The University of Washington will establish a Medical Rehabilitation Research Network that will facilitate high quality research in rehabilitation in the 15-state western region of the United States. This network will (1) promote new rehabilitation research by clinicians and basic scientists, (2) attract talented investigators to the field, (3) foster interactive approaches to questions central to the rehabilitation research, (4) serve as an educational resource to enhance the capabilities interested in rehabilitation research. The network will include two Scientific Resource Cores, an Information Technology Core, and an Administrative Core. It also will fund up to three pilot projects annually that utilize the services of the network's scientific resources. The Experimental Design and Biostatistics Scientific Resource core will respond to the need of many investigations to access expertise regarding the complex environmental design of studies in rehabilitation. One element of this core will be in the design and conduct of research studies in rehabilitation. Second element will be the development of an experimental design course for rehabilitation researchers. A second element will be the development of an experimental design course for rehabilitation researchers. This course, which will be modular in format, will initially be piloted on-site as an intensive short course in the University of Washington. As the course modules are refined, they will be made available as interactive Web-based learning modules. The Functional Imaging Scientific Resource core will be based at the Brain Mapping Center of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). This core will provide expertise on the design, implementation, and analysis of experimental studies of the nervous system that use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Core scientists at UCLA will assist new investigators to obtain experience and pilot fMRI data. The Information Technology Core will publicize the resources available from the network to rehabilitation researchers in the regions, will implement and manage an interactive Web site on which materials developed by the network can be accessed by rehabilitation researchers, and will provide linkages to information about grant funding sources. Three pilot projects that utilize the Research Resource Cores will be funded during each project period, with a maximum duration of two years each.
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