African Americans and members of other racial and ethnic minority groups are under-represented in the health and aging research fields. Minority scholars in these areas often report that they occupy marginal status in their departments and in their fields of study, in part due to their restricted access to effective mentoring relationships and limited contact with senior scholars in the field. These problems have contributed to a limited amount of social and behavioral science research on health and aging among older African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities. The various mentoring structures and activities that have been developed in the Michigan Center for Urban African American Research (MCUAAAR) training programs are identical to the goals outlined in the award announcement;to increase the number of faculty and the amount of high quality research on race and ethnic minority Americans. The collaboration of the University of Michigan's Program for Research on Black Americans with Wayne State University's Institute of Gerontology through MCUAAAR, has further expanded and institutionalized a strong mentoring tradition in the field of minority aging research. One overall objective of the MCUAAAR is to promote health research on minority elders, particularly African American urban dwelling elders, that will lead to health promotion and the reduction and elimination of health disparities as called for in Healthy People 2010. In order to accomplish this, the MCUAAAR will continue to develop its already successful mentoring program, building a network of minority investigators who are committed to becoming productive scholars in the area of health and aging. We will expand upon a proven method of longitudinal mentoring which has allowed pilot investigators in the MCUAAAR to become productive scholars and obtain NIH funding.
The specific aims of the Investigator Development Core are to: 1. Select and nurture a minimum of 15 pilot research projects over the five year grant period and participate in the development of investigator initiated applications as part of this process: 2. Mentor a set of pilot studies that focus research on cognition, independence, health promotion and demographic and social aspects of health among older African American and other minority populations: 3. Conduct intensive three-day summer workshops that focus on recent developments in African American aging research: and
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