Administrative Core

This application proposes to continue the collaborative partnership between the NCCU Alcohol Research Center and the UNC Alcohol Research Center (UNC-ARC) in response to RFA-AA-21-015. North Carolina Central University (NCCU), founded in 1910, has partnered with the UNC-ARC since 2010, contributed to the enrollment of its first PhD students in 2012 and to several of the current 10 Ph.D. graduates. NCCU is a comprehensive institution offering bachelor’s degrees and graduate degrees that is nearby the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the UNC NIAAA Alcohol Research Center that has been funded since 1997. The UNC-NCCU partnership from 2010-2020 involved 10 NCCU Biomedical faculty in alcohol research, about 30% of NCCU faculty laboratories, with up to 15 students each year contributing to 37 publications and three funded NIAAA R grant applications. None of this occurred prior to this partnership. This U54 administrative core proposes to continue to build and promote alcohol research expertise, to develop research infrastructure and capacity, particularly for alcohol-related chronic diseases. Further, the administrative core will develop and administer collaborative education-training of NCCU students in UNC ARC labs and other UNC training activities. This will be accomplished through 5 aims: Aim 1: Provide scientific and administrative leadership; Aim 2: Monitor and enhance collaborative partnerships; Aim 3: Mentor leadership among faculty; Aim 4: Support the Student Mentoring and Development Core; and Aim 5: Recruit NCCU laboratories to alcohol research. Through structured mentoring, experimentation, and student experiences in alcohol research, this proposal will create successful alcohol research programs, leading to both discoveries and the education of large numbers of NCCU students on chronic disease outcomes associated with alcohol use.