We propose to meet the need of the NIAID Centers for Medical Countermeasures Against Radiation Consortium (CMCRC) for 1) administrative infrastructure to organize interactions and facilitate collaboration among CMCRC investigators, 2) oversight of programs using funds to stimulate Pilot Studies, 3) timely sharing of CMCRC-generated data, biomarkers, (animal) models and reagents among CMCRC investigators and with the research community, and, 4) biostatistics and bioinformatics support, in response to AI-10-012, with staff who bring years of experience working along similar lines in the NHLBI Progenitor Cell Biology Consortium (PCBC) Administrative Coordinating Center (ACC) and the Progenitor Cell Translational Consortium (PCTC) Administrative Coordinating Center (ACC). The proposed investigators and staff have extensive experience in coordinating centers, organization of meetings, collaborative research under cooperative agreements, consortium infrastructure, web site, communications, monitoring and documentation. We will adapt and advance our infrastructure (hardware, software, web sites and links, offices, office equipment and staff) in place for the PCBC ACC and PCTC ACC to extend to the CMCRC resulting in an immediate, running start for the CMCRC Consortium-wide Coordinating Center (CCC) on day one. We will proceed to expand the functions of the extant infrastructure to additional, innovative use of social media to reach all corners of the CMCRC community and out to the broader research community. The CMCRC Consortium-wide Coordinating Center will follow procedures it has established and is using for other NIH- supported coordinating centers to perform administrative tasks necessary to conduct consortium meetings and conference calls, prepare agendas and minutes, administer funds for training and education and support a web site for communications, transmission of data, information and descriptions of methods (e.g., protocols) and requests for reagents, biomaterials and (animal) models to be shared. Our proposal is both highly efficient and innovative because of the expertise and experience of our investigators, the uninterruptable nature of their backup for each other and the uninterruptable nature of the systems we will extend and update from the PCBC and PCTC to the CMCRC. The channeling of resources to translational research, basic research necessary to support translational research and the extension of our infrastructure through social media will be substantial.
