CTSA K12 Program at Johns Hopkins

The mission of the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) Clinical Scholars Research Training Program (K12) is to provide an integrated set of training, research and career development opportunities focused on the core principles of translational science. We will build on our success of training more than 70 junior faculty to date by focusing the scholars’ experience on (1) specific skills for competency in translational research (2) individual mentored project development and (3) community engagement. A core goal of the program is to advance junior researchers in translational science. We have a track record of training scholars in different fields of study and methodologies and will continue to advance this goal. Our history of successful recruitment and selection of a junior group of scholars allows us to build on our efforts to develop a wider range of scholars from various disciplines. Our partnership with University of Maryland, Baltimore allows us to engage with scholars and mentors from multiple disciplines that bring new perspectives to help optimize health outcomes for all. We will use existing strategies to recruit scholars in medicine, nursing, dentistry, public health, pharmacy, engineering and social work with different scientific interests and perspectives in translational science. From a programmatic standpoint we (1) Teach core principles in clinical and translational research, ensuring scholars have the knowledge and skills to succeed in their scientific pursuits and build an identity as translational researchers; (2) Provide a supportive and collaborative culture for scholars; (3) Create a community of clinical and translational science scholars, building networks and collaborations among scholars (and mentors), driving innovation; and (4) Encourage the development of team science skills. Scholars will recognize the importance of working collaboratively, an increasingly critical research skill. Our scholars benefit from an integrated program that offers a multidisciplinary mentoring team, didactic training, competency-based interactive workshops, core ICTR resources, peer-support and resource-sharing designed to stimulate lifelong engagement in a translational research career. The program offers scholars intensive and hand-on learning experiences that prepare them to be exemplary preclinical and clinical translational scientists in any discipline, specialty or subspecialty. Our heterogeneous pool of scholars will emerge equipped with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to advance diagnostics, therapeutics, clinical interventions, and behavioral modifications to improve health and health outcomes as they develop into independent researchers. We will perform continuous scholar, mentor and program evaluation with multiple metrics. We evaluate scholars performance in the program and success after completing the program. Like the consortium of CTSA academic medical institutions, we will report on scholar performance and satisfaction, quality of mentorship and mentor and mentee satisfaction. We will also measure, evaluate, and disseminate the impact of translational research from our program. The JHU ICTR K12 will support 8 clinical scholars, for a minimum of 24 months.