The Career Enhancement Core (CE Core) is tailored to develop research capacity in AIDS malignancies by developing the careers of an integrated critical mass of junior researchers in the context of shared resources and scientific networks provided by the consortium institutions. There is a strong rationale for having a well-resourced Career Enhancement Core. Junior Argentinian investigators have major institutional and funding hurdles to overcome, which are complicated by the geographic isolation and the lack of an integrated and interacting critical mass of researchers. CE Core is a career resource, guidance and training hub of the U54 for the junior investigators that provides them with the resources to ready themselves for a competitive independent career in AIDS- malignancies including: critical technical and scientific training, training in essential skills for scientific research, a local and international network of experts for collaboration and networking, training in writing competitive grant applications and access to seed funding to foster new projects. Furthermore, CE Core provides a mechanism to harness the tremendous research strengths at the University of Miami (UM) CFAR and SCCC by promoting new collaborations in new and emerging fields within and outside the network. It is expected that the activities of this core will constitute a living model for excellent and efficient training of junior and mid-career scientists and support the unique type of multidisciplinary training needed for translational research. To ensure the success of young investigators, CE Core has developed a three tiered specific Aims plan:
Aim 1 : Mentoring Tier: Will support the development of interactive multidisciplinary projects as mentored research opportunities for junior and mid-career scientists supported by Shared cores and a mentoring network within the U54 consortium Aim 2: Training tier: Will identify, coordinate and evaluate career development and training opportunities within and outside the network and its institutions Aim 3: Pilot Program tier: Will create a Pilot program to fully take advantage of the U54 training infrastructure by supporting new ideas within the network, and to incorporate new scientists to the consortium.
