Administrative and Career Core

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PROJECT SUMMARY – Administrative Core The Administrative Core (Admin-Core) has established an organizational structure that serves the mission of the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Core Center (EHSC): to advance understanding of environmentally-induced disease and disability and to develop interventions that reduce hazardous exposures or lessen their effects on health. This Core supports each of the other Cores, the Advisory groups, and the Working Groups; provides resources for all EHSC members to capitalize on emerging opportunities; and enables Center Leaders to effectively guide the EHSC towards greater impact through its research, community engagement, and translational efforts. In fewer than 4 years, this Core provided administrative support to successfully integrate previously disparate clusters of investigators working on exposure science, toxicology, disease mechanisms, epidemiology and environmental justice into a cohesive group that collectively is pursuing a wide range of new collaborations and generating cutting edge science. The Admin-Core was instrumental in the launch of a robust research response to wildfires in California; recruitment of over a dozen investigators new to EHS through coordination and campus-wide publicizing of the pilot project program; and integration of community stakeholders and their concerns in our annual retreats and discussion of priorities. In the next funding period, the Admin-Core will provide services in four areas: 1) Management of fiscal operations, documentation and evaluation of activities, compliance, and progress, and scientific leadership for decision-making and priority-setting to govern the overall direction of the Center, new research initiatives and translational projects. 2) Career development, including a monthly critical review of Specific Aims for any environmental health-related grant application, an EHS Scholar award, a course in program management and leadership, and structured mentoring for pilot award recipients who are early stage investigators or established investigators new to EHS. 3) Coordination of research infrastructure and translation: by promoting/supporting interdisciplinary collaborations, Working Groups, cross-Core interactions, disaster research response, and engagement with other UCD Centers; and by working in concert with the Community Engagement Core and community stakeholders on moving EHS research into policy interventions and public health practices. 4) Communications: internally to all members and to Center leaders of the Cores and Working Groups to enhance integration, participation and our sense of purpose, and externally to amplify visibility of the EHSC, including to UCD Administrators, Advisory bodies, funding agencies, other Core Centers, government and policy-makers, and to stakeholders and the broad public through events, social media, traditional outlets, website, film, and others. The Admin-Core will continue to grow the EHSC’s capacity to address pressing environmental health issues; accelerate translation of results into policies and practices that improve public health; and work towards long-term sustainability.