The primary mission of the Administrative Core is to provide overall leadership and support for the ongoing research activities of our Clinical Research Center. Leadership will be provided by the Principal Investigators, Helen Tager-Flusberg (BU) and Connie Kasari (UCLA) who have both had extensive experience leading multi- site research programs and conducting research on minimally verbal ASD. The Core has three specific aims.
Aim 1 : Guide, support, and evaluate the programmatic and synergistic activities of the Center. This will be accomplished by setting up a communications system, an internal steering committee (Project and Core PIs), and an external advisory board. Activities to support this aim include the creation of a dedicated password protected Sharepoint account to facilitate communication, scheduling, file sharing and collaboration. In addition, there will be: regular biweekly teleconferences between the Center PIs; quarterly teleconferences with the steering committee; an annual meeting of all key personnel, trainees and the external board; a system for decision making about resource allocation; and support for fostering interchanges among the trainees and participating sites.
Aim 2 : Provide administrative support for the daily operations of the Center. The Center administrator at BU will coordinate and monitor the budgets for all projects and Cores, provide monthly updates to the PIs and oversee the annual progress reports. At each site (BU and UCLA), the Center administrators will be responsible for coordinating daily operations, including IRB and other regulatory requirements, personnel, supplies, other expenses, travel, meeting planning, etc.
Aim 3 : Center outreach and dissemination. We plan to create a website for the Center on which our accomplishments, publications and public talks will be made available to the broader community. We will coordinate with the PIs at each site to engage students at all levels in the research activities of the Center. The PIs both have extensive experience working closely with their local communities in activities related to their research programs. In addition, we have traveled widely to many countries around the world to present and train professionals and parents in furthering their understanding of ASD and disseminating intervention strategies tailored to the local resource environment and cultural frameworks. We plan to continue these activities with a particular focus on minimally verbal individuals with ASD to bring the work of the Center to a wide audience of professionals, families and other stakeholders. Taken together, the Administrative Core will be the hub for our unique multi-site center to enhance all our goals and ensure the smooth functioning and foster close collaborations among the projects and scientific core.
