. The overall goal of the Duke Roybal Center is to catalyze the development of cross-disciplinary research to develop and test innovative behavioral and social interventions for older adults. These interventions will address our theme of improving mobility to enhance functional independence and increase engagement with meaningful activities and participation. The Management and Administrative Core (MAC) will contribute to this goal by guiding the overall direction of the Center, serving as a central communication and decision-making hub. The purpose of the MAC is threefold. First, it will set up and guide the overall direction of the Center and allocation of its resources by operating in a highly integrated fashion with the Roybal Pilot Core, NIA-funded Demography and Economics of Aging and Older American Independence (Pepper) Centers at Duke, Advisory Committee, other Roybal Centers and the Roybal Coordinating Center. Second, it will leverage Center resources and expertise at all levels of the Stage Model to provide a structure for experiential learning of the practical research skills needed to design, refine, test, and implement translational behavioral interventions focused on improving mobility, and foster new research collaborations and proposals among established and junior researchers across disciplines. Third, the MAC will closely monitor the process and outcome indicators of advancement for funded pilot projects and Center activities. The MAC Core aims to:
Aim 1 : Coordinate and oversee the administrative functions of the Center in order to establish and maintain centralized research resources and a stable research infrastructure to advance translational behavioral intervention research to enhance mobility and functioning in older adults.
Aim 2 : Optimize the use of Center resources and expertise at all levels of the Stage Model to facilitate, monitor, and accelerate pilot research and provide an enriched environment that crosses disciplines. This enriched environment includes experiential learning informed by Social Cognitive Theory to foster the development of skills needed to design, refine, test, and implement novel behavioral interventions for enhancing mobility.
Aim 3 : Evaluate funded pilot projects and Center activities with the Center?s research-driven process and outcome indicators, make data-driven improvements, and annually report the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the Center, its Cores, and funded pilot projects. The MAC will operate in ways that are designed to catalyze experiential learning in the practical skills necessary for conducting cross-disciplinary research to develop and test innovative interventions for older adults. Our approach may serve as a national model for skills-based research training for researchers to develop effective and translatable behavioral interventions to enhance mobility in older adults.
