Institutional Career Development Core (KL2)

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The Mentored Career Development (KL2; Core I) program of the Institute for Integration of Medicine & Science has 3 primary objectives: 1) to develop clinical and translational scientists who can effectively participate on interdisciplinary research teams; 2) to expand the workforce of clinical and translational researchers representing or focusing on our target populations: Hispanics, active-duty military personnel, and veterans; and 3) to collaborate actively with other CTSA hubs and the national CTSA Consortium. Our cadre of CTSA-supported Scholars has been supplemented by partnering with the Older Americans Independence Center and the School of Medicine, broadening the base of talented young investigators benefiting from the program. During our first 9 years, we have appointed 27 Scholars, representing a very diverse mix of disciplines, racial/ethnic backgrounds, and gender, with 33% underrepresented minorities (URMs) and 64% women. Thirteen of our 19 graduates have received and/or been on teams that received NIH funding. All 19 are in full- time university or industry clinical or translational research and/or leadership positions. The KL2 program's success is due to the high caliber of our candidate pool, the strong commitment to team mentorship, robust program leadership, and the exceptional institutional commitment and intellectual environment. All Scholars can tap into a wealth of resources, including coursework in our Certificate, Masters, and PhD programs; Office of Research, Education and Mentoring services; the Forming of Research Greatness & Expertise K Club; the Grant Writing with New Investigators peer mentoring group, and methodologic support from our Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) core. For the new funding period, we will train 4 KL2 Scholars at any given time, and will continue to include in our activities those supported through other programs or by the institution. Our planned new initiatives emanate from multiple sources, including feedback from Scholars and mentors, our collective experience running KL2 programs, and best practices from the CTSA Consortium. Planned enhancements thus include: training in team science; a variety of externship opportunities; mentor training; a personalized pathways approach to competency attainment; added representation on our Program Advisory Committee by a community member, a URM faculty member, and a military medicine researcher; a guaranteed third year of support from the Scholar's home department, if needed to obtain an individual K or R grant; and even closer ties to the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center and the Research to Advance Community Health (ReACH) Center.