Administrative Core

ABSTRACT – ADMINISTRATIVE CORE The Administrative Core's purpose is to coordinate and facilitate activities across all Research Projects and the Community Engagement Core (CEC) to ensure synergy across the North Carolina Center for Coastal Algae, People, and Environment (NC C-CAPE). The Administrative Core's Specific Aims include: 1) Create and coordinate a centralized hub for NC C-CAPE activities; 2) Provide systems and processes that foster transdisciplinary interactions between NC C-CAPE research projects and cores; and 3) Implement mechanisms that facilitate translation of NC C-CAPE discoveries and broaden the impact of Center findings. The Administrative Core will be led by an Internal Steering Committee consisting of the Center Director, Co-Director, Project 3 Leader, and CEC Director. This collaborative leadership approach reflects the recognized need for multiple areas of expertise – oceanography, environmental health, modeling, and community engagement – to be engaged in decision-making that impacts the Center as a whole. A full-time Business Manager, with coordinated effort across both the Administrative Core and CEC, will manage logistics of Center activities, track Center-wide metrics in support of the program evaluation plan, and promote communication across the Center, NC State leadership, and the NC C-CAPE external stakeholders. The Administrative Core will foster interdisciplinary approaches by striking a balance between efforts internally, such as coordinating a research seminar series, and externally, through activities such as convening the External Advisory Committee and collaborating with other Oceans and Human Health Centers and projects with shared interests. Driven by the CEC's leadership, NC C-CAPE has adopted a data democracy framework that shapes our approach to Resource Sharing. The Administrative Core will ensure that this framework, including a commitment to making data both publicly available and accessible, will be implemented across all Research Projects. Importantly, this framing of data democracy will also inform the Center's efforts around developing early stage investigators. The Administrative Core will help facilitate co-mentoring across the Research Projects and the Community Engagement Core to give students and other early stage researchers opportunities to understand how their scientific areas can collaborate with other disciplines and stakeholders around the topic of sharing data. By setting an organizational culture that fosters collaborations across disciplinary boundaries, the Administrative Core will assist the Center in advancing our understanding of how algal blooms, ocean, animal and human health are connected.