The Center for Pediatric Research (CPR) was created in 2004 to enhance the infrastructure and mentorship programs at Nemours/AIDHC to improve opportunities for investigators to successfully compete for extramural funding. A key component of this infrastructure was the modernization and expansion of research core services. Pediatric diseases are usually distinct from those found in adults, stemming from genetic abnormalities and/or developmental defects. As a small institution, it was critical that the CPR be disease agnostic and broadly drive advancement of multiple pediatric research programs. By modernizing instrumentation and making key recruitments, the CPR transformed a biomolecular core laboratory and a clinical research services core. New cores for cell science/proteomics, bioinformatics, and high throughput screening were also created to enhance the ability of investigators to incorporate multidisciplinary approaches into research. These five COBRE supported cores have considerable institutional support and are now integrated into a research services core with another four core services that are now primarily supported by the institution. The three specific aims of the Research Services Core are as follows:
Specific Aim 1 : To strengthen the existing core infrastructure by integrating research service cores at Nemours/AIDHC;
Specific Aim 2 : To develop strategies to evaluate core efficiency and effectiveness by incorporating continuous improvement (CI) approaches;
and Specific Aim 3 : To develop a long-term plan to ensure that research cores are sustainable and adapt to changes in research needs and funding sources. Building on the successes of COBRE I & II, support is now focused on integrating these nine research service cores in order to optimize best practices for core usage, management and funding. Currently, Nemours is on a journey to improve management processes and customer service by empowering each staff member. A cornerstone of Continuous Improvement (CI) is that the people who do the work are given the opportunity and the power to improve their workflows. In COBRE Phase III, we intend to incorporate CI processes to further develop best practices, thus enhancing core efficiency and usage, thereby establishing a stable revenue stream to ensure core sustainability.
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