ICTS Mentored Career Development Core

About This Grant

K12 PROJECT SUMMARY The goal of the proposed K12 program is to provide a robust mentored career development environment that pursues the following specific aims. Specific Aim 1: Champion mentored career development by nurturing an integrated K12 program that consists of outstanding leadership and oversight at all levels. Our Education Leadership Team (ELT) consists of Program Directors, Associate Directors, and a Program Administrator. The ELT works closely with the ICTS UM1 Workforce Development Module Team (WDT), the K12 External Advisory Committee (EAC), and a nationally recognized ICTS Survey Evaluation Tracking (SET) Team. The oversight of the program is highlighted by our Scholar-Mentor Alignment and Individual Development Plan meetings, a strong SET process, and a Quality by Design paradigm. Our ICTS partners [Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and Long Beach Veterans Association Hospital (LBVA)] will participate in our EAC and quarterly meetings with the ELT. Specific Aim 2: Maximize access to the K12 program, optimize scholar-mentor alignment, and accelerate career development. We will: 1) support the training of four ICTS K12 scholars per year, and 2) continue our Affiliated Scholars Advancement Program (ASAP) which significantly expands training opportunities for unfunded scholars interested in pursuing Clinical Translational Science and Research (CTS&R). Specific Aim 3: Provide a flexible and innovative curriculum that emphasizes both core competencies and advanced concepts in CTS&R. Focused Flexible Accelerated Studies (FFASt) is an immersive set of courses and experiential opportunities developed to expose our scholars to core and advanced competencies in CTS&R. FFASt courses also play a central role in our extensive Responsible Conduct of Research and Reproducibility curriculum. Our FFASt curriculum has always included key elements necessary for nurturing the development of our scholars becoming more proficient as: 1) domain experts, 2) boundary crossers, 3) team players, 4) process innovators, 5) skilled communicators, 6) systems thinkers, and 7) rigorous researchers. Our monthly Journal Clubs include modules which provide additional focus on these key skills. Specific Aim 4: Integrate local, regional, and national insights to transform CTS&R training. The breadth of our program’s integration at the local and regional levels is highlighted by key elements such as: 1) K-ECO, which is a survey of the training landscape at UC Irvine, CHOC, and LBVA, and is used to inform our K12 program and key leaders throughout our campus, 2) a campuswide KT PI Training Council we created and lead, 3) collaboration between the ELT and UC BRAID to create the K Scholar Initiative which will financially support an annual K Scholar Meeting for all CTSAs within the University of California system, and 4) the Western CTSA Education consortium, which consists of 11 CTSAs from California, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington.