clinical/translational research. The UF Health Science Center has all six Health Science Colleges (Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Public Health and Health Professions, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine) and many other disciplines incorporated within one UF campus. First, we will develop an innovative curriculum, comprised of didactic coursework, mentored research and professional development experiences for the attainment of core competencies that persons with professional doctorate degrees (e.g. MD, DDS, DVM, Pharm D, DOT/DPT) or PhD’s require in order to successfully pursue careers in translational research. Second, the training experience will be enriched with exposure to broad-based career development opportunities in diverse training settings (industry, government, community), to build skills in education and teaching, grant writing, multidisciplinary team science, and leadership. Third, we will recruit and retain three highly qualified KL2 Scholars and three institutionally supported K Scholars for two years of training who are diverse with regard to demography, discipline, research interests, and career plans. Fourth, the program’s impact on training multidisciplinary leaders in translational research, their mastery of core competencies, their completion of didactic and experiential learning opportunities, and their career trajectories will be tracked and evaluated. Finally, national consortia of early career investigators in translational research in the fields of dentistry, occupational/physical therapy, pharmacy, public health, nursing, and veterinary medicine will be organized to develop and share educational tools and curricula which enrich translational research training and academic leadership development in all health professions. This KL2 program will be transformative by creation of career development resources not limited to KL2 Scholars but shared with Mentored Career Development (K) Programs across UF and other CTSA Hubs.