ADMINISTRATIVE CORE One of the advantages of the University of Michigan (UM) BACPAC MRC Administrative Core is that all of the necessary leadership skills, faculty, staff, and procedures are already in place and have been for many years. The leadership team proposing this MRC has a successful track record of working together with each other, coordinating and successfully collaborating with large groups of inter-disciplinary investigators, conducting multiple projects simultaneously, and successfully disseminating research findings. We are one of few pain research groups that already has several ongoing NIH center grants and R01s that require us to perform deep phenotyping studies before and after ongoing interventions - almost identical to those proposed in the BACPAC MRC. One of our ongoing center grants (NIAMS CORT P50-AR070600) has an internal organizational structure identical to the MRC BACPAC, in that a single large research project is supported by several research cores as well as an Administrative Core. Our other center grant (NIDDK MAPP U01- DK082345) has an external, network structure nearly identical to that proposed for BACPAC. We also have many integrated ongoing NIH- or pharmaceutically funded studies using many of the proposed interventions in our MRC, including exercise, Cognitive Behavioral Therapies, acupressure, and orally-administered analgesics. We feel that this strong background of already working extensively in all of these areas, both with our proposed team at UM as well as with other scientists around the world, helps strengthen our MRC application in two ways: a) there is a greater likelihood we will be able to do what we propose in our MRC because we are already doing it, and b) we bring many standardized research methods and procedures to the BACPAC that might be considered for incorporation into broader BACPAC network efforts. To address the needs of the larger UM BACPAC MRC the Administrative Core will address 4 specific aims. First, this core will be responsible for the internal planning, organization, coordination, and overall administration of the UM BACPAC MRC. Next, this core will help facilitate our UM MRC personnel playing key leadership and support roles in our external interactions and contributions to the broader BACPAC initiative. Lastly, the core will disseminate information regarding the MRC operations and findings to a broad constituency, from scientists to clinicians to patients.
