Research Education Component

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Research Education Component Summary The goal of the Research Education Component (REC) is to create a cadre of collaborative scientific leaders in research on AD/ADRD. Our REC structure uses a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, diverse and inclusive approach. We designed our integrated program to assure trainees will acquire a keen appreciation of the heterogeneity within AD and between it and other neurodegenerative diseases, as well as a comfort with thinking about how basic findings inform clinical research, and clinical findings inform basic research. With the REC, the Penn ADRC will implement NAPA milestones to improve and increase cross-disciplinary training, including for individuals who are members of under-represented populations, and of different career levels of scholars. The REC is well-integrated with the Clinical, ORE and Admin Cores in order to promote and execute training opportunities, and with all ADRC Cores to create scholar-specific mentoring and training plans and develop data and didactics presentations. We will provide training to 4 categories of trainees: (1) fellows who have completed their residency (MD & MD/PhD), (2) doctoral/postdoctoral trainees, (3) junior faculty (defined as instructor or early [<3 years] assistant professor, PhD, MD or MD/PhD), and (4) undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented minority groups who participate in mentored research experiences over a summer semester or during a research block. The specific aims of the REC are the following: 1. Assemble and provide ongoing training to a cadre of Penn faculty who will serve as mentors and instructors to the REC trainees; 2. Implement a structured methodology to identity trainees spanning fellow/doctoral to junior faculty levels, and a targeted effort to identify undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented minority groups; 3. Provide training that includes research design and conduct, the ethical and socially responsible conduct of research, the value of multi-disciplinary collaborative approaches to research on AD and related disorders, career planning (including work-life balance, leadership and goal setting), and core research skills of writing and dissemination; and 4. Use evaluations of the faculty and trainees to revise and update the Research Education training program, with attention to cultivating the next generation of AD researchers, diversity and the immediate- and long-term advancement of trainees’ careers.