Interdisciplinary Training in Musculoskeletal Research

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Abstract This application describes a new Training Program at the University of Colorado (CU) entitled “Interdisciplinary Training in Musculoskeletal Research”. The overarching mission of this new Program is to provide comprehensive interdisciplinary training in musculoskeletal science with the aim of developing the next generation of outstanding musculoskeletal investigators. The Program will be administratively anchored in the Colorado Program for Musculoskeletal Research (CPMR) and the Department of Orthopedics on the Anschutz Medical Campus. It includes 29 senior and junior preceptors from 18 basic science and clinical departments across all 4 CU campuses - Anschutz, Boulder, Denver, and Colorado Springs. Preceptors and their labs are coordinated in the Program to provide research, didactic education and mentoring to 4 predoctoral and 2 postdoctoral trainees in conjunction with a broader cross section of unseated trainees pursuing advanced education within the CPMR. To accomplish this mission, we have assembled a Program that evaluates and recruits top talent from trainee pools and provides a series of formalized education components that are conjoined with top-notch research training with world class preceptors. Beyond laboratory research, formal programming includes a five-lecture series Musculoskeletal Science Curriculum, the Mack Clayton Seminars (preeminent visiting scientists), Work-in-Progress Meetings and Journal Clubs, the Annual CPMR Symposium and D’Ambrosia Diversity Lectureship, a weekly Specific Aims Development Meeting, and preferential and subsidized access to Research Core Services for trainees and their preceptors. University-level education opportunities constructed and supported by the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, are layered in, including training in mentoring, biostatistics, research management, and diversity training. Program activities will be developed, implemented, executed, and supervised by a hierarchy of oversight Committees that collaborate with Program leadership to administer all aspects of activity. These Committees include Trainee Selection and Progress, Curriculum, Clayton Seminars, Outreach and Diversity and Trainee Feedback. The Program Directors will coordinate in real time with these Committees for overall Program management, collectively reporting to an Internal and an External advisory board and an Executive Committee to facilitate overall Program oversight, evaluation, problem solving, and vision setting. Overall, the training enabled through this new Program, which includes a focus on mentoring trainees towards independent funding, will be a springboard to development of the next generation of collaborative and innovative musculoskeletal investigators aiming to translate basic discoveries into novel human therapies.