Institutional Career Development Core

The KL2 Mentored Clinical Scholars Program attracts highly talented junior faculty across multiple disciplines from across Yale University who will pursue careers in T1-T4 translational research. This Program has been extremely successful, attracting 151 Scholars who have authored >5200 publications, have been PIs on 258 NIH grants, and have received a total of $557 million in grant funding. Remarkably, 99% of our KL2 Scholars have attained positions in academia, industry or public health conducting, and often with leadership responsibilities for, clinical and translational research. We aim to build on this success by providing Scholars with individualized, competency-based training in translational research that prepares them to contribute to the learning healthcare system, to advance personalized health, and to improve health outcomes for all. This preparation includes training in clinical trials, big data, machine learning, bioinformatics, multidisciplinary translational research, team science, implementation science, and community-based participatory research. It also introduces them to regulatory issues, bioethics, Good Clinical Practices, and factors that drive rigor, transparency, and replicability. The KL2 promotes the development of relevant competencies among the Scholars by providing: 1) opportunities to work successfully in complex multidisciplinary research teams, 2) access to mentorship by senior mentors and recent Clinical Scholars, 3) externships in industry, public health and regulatory agencies, and 4) intensive training in grant-writing and in multidisciplinary team science. To oversee these highly motivated junior investigators, we have an educational leadership team of three outstanding investigator mentors and an expert in evaluating and dynamically reshaping medical education programs. We expanded our logic model to implement social network analyses to track the activities of the Scholars, and we will expand the curriculum to include a new course. That course will mix Scholars and TL1 trainees who will work in teams as they get formal training and peer mentoring in a variety of areas such as big data/machine learning, translational science, community-engaged research, and running a research laboratory. With these additions to an already strong curriculum, we believe that the Yale Mentored Clinical Scholars Program will be ideally positioned to train the next generation of leaders in T1-T4 translational research who will transform healthcare in ways that alleviate the burden of disease and improve health in the US and around the world. The Specific Aims of the KL2 are: Aim 1: The Yale Mentored Clinical Scholars Program: To provide a program comprised of a mentored research experience, coursework, and seminars that are intended to promote the emergence of scientific independence and the career development of talented young T1-T4 translational scientist Scholars. Aim 2: The Yale Masters in Health Science Program: To provide those M.D. Scholars who do not possess an advanced research degree with additional coursework and scholarly activities to qualify for a Masters in Health Science to augment their scientific preparation for a research career.