KL2 INSTITUTIONAL CAREER DEVELOPMENT CORE: ABSTRACT Without a CTSA hub within 250 miles, Frontiers plays a critical role in addressing the Heartland's needs in creating a workforce in clinical and translational research. In this application, the Frontiers KL2 program builds upon the successes and lessons learned from its first cycle of scholars. Frontiers links more than 200 federally funded investigators in clinical and translational research. These investigators will be leveraged to train a new generation of clinical translational research (CTR) scientists. We have created translational research clusters headed by Faculty Research Cluster Experts who will connect each scholar with a research mentor and mentoring team. The KL2 leadership team and Cluster Experts have created a support system designed to provide junior scientists with the mentoring, tools, and environment they need to become successful translational researchers. This support system is augmented by a rich set of translational research tools and learning experiences. Each scholars' KL2 experience will be driven by an Individual Development Plan (IDP), which prompts the scholar to formulate specific, achievable scientific and career goals. Each objective is linked to specific educational, training, and research activities selected from Frontiers' training opportunities. These opportunities include formal coursework, time-limited workshops, research experiences, opportunities to interact with experts at other institutions, and other activities designed to deliver what scholars need to know, when they need it, in a manner that is convenient and readily accessible. Each scholar will collaborate with their mentoring teams to complete a research project that will serve as an anchor for many of their training activities and as a springboard for an R01-level research application to be submitted within the first 2-3 years of their KL2 tenure. We ask for 4 KL2 training slots, and successful awardees will be able to retain their KL2 award for up to five years. In addition to Frontiers training opportunities, the KL2 program provides bi-monthly Frontiers Club sessions, mock study sections, grant review sessions, and targeted training in team science and career development. The KL2 program also provides support and training for mentors to enable them to provide focused guidance to KL2s amidst competing demands. The KL2 program will conduct ongoing, multi-level evaluation of scholar and mentor performance to facilitate mid-course adjustments and pinpoint effective training components and areas for improvement. Many of our KL2 program components, including the IDP process, course offerings, and evaluation measures, draw from other CTSA hubs, which will facilitate pooled evaluation that will contribute to the science of translational research.
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