The Administrative Core will coordinate the scientific, educational, and outreach activities of the Center. The main activity of this Core is to advance the progress and integration of the research in Individual Projects. This will be accomplished via several mechanisms including weekly PI meetings, a Fall Meeting of all participants that will highlight new findings in all projects, a Spring Retreat that will review annual progress and future directions with the participation of an External Advisory Panel, quarterly review between the PI and each project PI, an annual visit to NIMH, and annual student reviews. Our Advisory Board will include 5 emminent leaders in the field who will annually critique our progress and help us set goals for the next year. The Administrative Core also directs Career Development for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with activities including periodic meetings with mentors, weekly lunch scientific sessions, and several career development activities including practice talks and posters, course planning, grant writing, and responsible conduct of research sessions. The Core will administer a Center website that will post papers, a neural simulator, and new data analysis programs that are accessable and useble by the public. The Administrative Core will also coordinate numerous outreach activities, including a weekly Memory Lunch speaker series. Undergraduate Research Opportunities in the academic year, and a variety of activities for high school students. In addition, the Administrative Core will coordinate a center Summer Undergraduate Research Program that will recruit promising undergraduate students, with special emphasis on recruitment of minorities. These students will participate in research in Center laboratories, including students that travel from a laboratory at one participating institution to work for the summer at another. These students will also have a broad range of ancillary activities, including one-on-one and group mentoring, training in research presentations, enrichment workshops, and participation in the Fall Meeting of the Center. The Summer Program success will be closely monitored via before and after surveys and tracking of continued participation in STEM research.
The Administrative Core plays a major role in the success of the Center goals in two ways. First, this Core is key to the high level of coordination and interaction of projects that is necessary to integrate the efforts of the research team in our goal of understanding complex brain networks. Second, through many venues, this Core will inform the public and contribute to training a new generation of mental health researchers.
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