The mission of the UCSF-NORC Enrichment Program remains to provide exceptionally high-quality opportunities for investigators at UCSF to exchange research information, for recognized experts in obesity and nutrition to enlighten the UCSF community on both research and clinical practice, and for faculty to educate trainees, as well as to strengthen the multidisciplinary and collaborative network that links nutrition and obesity research being conducted across UCSF. However, the Program has also grown in specific and transformative ways. This growth includes A) Networking with other academic institutional NORCs from around the country to increase scientific exchange between colleagues; B) Specific efforts to engage, cultivate, and grow a diverse clinical and translational research community relevant to NORC objectives; and C) Establishing the UCSF-NORC as a hub for sharing research in obesity and nutrition with institutions across Northern California. The elements of the Enrichment Program (detailed below), in particular those developed since initial grant funding, are impressive given they were fully implemented in only four years. The Director of the Enrichment Program, Dr. Suneil Koliwad (also Co-Director of the NORC) has been tasked with implementing the Program's mission over the funding period. Dr. Koliwad performs this function in close collaboration with the Center Director (Vaisse, PI) and an oversight committee that includes the other NORC Core and Program Directors, the principal investigators of relevant NIDDK-sponsored T32 training grants and the organizers of key NORC-connected seminar series and symposia. The specific objectives of the program are to: 1. Strategically integrate a complementary yearlong set of speakers regularly interspersed in the weekly UCSF Endocrine Grand Rounds, Diabetes and Obesity Seminar Series, and institution-wide talks within the graduate school seminar series. This effort includes the recruitment of both preeminent scientists working at UCSF, speakers from neighboring top-tier academic centers within the region, and renowned NORC visiting professors (in collaboration with the Diabetes Center Distinguished Speakers Series) from around the world. 2. Oversee the maintenance of a high-quality weekly Obesity and Nutrition Journal Club at UCSF in order to implement further the training components of the NORC mission. 3. Conduct and strategically continue to grow the annual UCSF Diabetes, Obesity, and Nutrition Retreat. 4. Continue to host interdisciplinary collaborative enrichment activities, including a clinical engagement symposium co-sponsored by the Center for Obesity Assessment and Treatment (COAST), which incentivize core utilization by promoting joint projects between clinical and basic researchers at UCSF. 5. Co-host the annual COAST Sugar, Stress, Environment, and Weight (SSEW) symposium. 6. Provide speakers as part of continuing medical education (CME) activities relevant to obesity and nutrition. By facilitating continued achievement of these specific objectives, renewed funding of the UCSF-NORC Enrichment Program will allow it to realize the ongoing mission and long-term goal of fostering a highly collaborative, world-class learning environment that advances and promotes successful basic, translational, and clinical nutrition and obesity research at UCSF and across the Northern California Region.
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