OVERVIEW Here we describe our plan to transform clinical research education at the University of Utah through the CCTS. The plan builds upon our existing K30 program and adds two new components: A pre-doctoral T32 program centered on the School of Medicine's M.D./Ph.D. program and a K12 program designed to develop young faculty committed to careers as clinical investigators.

The CCTS Research Training and Career Development Core will serve as a center for integrating the training for all clinical and translational research initiatives at the University of Utah. The Core will expand this training to health professionals outside the Medical School including the School of Nursing and the College of Pharmacy. We plan to build upon existing training programs including: the program in Human Molecular Biology and Genetics that has trained over 24 funded principal investigators focused on molecular medicine;fifteen NIH funded training programs (one K30, three K12, ten T32, and one T15), three NIH funded Clinical Research Networks, three CDC funded research centers, and nationally-recognized graduate programs in Molecular Biology, Neurosciences, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Biomedical Informatics, and Public Heath. These programs provide infrastructure for mechanism oriented clinical investigators and for investigators whose translational research encompasses population, information, and behavioral sciences. This section has been extensively revised since the previous submission to better integrate the components of the training program. Revisions are marked with a vertical line in the right hand margin. The Core will address four specific aims:

Aim 1. Create a platform that integrates all programs and initiatives aimed at supporting training in the basic, information, translational, and population sciences and that intermingles and involves medical students, graduate students, Ph.D-scientists, clinicians and clinician-scientists at all levels of training. A: Promote greater awareness among Ph.D. trainees of the critical issues in medicine. B: Provide an integrated translational research program for M.D./Ph.D. trainees.

Aim 2. Recruit and nurture clinician-scientists in the University community. A: Provide didactic training in clinical investigation across the translational research continuum. B: Develop young faculty who are committed to careers as clinical investigators.

Aim 3. Establish a curriculum in participatory research for students, fellows and faculty on the health sciences campus and for practitioners in the community.

Aim 4. Establish methods to evaluate the performance of trainees and faculty in both tracks, to identify and modify unsuccessful components of the program, and to track the careers of trainees completing the program.

These aims are structured to expand the University of Utah's research enterprise by increasing the number and quality of researchers engaged in all stages of translational science. To accomplish Aims 1 and 2, we will expand training in two tracks - one which is disease mechanism oriented and the other which is population and information science oriented - and integrate these with one another and with the wider community. Aim 1 addresses the training of the Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. investigator whereas Aim 2 targets training and development of junior faculty. Aim 3 establishes a new curriculum to enhance training in participatory research, promote community engagement, and advance transformation across the components of the CCTS. Aim 4 addresses tracking and evaluation of the integrated training activities. The CCTS Training Core is designed and organized to reach beyond the School of Medicine and involve the other colleges of the Health Sciences Center, as well as our major community partner, Intermountain Healthcare.

TL1RR025762

2008-05-19

2013-04-30