I: Penn State Institutional Career Development Core

Advances in the efficiency, quality and impact of clinical and translational science (CTS) will be achieved by researchers who are trained in rigorous research methodologies and equipped to navigate a pathway from basic discovery to improved health. The overall goal of the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science lnstitute's (CTSI) Institutional Career Development Program is to accelerate scholar transition to research independence. Our priorities include building the expertise of our scholars in translational science, utilizing innovative strategies to engage and guide scholars to enhance research productivity, extending engagement in rural health research, and refining our data-driven continuous programmatic improvement. We will recruit KL2 scholars with outstanding potential to become catalysts for innovation in biomedical research translation. In this application we request support for 4 KL2 scholars and have an institutional commitment for an additional 4 scholars. All grant-funded and institutionally funded scholars will be selected through a University-wide RFA, have access to the same career development opportunities, and same expectations for progress toward development of scientific independence. The selected scholars will be enrolled in an intensive 3-year program designed to prepare the next generation of leaders in CTS. Our Aims are to: 1. Recruit and train talented scholars from multidisciplinary backgrounds in collaborative, interdisciplinary CTS career development. 2. Implement an intensive mentoring/coaching strategy for current and recent scholars to "turn the curve" on scholar transition to independence. 3. Leverage the strengths of our CTSl's rural environment, partnerships and technologies to develop a CTS research practicum in rural health. 4. Refine processes for collection, analysis and utilization of evaluative data guided by the logic model to foster continuous quality improvement of the career development program. We recognize multiple factors contribute to the scholars' transition to independence, including their initiative, persistence, resilience, supportive mentorship, interactions with collaborators, protected research time, and the institutional research infrastructure and culture. Timing for milestones on the path toward independence also varies depending on each individual's prior training. Our programmatic offerings are coordinated with the Translational Endeavors Core, the Community Engaged Research Core (CERC) and the TL 1 program, and include advanced degrees, core seminars, experiential opportunities, individual courses, learning modules, and flexibility for individualized learning. Intended outcomes are competent translational researchers with skills to accelerate discovery by bridging gaps and innovation along the translational research continuum.