Career Development and Training ProgramsDuring the previous funding period the MRCE established three individual career development programs (theMRCE Clinical and Translational Research Fellowship Award, the MRCE Biosafety Fellowship Program,and the MRCE Biodefense Veterinary Fellowship), and two group training programs (the MRCE BiosafetyCourse and the MRCE Seminar Series). The Clinical and Translational Research Fellowship Program wasdesigned to meet the needs of Region VII and the nation to increase the pool of physician-scientists performinghigh quality research on biodefense and emerging infectious diseases. The Biodefense Veterinary MedicineTraining Program was designed to meet the needs of Region VII and the nation for veterinarian scientists thatcan perform high quality research on select agents, veterinarians that can lead comparative medicineprograms that deal with select agents, and veterinarians that can train other veterinarians to safely work withclass A-C agents. The MRCE Biosafety Fellowship Program was a post-doctoral fellowship in Biosafetycreated to provide the national biodefense research effort with a cadre of individuals capable of establishingand supervising biosafety programs in academia, industry, and government. It was associated with theBiosafety Course, which provided both didactic and hands-on training in handling select agents at the BSL3containment level. Finally, the MRCE Seminar Series supported research talks from leading scientists fromoutside Region VII on cutting edge science in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases research.As part of the competitive renewal process, the Steering Committee reviewed all of the MRCE careerdevelopment and training programs, other training opportunities within the region, and regional and nationalmanpower needs. We reached the following conclusions: The three MRCE career development programs had generally been successful in meeting their majorgoals (see section ), but there was a concern that the duration of support (1 year) was not adequate totruly facilitate career development for either the Clinical and Translational Research FellowshipProgram or the Veterinary Medicine Training Program. In the current funding environment it is increasingly difficult for senior post-doctoral fellows and juniorfaculty interested in biodefense or emerging infectious diseases research to obtain the grant supportand mentorship needed to help them become independent investigators. There remains a shortage of physicians opting to train for clinical or translational research in biodefenseand emerging infectious diseases. We need to develop programs to recruit these individuals into thefield. If we are to expand the pipeline of scientists interested in biodefense and emerging infectious diseasesresearch, we need to explore the efficacy of targeting individuals at earlier levels in their careers. Giventhe current funding environment, stipend support might be an attractive mechanism to introduceselected graduate students to research in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases research. Sucha program would also benefit their mentors, and expand the pool of MRCE supported investigators. One of the unique aspects of Region VII is the presence of three strong schools of Veterinary Medicine(e.g. University of Missouri, Kansas State University, Iowa State University). There remains a criticalneed to train more DVMs for the effort in biodefense. They will play key roles in direct research onselect agents, in developing large and small animal models of disease, and in supervising facilitieswhere animals are used for biodefense research. This will become an even greater need with the newRegional (RBL) and National (NBL) Biocontainment Laboratory programs. There is an ongoing need to teach investigators, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, technicians,and any other laboratory personnel how to safely work with select agents, especially those that requireBSL2 and BSL3 containment. We anticipate a continued increase in individuals applying to work withthese agents, and the lack of knowledge about the regulatory and safety issues involved in this workcan be a significant barrier to scientists. The MRCE provides a unique opportunity to develop a formal,consistent training program for our region. As the RBL and NBL facilities come on line, there will be an increasing regional and national demandfor individuals capable of establishing and supervising biosafety programs. This is absolutely key toincreasing the number of institutions involved in the biodefense research effort. We should continue ourprogram to 'train the trainers' to meet this need. There remains a need for increased education about biodefense and emerging infectious diseasesresearch within our region. A seminar series that features cutting edge research from the leaders in thisfield provides educational benefits, can spur collaborations, and provides a forum to promote MRCEprograms and resources.Based on this assessment, the MRCE proposes to continue its three individual career developmentprograms, and two group career development activities. We describe each of these projects in detail in thesubsequent sections. Because we made significant modifications to the Clinical and Translational ResearchFellowship program, increasing the duration of support to 3 years, and opening the eligibility requirements toinclude junior faculty at the instructor or early assistant professor stage, we now call it the MRCE CareerDevelopment Award in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research.
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