The overall goal of the Mentoring and Training Core (Core B) is to leverage the commitment and capabilities of the Ugandan clinical research scientists from our previous training programs to build a sustainable, mutually supportive, cadre of independent opinion leaders and mentors for cancer research progress.
Specific Aim 1 will provide intensive leadership and skills training to the three Ugandan Co-leaders of Projects 1,2,3. These three """"""""Senior Fellows"""""""" will spend two one-month periods in Seattle for this training.
Specific Aim 2 expands a novel peer mentoring career development (PMCD) program that includes the Senior Fellows and 15-16 additional Medical Officers and key personnel on Hutchinson Center Research Institute of Uganda (HCRI-Uganda) projects.
Specific Aim 3 will build a Biomedical Research Integrity (BRI) program that extends current mandatory training and ties in to Makerere University's College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) professionalism development programs. Senior Fellows will assume substantial responsibility for activities within each of the three Aims: 1) Senior fellows will be accountable for team building and communications for the Uganda-based activities of their respective Projects. 2) Senior Fellows will take increasing roles in facilitating weekly meetings of the PMCD group and will join the roster of expert, local consultants who provide presentations for the peer mentees and others in the scientific community. 3) They will form a committee to draft a request for applications (RFA) and critique submissions for two pilot research projects and will serve as an oversight committee for the awarded projects. 4) Senior Fellows will also form the core of the Scientific Organizing Committee for the second regional Clinical Research Career Development Symposium to be held in Year 5. 5) A Senior Fellow will serve as Research Integrity Officer to counsel scientists and staff in the HCRI-Ug BRI and participate in BRI trainings. Experiential """"""""learning by doing"""""""" within the mentored environment of Core B will accelerate progress toward independence by the Senior Fellows and, by their leadership in the PMCD and BRI programs, will assist in the development of others in the HCRI-Uganda program and the wider community.
Junior scientists hold the key to the research, medical training, and public health policy development that will improve health care delivery and provide prevention programs to fight cancer in Uganda. Intensive training in leadership, team building, management, and mentoring is proposed to give new clinician-scientists there the skills to start successful, independent programs. The current professional skills and research ethics training programs will be expanded to benefit both the trainees and the broader scientific community.
