In our experience the main challenge seen in administering a multi-institutional Program such as ours is in keeping the individual teams on track, working continually toward completion of shared goals and objectives. We have had tremendous success at this. The key to what we have been able to accomplish distills down to several essential elements. Our investigators are skilled at collaborative science, we work extremely well together, as individuals we are dedicated to the overall success of the group, and we build by keeping communication at a very high level. This is successful team science facilitated by strong leadership. We are in Year-19 of this PPG. Over this time, we have enjoyed remarkable stability among the participating institutions and our key personnel. The current proposal includes two Projects (Projects 1 & 2) at the APL- University of Washington with subcontracts to CalTech, Oxford University and the University of Illinois, and a Project (Project 3) at Indiana University with a subcontract to IU-Health. The Administrative Core (Core A) will be at the APL-UW, and the Statistical Core (Core B) will be at Indiana University. This competitive renewal application marks a change in leadership and sponsoring institution for the PPG. The Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington is a major research and development center with approximately 300 staff and with over 200 scientists and engineers, including 100 who hold PhDs. In 2012, income from competitive extramural grants and contracts exceeded $76.5 million. This year in advance of the renewal, APL has provided equipment critical to the proposed research and to be shared by all the Projects of the PPG, including one of the $100,000 ultrasound platforms which the entire PPG proposes to share. APL also provided half the funds to pay for the Dornier Compact-S shock wave lithotripter/C-arm used in PPG research. Michael R. Bailey, PhD will serve as Program Director. Dr. Bailey joined the PPG in 1996 as Co- Investigator and succeeded Dr. Lawrence Crum as PL in 2004. Dr. Bailey is Senior Principal Engineer (equivalent to Professor) at the APL with joint faculty appointments in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Urology at UW. He holds a strong portfolio of extramural funding and his current active grant support as PI (P01-DK43881, R01-DK92197, NASA/NSBRI SMST3402 and SMST0002) generates over $1.25 million in annual direct costs. APL and Dr. Bailey are eminently qualified to direct this Program.
The Specific Aims of the Administrative Core are to provide fiscal and scientific leadership for the Program Project. In matters of fiscal responsibility, Core A will organize yearly negotiation and preparation of subcontracts and will maintain accounting records for the Program. Core A will coordinate the scientific activities of the team, monitoring the progress of each Project, and overseeing productivity and attainment of research goals. Core A will also organize the quarterly and semi-annual meetings of the Projects and Cores to facilitate communication and the sharing of data among the Project Leads (PL's) and key personnel. In addition, Core A will serve as liaison between the PPG investigators and the External Advisory Committee and Board of Directors with the goal of gathering unbiased, constructive advice to assist the PPG team in staying on track and meeting our objectives.
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