Kentucky Center for Clinical and Translational Science - Institutional Career Development Core

The University of Kentucky Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) proposes to sustain and enhance the current KL2 program, currently in its ninth year of National Institutes of Health (NIH) support. By providing two to three years of release time (75% effort) and research funding support for mentored career development, the program is designed to accelerate the academic growth for the next generation of leaders in clinical and translational research (CTR). The program has four programmatic objectives: 1) to provide a curriculum that meets core training needs of CTR scholars, 2) to support a mentored program of research training that expedites development of research careers, 3) to support personalized training programs that expedite CTR career development, and 4) to provide continuous assessment and quality improvement of both individual scholar career development and overall KL2 program. The program has garnered strong institutional support; across the nine years, the initial two NIH-supported training slots have been expanded to seven slots (four NIH-supported, three institutionally supported). The program supports career development of scholars with research interests that cross the lifespan (prenatal through elderly) and the full spectrum of clinical and translational science, including translational, clinical, community/policy studies and clinical and translational research (CTR) methods/processes (e.g., biomedical informatics) focusing on a broad array of health topics. Scholars and mentors represent a wide range of disciplines and colleges including Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Health Sciences, Public Health, Education, Engineering and Arts and Sciences. All program graduates (n=18) remain actively engaged in CTR, have made important contributions to science through published research and have successfully competed for extramural funding with 14 as principal investigators. We are requesting renewed NIH support of four KL2 scholar training slots. The training of a minimum of three additional institutionally sponsored early-career scholars will continue to be fully integrated with these NIH-supported scholars to sustain a cohort of at least seven scholars. The foundation of the proposed program will continue to be practical research experiences within multidisciplinary teams guided by experienced mentors, with a Faculty Oversight Committee monitoring the successful career development of these future CTR leaders. Educational technology promotes vigorous yet efficient competency training programs. Further, our enhanced team science training programs will focus specifically on developing leadership skills. Institutionally sponsored pipeline programs targeting undergraduates, medical students, residents, fellows and clinical instructors, several focused on underrepresented minorities, will support the availability of a strong and diverse pool of candidates for the KL2 program. In sum, the KL2 program is accelerating the career development of future leaders of the biomedical research workforce who are well prepared to address today’s complex research challenges and spearhead future advances in human health.