VCIID Administrative Core

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SUMMARY for the Administrative Core The Administrative Core will facilitate the transition of the Vermont Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases (VCIID) into a mature and sustainable Center, by serving as its intellectual and communications hub. In this capacity the core will organize mentoring support, the EAC meetings, the outside speaker seminar series, weekly Research-in-Progress seminars, progress reports, review of Pilot Project applications, assistance with managing budgets of the cores and Pilot Projects, and will resolve conflicts that may arise regarding use of the cores. Beyond these “standard” functions of an Administrative Core, the PI will also be actively involved with identifying and promoting potential new collaborations among COBRE faculty or with other investigators at UVM or other institutions to promote competitiveness. Having built a critical mass of investigators and funded junior faculty in the VCIID during Phases I and II, the objective of the Phase III COBRE program is to encourage faculty to now coalesce our research interests around common themes. This will make it possible for us to form collaborative R01, U19, P01, and SBIR/STTR grants. This Core will also encourage the transition of our discoveries toward translational research and to protect our intellectual property generated during Phases I and II via patent applications, and consider whether discoveries can be moved into the commercial sector as diagnostics or therapeutics. These Phase III functions will be the basis of becoming and mature and sustainable Center. The Specific Aims to foster these actions are thus: Specific Aim 1. Enhance the competitiveness of the VCIID faculty through collaborative investigation and fostering research working groups. We will facilitate collaborative research through regular Research- in-Progress meetings as well as retreats that feature “Challenge Talks”, “Speed Networking” and research theme working groups. Specific Aim 2. Promote promising individual and collaborative research through a Pilot Project Program and rigorous mentoring. We will implement a Pilot Project Program with funding categories in basic, translational, and entrepreneurial research and rigorous mentoring. Specific Aim 3. Enhance the growth, quality, and sustainability of the COBRE cores to support our research efforts. Both of our cores in Genome Technologies and Bioinformatics, and Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics have had recent instrumentation upgrades during phase II to provide state-of-the-art equipment. COBRE funding will support critical personnel, maintain instruments, and supplement user fees.