Investigator Development Core

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PROJECT SUMMARY The mission of the Deep South Center to Reduce Disparities in Chronic Diseases is to promote health equity and reduce the burden of cardiometabolic diseases across the “Deep South” region of the United States that includes Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. A key component of fulfilling this mission is growing and diversifying the workforce with the expertise necessary to conduct research related to dissemination and implementation, comparative effectiveness, and translation of evidence-based interventions for real-world settings. The primary objective of the Investigator Development Core is to prepare and mentor investigators to develop innovative research that applies a precision public health approach—best viewed as “providing the right intervention to the right population at the right time”—by paying careful attention to contextual factors at multiple levels (individual, interpersonal, organizational community, societal). To this end, we have assembled a trans-disciplinary team of investigators with expertise in translational research from across four academic partners institutions (the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Tuskegee University) as well as community stakeholders committed to addressing disparities in cardiometabolic diseases in the region. The Directors of the Investigator Development Core, together with the Center’s co-Directors and other Core Faculty, have created a robust plan for providing early-stage investigators unique training in translational research methods and access to core resources dedicated to topics essential for this work. The Investigator Development Core will establish a competitive pilot studies program that will fund a minimum of six high quality research projects annually, and will provide grant trainees a mentoring team that will offer strategies and assistance to advance the pilot studies to competitive grant applications. The Investigator Development Core will also provide access to sub- units that will provide pilot awardees, as well as the three Center projects, expertise in translational design and methodology, community participatory research, implementation and dissemination science, cost effectiveness and assessment of social determinants of health. Ultimately, these activities will yield 30 to 40 early-career investigators, allow for collaborative and focused cardiometabolic research across Academic/Research Institutions within the Deep South, and ensure engagement of local/regional community settings. Key outcomes for this core include publications and extramural grants resulting from the pilot awards, career trajectories of awardees, and numbers and diversity of applicants.