I. Institutional Career Development Core

The goal of the ITM CTSA KL2 Scholar program is to produce accomplished researchers capable of utilizing the tools of clinical and translational research to improve the understanding or treatment of human disease. Research topics can relate to any aspect of clinical and/or translational research and to any patient population or disease group. Any suitable research approach can be employed. However, relevance to the understanding or treatment of human disease must be demonstrated. In ITM 3.0, we will particularly emphasize the impact of health challenges during the training of our KL2 Scholars across the translational research spectrum, so that they are able to consider issues related to all persons and social, environmental, behavioral, and psychological (SEBP) factors, and account for these in complex designs and approaches. Our program’s track record demonstrates a high degree of success in supporting junior faculty to successful academic research careers. Since inception of our KL2 program in 2008, we have had or currently have 30 Scholars in our program. Of these 30 Scholars, 13 (43%) have transitioned to R01 or comparable funding with several still likely to make this transition in the near term. This demonstrates the ability of our program to produce Scholars with high-impact, innovative research that aligns well with the emerging directions at NIH and in the scientific community. We anticipate supporting ~2 years of multidisciplinary training for each selected junior faculty member, who will devote ≥75% effort to investigation and training (≥50% for surgeons). The program will include five KL2 Scholars at any time (drawn primarily from UChicago and Rush, but occasionally from other ITM affiliates), and its impact will be extended greatly beyond this relatively small number through co-training and extensive interactions with K Scholars in other career development programs at the lead ITM institutions (UChicago and Rush University) and its affiliates as well as with participation of numerous individual K-award (or equivalent) recipients and K-award aspirants at all ITM institutions.