Core A: Administrative Core The Administrative Core A will provide the organization and oversight to facilitate overall program coordination and maximize the impact of the combined program. Core A will 1) facilitate internal and external communication and coordinate regular meetings among program investigators, staff, trainees, scientific advisors and NIH, 2) Foster intra- and inter-NCTRI P50 collaborations, and 3) provide regulatory and fiscal oversight to the program. Core A will schedule monthly meetings among all project investigators and core directors to review progress, address challenges, troubleshoot, coordinate collaborative experiments and plan future experiments. In conjunction with the monthly progress meetings, Core A will schedule monthly journal club meetings that are open to all program investigators, staff and trainees. The Scientific Advisory Committee(s) will join all program investigators for an annual program progress meeting (1/2 day) to be held in Pittsburgh or at the Male Focus Group Meeting site. Core A will also coordinate an annual NCTRI P50 full day symposium to be held in conjunction with the annual progress meeting. The symposium will be organized by a committee of trainees at the participating P50 institutions and feature a keynote speaker, platform presentations from P50 trainees and leaders in reproductive biology and medicine (e.g., internal/external advisory committee members) and a poster session/social. Core A will help foster intra- and inter-P50 interactions by supporting collaborative pilot projects and by helping to disseminate education/outreach teaching modules through project sites in this Reproductive Genetics and Therapy NCTRI P50 center and to other P50 centers. The Core A Program Coordinator will assist the director by helping with the submission of regulatory protocols and ensuring that all program sites and staff have the appropriate training. Core A will also assist the Program Director with maintaining sub-contractual agreements with all project sites, ordering, inventory, and monitoring the budget. Finally, Core A will work with all program investigators to ensure that data are deposited in a timely fashion to a central repository that is accessible to all project investigators. This will help to integrate data collected at different program sites; accelerate the pace of research in individual projects and ensure that the program achieves an impact that is greater than the sum of its parts. Cost effectiveness will be maximized by sharing data, knowledge and resources between projects. If disputes arise, the Program Director (Dr. Orwig) will solicit input from the Scientific Advisory Committee.
