In October 2000, Indiana University was awarded a K-30 grant which helped fund the development and implementation of a university-wide Clinical Investigator Training Enhancement (CITE) Program. In just 3 years, the CITE Program has been remarkably successful, leading to: a new 30-credit Master of Science in Clinical Research degree; three new graduate courses; a structured mentoring program with a formal Advisory Committee for each trainee and explicit benchmarks; recruitment of 40 research fellows and junior faculty from over 20 disciplines who devote 50-70% of their time to the CITE program for an average of 2-3 years; a diverse program with 48% women and 10% underrepresented minority trainees; a 77% increase in the number of clinical researchers appointed as faculty in the university Graduate School; 27 faculty scientists serving as primary mentors for our CITE trainees and 38 serving on CITE Advisory Committees; submission of 24 new patient-oriented research career award applications (18 K-23, 6 other), of which 12 are already funded; and substantial productivity by CITE trainees as measured by papers, grants, and honors. Renewed funding is important not only to sustain the momentum of the young and still-evolving CITE program but also to support a number of important new initiatives that include: 1. Developing a Certificate in Clinical Research as a companion to the M.S. degree; 2. Enhancing recruitment of postdoctoral trainees from 7 disciplines (surgery, psychology, pharmacy, nutrition, dentistry, nursing, physical therapy); 3. Facilitating interdisciplinary training through a new Multidisciplinary Research Training Task Force; 4. Creating, implementing and evaluating at least 3 new specialty electives for the MS degree; 5. Recruiting and training additional faculty mentors (especially from new disciplines); 6. Supporting career development through a K-23 support group and assistance in K-24 applications; 7. Partnering with faculty at Purdue and Indiana University campuses at Lafayette and Bloomington. These 7 new initiatives coupled with furthering the maturation of programs still in development will continue the acceleration in clinical research training and funding that has been fueled by our K-30 award.
