The Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) recognizes the need for a highly skilled, diverse workforce that can conduct impactful clinical and translational research that improves health. Since the inception of MICHR, the development of a diverse translational workforce has been a consistent priority. This priority includes engaging pre-doctoral trainees within their first few years of training and providing direct experience partnered with specific didactic training. Developed over the course of a decade, our current TL1- supported training programs include a short-term component (Summer Immersion Program) and a long-term component (the Master of Science in Clinical Research Program [MSCR]). This proposal requests support for 10 short-term trainees and 10 long-term trainees (an increase of one trainee) each year. Trainees will comprise a mixture of pre-professional doctoral students (e.g., medical student) and post-professional degree trainees. Other goals include: 1. Providing more opportunities for TL1 trainees to participate in community based research. 2. Supporting trainee career development by formally educating faculty mentors on mentoring skills using the curricula from the National Research Mentoring Network. 3. Expanding the network supporting the development of MSCR trainees. 4. Providing more intern/externship experiences for TL1 trainees. 5. Developing, demonstrating, and disseminating competency-based assessments for all TL1 trainees to improve the measurement of translational research skills. These five key goals will allow the MICHR TL1 programs to effectively train the next generation of translational scientists. The goal is that, upon program completion, these trainees will be highly engaged and motivated to continue work in clinical and translational research, competent in the skills necessary for clinical-translational research, experienced members of multidisciplinary or interprofessional teams led by highly skilled and engaged mentors, and nuanced in their capability to successfully participate in community based research.
