University of Tennessee at Chattanooga BRAD Project: Chattanooga Research Enhance

描述(由申请者提供)：田纳西大学查塔努加分校(UTC)是一所活跃的大都市大学，服务于种族/民族多元化的学生群体，代表了较低社会经济地位(SES)家庭的高比例，并拥有大量第一代大学学生。UTC致力于通过战略伙伴关系和社区参与满足田纳西州东南部和佐治亚州北部地区的多样化需求。田纳西州的成人教育水平在全国排名第43位，这是根据田纳西州至少拥有副学士学位的成年居民人数计算的(田纳西州高等教育委员会，2012年)。该地区普遍缺乏卫生专业人员，在田纳西州和佐治亚州的县卫生排名中名列前茅。在美国国立卫生研究院(NIH)生物医学/生物行为研究管理发展奖(BRAD)的支持下，UTC将增加其在培养那些在追求依赖于优秀生物医学和生物行为研究(BBR)的职业中具有挑战性的教育和经济劣势的学生方面做出重大改变的可能性。建议的UTC Brad项目，查塔努加研究增强：倡导、培训和扩展(CREATE)的目标是加强和扩大现有的组织结构，以建设UTC教职员工成功竞争BBR奖项的能力，从而加强本科生和研究生为潜在的BBR和卫生专业职业生涯做准备和培训。CREATE的具体目标是：1)确定改善UTC校园BBR环境/文化的关键战略；2)代表教师并与教师一起倡导改善与教师教学/建议、服务和研究职能相关的研究政策；3)改善教师获得研究企业培训机会的机会；4)通过与校外合作伙伴的合作努力，扩大UTC教师的研究能力。参与CREATE将为UTC首席研究员/校外助理Gregory W.Heath博士提供研究管理培训、支持和指导，并与UTC教务长Jerald Ainsworth博士和孟菲斯田纳西大学健康科学中心(UTHSC)研究生健康科学学院院长Donald Thomason博士合作。通过这样的指导和NIH Brad暑期实习，Create的预期结果是加强和扩大UTC园区的BBR，并通过能力建设、研究培训和对教职员工的支持来扩大伙伴关系和赞助项目办公室(OPSP)的覆盖范围。CREATE计划的一个组成部分是与主要教职员工和管理人员围绕与BBR开发和推广相关的主题召开一系列战略规划会议。战略规划的一个相关组成部分是改善教师参加研讨会的机会，这些研讨会的主题包括资金机会识别、拨款撰写、提案制定和成功的拨款管理，以及个性化的拨款支持。最后，CREATE计划寻求积极参与社区、地区、州和国家的合作伙伴关系，旨在为UTC教职员工和学生提供合作的BBR机会。2.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) is an engaged, metropolitan university which serves a student body that is racially/ethnically diverse, represents a high proportion of lower socioeconomic status (SES) families, and has a high number of first generational college attendees. UTC is dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of the Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia region through strategic partnerships and community involvement. Tennessee ranks 43rd in the nation for adult educational attainment based on the number of adult Tennessee state residents who have a minimum of an associate's degree (Tennessee Higher Education Commission, 2012). The region is rife with a shortage of health professionals and ranks among the lowest in the county health rankings for the states of Tennessee and Georgia. With support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Biomedical/Bio behavioral Research Administration Development (BRAD) award, UTC will increase its likelihood of making a measurable difference in preparing students who represent challenging educational and economic disadvantages for pursuing careers dependent on exposure to excellent biomedical and bio behavioral research (BBR). The goal of the proposed UTC BRAD project, Chattanooga Research Enhancement: Advocacy, Training, and Expansion (CREATE), is to enhance and expand the existing organizational structure to build capacity among UTC faculty to successfully compete for BBR awards and thereby enhance the preparation and training of undergraduate and graduate students for potential BBR and health professional careers. The specific aims of CREATE are to: 1) Identify key strategies in which to enhance the BBR environment/culture on the UTC campus; 2) Advocate on behalf of and with faculty for improved research policies relative to the faculty functions of teaching/advising, service, and research; 3) Improve faculty access to training opportunities in the research enterprise; 4) Expand UTC faculty research capacity through collaborative efforts and partnering with extramural partners. Participation in CREATE will provide UTC's principal investigator/Extramural Associate (EA), Dr. Gregory W. Heath, with research administration training, support, and mentoring in association with Drs. Jerald Ainsworth, UTC Provost, and Dr. Donald Thomason, Dean, College of Graduate Health Sciences, University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), Memphis. Through such mentoring and the NIH BRAD summer internship, the desired outcome of CREATE is to enhance and expand BBR on the UTC campus as well as extend the reach of the Office of Partnerships and Sponsored Programs (OPSP) through capacity building, research training, and support to faculty. A component of the CREATE plan is the convening of a series of strategic planning sessions with key faculty and administrators around topics associated with BBR development and promotion. A related component to strategic planning is improved faculty access to workshops on topics including funding opportunity identification, grant writing, proposal development, and successful grant management in addition to individualized grant support. Finally, the CREATE plan seeks to actively engage community, regional, state, and national partnerships designed to foster collaborative BBR opportunities for UTC faculty and students. 2