INSTITUTIONAL CAREER DEVELOPMENT CORE (KL2) ABSTRACT This is a NEW application for an Institutional Career Development Core in the University of Iowa CTSA. This Core will be the home for four KL2 Scholars as well as 20-30 additional K awardees across the Colleges of Arts & Sciences, Dentistry, Engineering, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Public Health. A diverse group of KL2 Scholars will be recruited from current and incoming junior faculty whose primary career goals focus on the pursuit of clinical and translational research in health related fields. KL2 Scholars will be supported for three years with the goal of each Scholar obtaining individual K or R funding during this experience. The Institutional Career Development Core will take full advantage of the entire spectrum of support services, faculty and staff in the Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS), the University, and the health care facilities under UI Health Care umbrella and the state. Our faculty and mentors have a breadth of expertise in 1) patient centered outcomes research, 2) preventive medicine research and practice, 3) health outcomes databases, 4) medical engineering and economics, 5) design and conduct of clinical trials, and 6) introduction of pharmaceutical discoveries to practice. The KL2 program will rely on the Translational Biomedicine training program housed in the Workforce Development Core of the ICTS to provide state of the art didactic theory and skill training in all aspects of the 14 major competencies, enabling individualized career development. All Scholars will participate in K Club which emphasizes peer mentoring and scientific communication. Additional KL2 activities afford Scholars the opportunity to participate in team science and externships in industry as well as in governmental agencies. Development and completion of a mentored research project is at the heart of Iowa's Institutional Career Development Core. Each KL2 Scholar will be matched with a primary mentor and together they will train in the Iowa Mentoring Academy, a university-wide endeavor housed in the CTSA and based on the National Research Mentoring Network platform. The formalized mentor and Scholar training will include evaluation of outcomes in terms of Scholar research and publication quality, independent funding, and retention of Scholars in translational science careers. We will strive to achieve these outcomes through three specific objectives: 1. Recruit and train outstanding scholars from diverse scientific and racial/ethnic backgrounds who will engage in an individualized curriculum and in mentored health care research during a three-year period in a KL2 program. 2. Enhance the mentoring environment for translational research scholars through a robust program for both mentors and mentees built on the National Research Mentoring Network training platform and 3. Provide a highly focused mentored research experience that fosters scholars' successful transition to independence and continued engagement as leaders of translational health care teams.
