This is a competitive renewal for the Administrative Core (AdminC) of the Collaborative Initiative on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (CIFASD) in response to RFA-AA-12-005. The AdminC oversees a multidisciplinary, multisite consortium consisting of both basic science and clinical components, with the aim of improving the diagnostic criteria for the range of outcomes following prenatal alcohol exposure. The consortium consists of three cores (AdminC, Dysmorphology, and Informatics), 5 clinical U01s, and 2 basic science UOIs. These projects are structured to be collaborative and interrelated. The AdminC maintains the organizational framework for the CIFASD, managing and supporting the two components and their Steering Committees, and providing support to the Science Advisory Board. Besides its administrative functions, the AdminC is also responsible for two additional components, the Developmental and Educational Components of the CIFASD. The Developmental Component provides a mechanism for the inclusion of new research ideas, potential new sites, and higher risk/higher payoff projects. The Educational Component provides a new mechanism to ensure that consortium findings are widely circulated to the public and other stakeholders in a timely fashion.
The Specific Aims of the AdminC are to: 1) Provide scientific and administrative leadership and oversight, ensuring that CIFASD investigators adhere to its goals and mission, as well as assisting and coordinating interactions between the various projects. Function as the main liaison to NIAAA regarding the CIFASD;2) Facilitate communication between the various projects by maintaining the CIFASD web site, scheduling monthly conference calls, convening the biannual meetings of the Steering Committees, and preparing and distributing annual progress reports;3) Provide assistance with data collection and distribution by working with the Informatics Core. Work with the Informatics Core to develop online interactive capacity among CIFASD investigators, and make most of these databases available to outside, interested scientists;4) Assist the Science Advisory Board and the Steering Committees in their annual evaluations of progress for each of the projects. In conjunction with the Steering Committees, it will establish annual priorities and address issues related to allocation of resources;and 5) Administer the Developmental and Educational Components of the CIFASD.
The consequences resulting from prenatal alcohol exposure are wide-ranging and are major public health issues. The goal of the research proposed by the CIFASD is to enhance the diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders across the range of outcomes, using a multisite, multidisciplinary consortium consisting of both basic science and clinical projects.
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