THIRD COAST CFAR CORE B: DEVELOPMENTAL CORE (DC) The Third Coast Center for AIDS Research (TC CFAR) Developmental Core (DC) serves as the foundation from which members build new NIH-funded research that advances the Administrative Core (AC)-prioritized scientific agenda. DC services enable and fuel each of the TC CFAR Overall aims. The DC provides a range of seed funding mechanisms for all faculty (Core Subsidy Awards), faculty new to HIV research (Pilot Awards), our scientific Cores (Core Resource Awards), and community partners (Community Collaborative and Community Mini-Awards). DC has enabled success in competitions for administrative supplements (AS) and assists AC with other mechanisms. In the first 5 years, more than $5.6 million was awarded via multiple DC mechanisms and AS, with >$860,000 of that total contributed by NU and UC from institutional support. In less than 5 years, returns on these investments have been strong. Projects on each of the 3 Overall aims have been funded by DC Awards and Administrative Supplements; Overall aims 2 and 3 emerged from AC-led strategic planning more recently than Overall aim 1. DC work proposed here adds to anticipated growth in DC-funded projects addressing Overall aims 2 and 3. New entrants to HIV research, and trans-disciplinary submissions to the DC, have increased. Community Collaborative Awards built relationships with HRSA-funded community partner organizations that, along with learning from processes for Administrative Supplement proposal development, enabled a strong response to the Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) Initiative and the successful launch of new EHE Scientific Working Group that is starting to seed more research-practice partnerships. Strong mentorship is another DC service that contributes to junior faculty career development, is growing HIV research at University of Chicago, and starting to improve representation of URM faculty across the CFAR. A new cross-institutional and cross- disciplinary NHLBI-funded career development program (Third Coast HIV-related Cardiovascular and Sleep Disorders K12 Career Development Program) is synergizing future growth of non-AIDS co-morbidities research as well as our faculty?s careers. Junior faculty gain DC review panel experience, and the Core will now also mentor a new co-director and give junior faculty achieving independent NIH funding leadership experience as a rotating co-director. The DC also navigates CFAR members to resources that enhance proposal and project development, including mentoring before and after DC submissions and mock study section reviews prior to NIH submissions.
The aims of this renewal are: (1) to provide seed funding to TC CFAR members, emphasizing early stage investigators (ESI) and established faculty new to HIV research, to further enhance high priority HIV research; (2) to inform and fund current and new community partners providing public health, prevention, and care services, including those countering structural inequities driving the HIV epidemic; (3) to enhance career development, and improve navigation to proposal-enhancing expertise for new entrants to HIV research and our scientific priorities.
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