Administrative Core

PROJECT SUMMARY The Administrative Core (AC) will coordinate the activities of the Service Cores (Aim 1), and will engage the local vision research community with respect to providing information regarding core activities and available resources (Aim 2). In the coordination role, the Steering Committee will be an essential component in ensuring that resources are fairly allocated, and that the offered services are delivered with outstanding quality. The AC will also communicate with vision researchers at The University of Iowa to keep them informed concerning Service Core utilization, gather feedback on Core activities, and ensure that the selection of offered services remain relevant and state-of-the-art over time. In addition, the Administrative Core will facilitate training within The University of Iowa Vision Research community (Aim 3). This will be achieved by the organization and implementation of an annual training meeting related to vision research and key methodologies needed for state-of-the-art vision research. The symposia will be targeted at students, post-doctoral trainees and new junior faculty. Importantly, in these pandemic times the AC will aid in keeping vision research laboratories and the Service Cores productive during the pandemic (Aim 4). To achieve this, the Administrative Core will oversee, provide, and coordinate COVID-19 molecular testing to all vision research laboratory personnel at The University of Iowa including the staff of the Service Cores enabling laboratories to remain open, safe, functional and efficient. The ongoing delivery of the Administrative Core aims will allow vision scientists to enhance their individual and collective research programs substantially, and thereby drive discoveries, innovation, and treatments.