CTSA K12 Program at Indiana University

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Project Summary/Abstract The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) has a sustained record of accomplishment in preparing early career Scholars through its workforce development program. Since 2008, our program has prepared 72 KL2 Scholars from our state's three major research universities with most retained in academic positions (90%) and obtaining external funding as principal investigators (81%) including 36 R01s, 36 other R- level awards, and 26 K or equivalent career awards. The state-wide reach of our program ensures a broad, diverse pool of Scholars, faculty mentors, and breadth of translational research. The primary objective of this new K12 Mentored Research Career Development Program at the Indiana CTSI is to provide a diverse group of early career faculty Scholars intensive mentored career development experiences that lead to research independence and prepare them for leadership positions in clinical and translational science. To maximize K12 programmatic impact we have designed our proposed program to address six core areas of clinical and translational science including core knowledge, team-based science, leadership/management, mentoring training, diversity, and career visibility/enhancement. Protected time for intensive mentored research activity is carefully balanced with required curricular content and a broad range of elective experiences that capitalize on available Indiana CTSI resources and ultimately are selected based on individual Scholar needs. Taken together these components assure training in a fundamental skillset for early career clinical and translational research scientists. Given the historically low rates of underrepresented individuals moving into scientific careers, we propose intentional evidence-based efforts to continue to recruit, support, and fund these individuals. Our goal is to not only sustain our current diversity metrics, which exceed those of our academic institutions, but to resemble the diversity of our state's population more closely. We propose the following aims to achieve K12 program goals: 1) Support and accelerate Scholar transition to independent careers in clinical and translational research. 2) Catalyze Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts throughout the KL2 program to advance the diversity of Scholars, their teams, and their translational work. 3) Leverage institutional strengths and companion CTSA hub partnerships to optimize Scholar development including career visibility and enhancement. We anticipate funding 25 Scholars over 5 years with each Scholar spending two years on the K12, with the goal to obtain a federally funded K or R level grant. We have a successful history of securing institutional funds to support additional Scholars (increasing the positions offered by as much as 50%). We are confident that our proposed program will attract diverse, high caliber applicants and mentor them toward developing impactful careers in clinical and translational science.