The administrative structure for this program project resides within the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center (BIRC) under the direction of David A. Hovda, Ph.D. The center will provide administrative support for the current application. Consequently, the current application does not request money for administrative staff or consumable expenses. The UCLA BIRC will also support supplies, equipment (and upgrades), travel, and imaging scans. This allows for the majority of funding provided to this program from NIH to be applied directly to research. As Principal Investigator for this application, Dr. Hovda will be responsible for all aspects of the program. Dr. Neil Martin (Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery) will have a specific role in the leadership of this program project. As Chief of the Division and Director of the UCLA Neurosurgery Residency Program, Dr. Martin will be responsible for maintaining the commitment by the clinical staff and Division administration to the research activities outlined within this proposal. It should be noted that the Division of Neurosurgery will become an independent Department July 1, 2008. Dr. Neil Martin has been named Chairman of the new Department of Neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Day-to-day operations of the research outlined within this proposal will be evaluated on a weekly basis. The faculty and staff of the UCLA BIRC meet every Wednesday from 10:00 AM - 12:00 Noon in the Stern Conference room located within the Division of Neurosurgery. This conference room contains audio-visual equipment and computer support providing access to both clinical and basic science databases. During these meetings, all investigators participate in discussions related to all aspects of the program including space allocation, new recruitments, budgets, public relations, scientific merit, teaching, upcoming scientific meetings and publications. In addition to these programmatic issues, all investigators evaluate the current status of research subjects and review the process of alerting the clinical research team of any new traumatically brain injured patients. One BIRC meeting every month is dedicated to patient presentation where all the collected data on an individual subject is presented and discussed. Another meeting every month is dedicated to the presentation of science by one of the key investigators in the program. This schedule assures that basic scientists are exposed to the clinical research and management issues related to human TBI. Conversely, having basic scientists present their research on a monthly basis assures that clinical scientists are exposed to the most current scientific issues related to the neurobiology of TBI. Attendance is recorded and minutes are distributed for each meeting. In addition to these general weekly UCLA BIRC meetings, the Principal Investigators of the individual projects and the leaders of the individual cores make up a """"""""Principal Investigators"""""""" Committee. This Committee meets as issues arise that are deemed by Dr. Hovda as inappropriate for general discussion by the entire research staff. These topics include performance evaluations, authorship, interpersonal and ethical issues related to scientific integrity.
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