Investigator Development Core

Investigator Development Core – Abstract The goal of the Rutgers-NYU CAHPE Investigator Development Core (IDC) (MPI: Dong & Simon, with 20 years of successful collaboration), is to support and increase the expertise of interdisciplinary scientists, including those from underrepresented backgrounds, to prepare them to conduct innovative and impactful health equity intervention, prevention, and management research on cardiometabolic and mental health outcomes among Asian Americans. The Center in conduction with the IDC will provide an enriched environment that develops pilot projects, strategies, and investigators who: 1) understand multi-level and multi-domain determinants of comorbid cardiometabolic and mental health outcomes among US Asians; 2) integrate community partners and perspectives utilizing principles of Community-Partnered Participatory Research into study design and implementation; and 3) conduct translational research to improve health and wellbeing among Asian adults and optimize cardiometabolic and mental health and disease prevention, treatment and management. To achieve this goal, the IDC will be fully coordinated with the Administrative Core and Community Engagement Core to accomplish these aims: 1) Build research and mentorship capacity of a diverse group of P50 Pilot Investigators focused on intervention research regarding cardiometabolic and mental health among US Asians and expand collaborative efforts with established research scientists, with emphasis on content, methods, and relevant supporting theoretical frameworks; 2) Support our Pilot Investigators in a nurturing, interdisciplinary environment that encourages scholarly development, including presentations, publications, and larger grant applications to leverage their pilot project experience and further develop pathways for interdisciplinary implementation of effective strategies to address cardiometabolic and mental health outcomes; 3) Create a pilot funding mechanism to solicit, review and select 6 Pilot Projects per year to conduct cardiometabolic and mental health translational research; and 4) Track and evaluate success of Pilot Investigators using an iterative, user friendly, and longitudinal evaluation process designed to continuously improve the Rutgers-NYU CAHPE infrastructure and support; foster development of a strong pipeline of new pilots and successful pilot investigators throughout the funding period. Leveraging decades of collaboration between MPIs Dong and Simon on building research infrastructure, we will utilize a lessons-learned approach to synergistically facilitate the IDC with existing infrastructures for pilot investigator development. In this application, we (PIs Dong and Simon) aim to support interdisciplinary research infrastructure and research pipeline, harmonize resources to further translational research to improve cardiometabolic and mental health outcomes among Asian adults, and promote adoption of research findings into practice in large, community- based, and clinical settings serving Asian populations.