AppalTRuST Administrative Core

ABSTRACT – ADMINISTRATIVE CORE The Administrative Core (Admin Core) will provide leadership and communications infrastructure, strategic planning, and financial management to facilitate the work of all AppalTRUST components as well as advance collaboration with the wider TCORS community. AppalTRUST’s overarching goal is to investigate the impact of US Food and Drug Administration Center for Tobacco Products (FDA CTP) regulatory policies in rural communities through collaboration, education, and pioneering tobacco regulatory science (TRS). Specifically, the Admin Core will provide scientific oversight by fostering shared knowledge and maximizing interactions to ensure scientific rigor and transparency. The Admin Core will lead an Executive Committee meeting twice per month with all Project PIs and Core Leaders. To ensure representation, engagement, and input from the study communities in Appalachian KY, the Admin Core will collaborate with Community Outreach and Participant Engagement (COPE) Core to ensure our two Community Advisory Boards are fully engaged in Center decision-making. To advance educational collaboration and maximize interactions with the wider TCORS community and Federal partners, the Admin Core will work with the Career Enhancement Core (CEC) to sponsor a quarterly AppalTRUST TRS Seminar Series to engage the TCORS community and share synergistic opportunities, methodologic advances, and new research findings. The Admin Core will also collaborate with the CEC to sponsor an AppalTRUST Visiting Scholar Program to allow faculty and/or trainees from other TCORS to participate in a one-week in-depth learning experience in rural TRS. To provide quality control and evaluation across projects and cores, the Admin Core alongside the Biostatistics and Informatics Core (BIC) and COPE will oversee a monthly quality control and evaluation meeting to foster seamless tracking and coordinating of all activities, recruitment, participant flow, data collection, and data management. To provide administrative oversight, the Admin Core will guide and coordinate internal and external communications and coordination, financial planning and management, as well as the research and grants administrative processes. An External Advisory Board made up of leading scientific experts will meet annually to provide critical counsel and ensure the Center is meeting its stated goals. An Internal Advisory Board of key University scientific and administrative stakeholders will meet annually to provide counsel and advice and ensure AppalTRUST is able to effectively leverage UK and community resources to meet its goals. Impact: The Admin Core will provide the necessary organization and leadership to ensure an efficient, collaborative infrastructure that will enhance synergies across AppalTRUST as well as advance collaboration with the wider TCORS community. Given that Appalachia is a rural region disproportionately impacted by socioeconomic disadvantage and tobacco use, the Admin Core will lead AppalTRUST in closing a critical knowledge gap in rural tobacco use behaviors, marketing, and impact analysis to help shape effective FDA regulations for these communities.