The state of Florida has the largest proportion (17.8%) of persons age 60 years or older in the nation and this age group represents the fastest growing segment of the population. In the 2000 US Census, more than 3.2 million Floridians, or 22.2% of the state's population, reported having a disability. As the population continues to age and older Americans relocate full-time or seasonally to our state, the number of disabled Americans in Florida will rise. Older adults have a number of unique and complex health care needs, and as such, academic medical centers in the state of Florida face a significant challenge to develop research programs, and research facilities that can address the special health problems of older persons. In response to the growing health care needs and increasing population of the aging community, we propose to construct the University of Florida (UF) Institute on Aging Clinical Translational Research Building (IOA-CTRB) of 39,500 GSF, which will be instrumental for developing novel research approaches aimed at improving the health, independence and quality of life of older Americans. While the need for a comprehensive facility is substantial, a comparable resource to the proposed IOA- CTRB is completely lacking on the UF campus and in Florida. The IOA-CTRB will create a cohesive environment that will promote a holistic approach to research on aging and disability. To effectively address the emerging clinical research needs regarding the older populations and to promote all stages of translational research we propose to construct the IOA-CTRB of 39,500 GSF, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Desing (LEED) platinum building, which will host the following new shared resources: clinical research assessment facility, biological specimens processing and repository, recruitment and retention core, behavioral and lifestyle modification intervention facility, laboratory of epidemiology and health services of aging, office hub for creative thinking, conference and training resources, and accessible parking. The IOA-CTRB will exert a major campus-wide impact in stimulating and sustaining research and research career development on aging at UF and in the region. Major strengths of this IOA-CTRB application are strong project leadership, sizeable number of American jobs retained or created, remarkable institutional support, unique single point of entry resources offered by the IOA-CTRB, innovative advanced green/sustainable design and quality of life principles, exceptional funded and pending IOA grant record, far reaching research career development programs, new Cognitive Aging and Memory Clinical Translational Research Program (CAM-CTRP), and most importantly NIH and CDC funded center grants, such as the Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC), the Clinical Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) and the Florida Office on Disability Health (FOHD) that are unique in Florida. These center grants represent the research and research career development backbone for the IOA and support the implementation and long- term sustainability and success of the current and future funded grants in the area of aging and of the IOA- CTRB. Taken together, all these assets will ultimately positively impact on the health, independence and quality of life of older Americans. This proposal will create or retain a total of 283 jobs for the construction project and 93 jobs will be created or retained in the new facility. The total impact will be on the creation or retention of 376 American jobs.
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