The Research and Development Core seeks to promote and augment institutional involvement in geriatric based research and to specifically focus on aging associated disability. These efforts will be in part accomplished by supporting promising junior faculty and by funding high quality pilot research projects. The Research and Development Core will specifically promote mechanistic and outcome based research activities. In addition, the integration of mechanistic and outcome-based research will be facilitated by working closely with members of other cores and projects to: 1) seek potential new areas of collaboration; 2) encourage efforts which link mechanism and outcome research; 3) prioritize pilot study funding to optimize our integration of mechanistic and outcome studies and 4) continue to encourage new collaborative efforts by content area experts to facilitate their involvement in a geriatric-based research program. Detailed training plans are created for each junior faculty member supported by the core. These training plans are tailored to meet individual needs and generally involve didactic training, funding of pilot research projects, provision of support for travel to scientific meetings and providing access to nationally known experts both within and outside the institution. The leadership of the core monitors the scientific progress of each junior faculty person through a formal evaluation process held every 6 months. In addition to this formal process an informal update is conducted at the bi-weekly meetings of the Pepper Center group. Specific decisions pertaining to funding pilot projects and supporting junior faculty will be made in a matter consistent with the major themes of the Pepper Center. Specific criteria include: 1) augmenting the basic science research and training program, 2) the development of health services research training program and 3) the maintenance and expansion of the existing focus in clinical trials and epidemiology. The Research and Development Core works closely with other resources at Bowman Gray School of Medicine including: the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging; the NIA funded post-doctoral training program; and the large number of pertinent research efforts within the institution. These efforts by the Research and Development Core will facilitate a continued high level of excellence of geriatric and disability related research efforts.
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