Administrative Core

ABSTRACT The Administrative Core (AC) supports the theme of the UNC Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility (UNC-CEHS): translating interdisciplinary research on environmental susceptibility to improve public health in North Carolina. The AC provides leadership across several distinct areas, as detailed in our 5 aims. First, the AC leads strategic planning in Environmental Cancer, Cardiopulmonary Disease, and Developmental Disease (Aim 1). Second, the AC provides core infrastructure and research support to engage and support environmental susceptibility research, including community engagement, molecular analysis, statistical support, and access and support for human studies (Aim 2). Third, the AC supports recruitment and career development of environmental health researchers (Aim 3). Fourth, the AC facilitates and disseminates research through research reporting, engagement with community stakeholders, proposal development, publications, and communication (Aim 4). Finally, the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill has a dynamic environmental health sciences research community, and the AC supports the CEHS community by identifying research resources and collaborators, providing administrative and scientific leadership, and facilitating fiscal management (Aim 5). The leadership of the AC integrates expertise from different departments and Schools at the University, providing a unified and multidisciplinary leadership perspective. Leaders come from the School of Public Health and the School of Medicine and represent epidemiology, biostatistics, computational biology, toxicology, environmental health sciences, genetics, clinical medicine, pathology, and analytical chemistry. Major programmatic efforts include a formal Career Development Program, Facility Cores in Molecular Analysis and Statistical Support (MASS), Integrated Health Sciences (IHSFC), and a Community Engagement Core (CEC). Pilot projects are a major strategic initiative, including special targeted requests for applications (RFAs) for Team Science and Single Investigators, a Rapid Response Seed program that is active continuously with a short application-to-award time frame. The AC is guided in strategic planning by an External Advisory Board, an Internal Advisory Committee, and a Stakeholder Advisory Board of community partners. The multi-directional communication and administrative leadership provided by this core coordinates the CEHS research response to North Carolina environmental health needs.