Investigator Development Core

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PROJECT SUMMARY – INVESTIGATOR DEVELOPMENT CORE Eliminating health disparities in Arkansas is particularly challenging, since rural and Black/African American populations are disproportionately affected by the burden of chronic disease. As part of strategic plans to address the problem, a diverse and productive workforce is needed to conduct research that mitigates health disparities and supports health equity. Supporting early stage investigators provides an effective and productive solution in workforce development, when structured plans are provided for investigators who come from health disparity and underrepresented groups. The overarching goal of the Investigator Development Core is to reduce inequities in the number of historically underrepresented researchers prepared to eliminate cancer and cardiovascular disease health disparities by building a strong evidence-based training and mentoring infrastructure that enhances skills and competencies of investigators to successfully compete for pilot project funding, and subsequently secure National Institutes of Health research grants. The Core will apply social justice principles and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Framework to address individual, interpersonal, and institutional structural factors that influence the diversity in the research workforce, underrepresented researcher access to grant awards, equity in training and mentoring, participation in research with community partners, and ultimately, increase the number of research studies that focus on eliminating chronic disease disparities among groups often denied the human right to health. The Investigator Development Core will use a mixed-methods approach (concept mapping, individual assessments pre-application) to capture relevant data to assist the team in developing relevant training and mentoring components pre/post award. The community liaison for the Training Mentoring Advisory Board will review grants for their impact on health equity prior to submission and work with the Community Engagement Core to link community partners and pilot study investigators. Finally, the Investigator Development Core will build on the National Mentoring Research Network model to increase participation in the pilot grant program by addressing inequities in readiness to submit research grants, using one-on-one consults, providing grant coaching and writing group support, and conducting team- oriented mentoring to guide investigators from idea conceptualization to subsequent submission of an NIH grant application. The expected impact will be increased recruitment, retention and professional advancement of early stage investigators in conducting chronic disease health disparities research that informs future research, health policy, and programmatic responses to eliminate health disparities.