Career Development and Training Program

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The objective of the Career Development Program is to recruit investigators at early stages of their careers into research focused on potential biothreat pathogens. This research includes the basic biology of the organisms, immune responses to these agents, developmental research that will eventuate in novel vaccines, therapeutics, or diagnostics, and clinical investigation involving studies of vaccine efficacy in defined patient populations. Junior Faculty Research Project awards are intended to attract faculty researchers, who are in the process of establishing their research areas of interest and expertise, into biodefense-related investigations. The Junior Faculty Research Projects will fund investigators intending to make a serious commitment to these investigational areas, and whose projects have the potential subsequently to compete successfully for traditional National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. The Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards are also intended to attract researchers, who are in the process of establishing their research areas of interest and expertise, into biodefense-related investigations. Each trainee works on a research project under an established investigator from among the institutions currently within the NBC, or an investigator from any institution within NIH Region II having a funded program that provides an appropriate research training environment. The fellows are expected to develop independence in experimental design, technical proficiency, mastery of the literature related to the project, and be prepared at the conclusion of the fellowship period to undertake original research. In addition, the NBC will continue to fund Group Career Development Activities. For year one, the Career Development Program will mount a national conference inviting Junior Faculty "alumni" from all ten Regions who have received support through their Regions' Career Development Programs. Postdoctoral Fellows supported by the Programs who have gained faculty positions and initiated independent research programs will also be invited. The purpose of the conference will be to gain insight into how this support has contributed to the development of their research careers, with the intent being to modify the Programs if and where necessary. Future group activities will include core workshops, training experience for emergency planning and exercising for high risk laboratories, and training program courses in the biology and laboratory handling of select agents.