Investigator Development Core

The Investigator Development Core (IDC) of the Southern California Center for Chronic Health Disparities in Latino Families and Children (SCC-CHDLFC) will play a central role in developing new rigorous, translational, and community-engaged science, and supporting the growth and impact of the Center. The IDC will support new research that addresses the disparities in co-occurring chronic diseases affecting Latinos in Southern California, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and dyslipidemia, and that is led by investigators who are early-career, new to the field, or from underrepresented populations. We will promote and prioritize support for projects incorporating transdisciplinary and community-engaged team science. Two funding mechanisms will support this effort across the region: 1) Pilot grants, awarded competitively to seven projects each year ($50,000/project); and 2) Vouchers to supplement existing projects from early-stage investigators via support from Center or other Institutional Research Cores ($50,000/year for vouchers up to $10,000 each). In addition, the Core will create a mentoring network, that will match pilot study investigators with more established investigators based on an initial pool of 41 multi-disciplinary researchers who are focused on disparity research across Southern California. The IDC leadership builds on a long-term collaboration between the co-Directors (Drs. de la Haye and Spruijt-Metz at USC), expertise in leadership of similar career development cores (Dr. Elder at SDSU), and experience overseeing research development at the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (Dr. de la Haye). Specific Aim 1 will build and support a pool of diverse research teams to be successful in submitting and obtaining pilot project funding. We will support transdisciplinary team science from the initial stages of project development through project launch and evaluation. We will leverage the Center’s cores and other institutional resources to engage diverse researchers, requesting pre-submission Letters of Intent (LOIs) for initial project review. Selected LOIs will be linked to mentors and with pre-award support to increase their potential for success, adoption of transdisciplinary team science principles as well as expertise from the center’s Methods and Data Sub-Core. A multi-disciplinary, community-engaged review process will ensure funding of innovative and translational science. Specific Aim 2 will support pilot-funded teams to achieve their research goals by providing multidisciplinary mentoring, networking, and training. Research success and impact will be supported via regular meetings with matched mentors, training and support on project launch and management, team science, research translation and community engagement, a seminar series, and an Annual Research Showcase featuring pilot project updates. Specific Aim 3 will evaluate pilot project outcomes and IDC activities using mixed methods approaches to track pilot project outcomes based on research and career development, and ultimately the creation of a diverse pool of new investigators focused on understanding, preventing and treating multiple chronic diseases among Latinos across Southern California.