The applicant proposes to establish a Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career Development Program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas (UTSW). In cooperation with nearby Schools of Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Nursing, the program will attract scholars of high aptitude from a wide range of interests and backgrounds, and immerse them into a rigorous multidisciplinary environment that will train and support them to become the leaders of the next generation of clinical scientists. The program will provide (1) comprehensive individualized training through a novel didactic and Socratic curriculum that spans a broad spectrum of research concepts and methods in order to promote team-based problem solving; (2) in-depth practical multidisciplinary training in the planning, execution, and analysis of clinical research; and (3) effective and committed guidance through the efforts of an experienced multidisciplinary mentoring team. Particular strengths are: (1) the unequivocal institutional commitment to the program, as evidenced by UTSW's decision to launch a program of similar design and scope using its own resources during the past year; (2) a substantial new financial commitment by the School to match the number of scholars supported by the NIH; (3) intellectual and physical immersion of the scholars into the nation's first multidisciplinary department created to promote the growth and development of clinical research; (4) more than 150 highly productive clinical and translational investigators across a broad range of disciplines and fields of medicine who have established track records of effective mentoring; (5) a large medically and ethnically diverse patient base cared for at established hospitals in immediate proximity to the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry; (6) more than $140 million (90% Federal) in annual peer-reviewed grant support for clinical studies; (7) a highly innovative K30-supported curriculum specifically designed and tailored for clinical investigators; (8) superb infrastructure to support clinical research (e.g., an outstanding General Clinical Research Center and numerous specialized shared research support cores); and (9) a program director with the experience, time, and commitment to ensure the program's success. The coordinated synthesis of these elements will allow the scholars to lead the nation's current and future commitment to clinical and translational research, and allow UTSW to contribute importantly to the mission of the NIH Roadmap.
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