Core A: Administrative Core

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Summary The primary goal of the Administrative Core is to ensure productivity of the Program by promoting coherence and synergy as well as intellectual and resource sharing, among the PIs and their lab members in order to ensure that the outcome and value of the research performed in each Project is greater than the sum of its parts. This Core will facilitate and coordinate the following activities that are essential for the success of the entire Program: research planning and scientific review, monitoring progress relative the proposed Program goals, data exchange, reagent and animal/tissue sharing, travel to annual Program meetings and between PI labs, and reporting and fiscal oversight. Thus, Core A will provide the structure and organization needed to maximize interactions and collaboration among the PIs and lab members in each of the three Research Projects, Core B and Core C, which will, in turn, facilitate accomplishment of Program goals. Based on past experience, we believe that the key to effective collaboration is direct personal interactions. Three of the five labs are in the Austin area. Dr. Manley’s group is at the University of Georgia. Drs. Hale and Sempowski are at Duke. As Drs. Manley and Richie know from working together for nearly 20 years, travel between Athens and Austin is relatively inexpensive with multiple direct flights available on a daily basis. Similarly, traveling from Raleigh/Durham to Austin is straightforward. Personnel travel between labs facilitates achieving scientific objectives, and is in some cases necessary for the proposed experiments. Lab member exchange is the most effective mechanism for transfer of techniques between labs. All three Research Projects will exchange lab members to achieve specific scientific goals. Travel to annual Program lab summits and scientific meetings provides for efficient communication of results to each other and to the scientific community, and affords the ability to learn new approaches and gain information to shape future work. Also, this is an efficient and effective way for all lab members to meet and discuss data together. While face-to-face meetings are an invaluable method of communication, in a geographically distributed collaboration they are of necessity limited in scope. We are already engaged in and will continue web-based conferencing that permits multi-site visual and audio communication, and facilitates analyzing data and images collaboratively. General administrative functions will provide vital additional levels of cohesion and facilitate program productivity. While most administrative assistant related support will continue to be supplied by the home institutions of each PI, Core A will perform any such services requiring coordination between the Research Projects and Cores.