Ponce School of Medicine (PSM) RCMI AIDS Research Infrastructure Program (ARIP) proposes to further upgrade its core laboratory units to maximally meet the need of the current and prospective ARIP faculty members. It also proposes to facilitate the development of career development programs specifically designed to meet the identified needs of the ARIP faculties. Mentoring and partnership program will be strengthened to support their career.
The Specific Aims of the proposed ARIP Phase V activities are;
Specific Aim #1 : To further improve and expand the research capability of the AIDS research core laboratories in viral genetics, immunology and drugs of abuse. ARIP cores will be made accessible for AIDS/HIV investigators from other institutions/countries in order to facilitate the development of high caliber collaborative research sharing the same technologies. Certain advanced technologies and instrumentations available at ARIP will enable investigators to study the characteristics of AIDS/HIV infection in the Caribbean region. Sophisticated instruments/equipments will be made available in real time to investigators from other institutions via lntemet-2 connection, to foster collaboration. Training will be made available at the www.psm.edu site on how to register for the use of the instruments and how to analyze the acquired data.
Specific Aim #2 : To implement a career development program tailor-made for individual ARIP faculty members, including research & career mentoring, research consultation and partnership development. A concerted effort will be made to develop a viable institutional faculty retention plan including the development of faculty incentives through research enterprise activities. Lack of effective faculty development and retention programs causes loss of key faculty members. Critical self analyses were performed to accurately identify the actual needs of the current faculties so that an individual plan may be developed for each faculty. And also, Specific Aim #3: To facilitate the development of additional AIDS/HIV related research programs at PSM as well as through the Puerto Rico consortium of the three RCMI institutions. PSM currently has eight faculty members with actively funded AIDS-related independent research projects; the largest among the PR RCMI institutions. ARI has been active pursuing the possibility of developing the CFAR and CTSA proposals through the partnership with the consortium of U-FL, USF, FCU, and FSU.
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