Administrative Core

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The Administrative Core will support the general objectives of the Duke SPORE in Brain Cancer, which are to move basic research findings into the clinic in an expeditious fashion in order to have an immediate impact on cancer mortality and morbidity. To do this, the Administrative Core will cultivate and facilitate collaborations between basic and clinical scientists in the conceptualization and implementation of research projects. It will also work closely with the Duke Cancer Institute?s (DCI) leadership to coordinate efforts between the Neuro-oncology program and the SPORE. This will maximize the utilization of resources by promoting use of existing DCI core facilities and building upon existing cores when additional enhancements are required. It will also provide administrative support for the collection and maintenance of human tissue resources that will benefit the entire community. Finally, it will provide necessary infrastructure to develop extended collaborations with other SPOREs and the NIH. This Core consolidates these functions to alleviate burdens on investigators, but also to provide economies of scale and external quality assurance. The Specific Aims of this Core will be: 1) To provide organizational, administrative, and scientific leadership by providing credible examples of research success, demonstrating respect and concern for all team members, building team identity and coherence, cultivating expectations of innovation and excellence, leveraging resources, providing constructive feedback, and modeling ethical behavior; 2) To provide administrative management by overseeing distribution of funds and accounting for all expenditures in Projects, Cores, CDP and DRP, providing clerical support for manuscript preparation and NIH meeting attendance, overseeing quality control and product release, and ensuring fiscal and regulatory compliance; 3) To promote integration within the SPORE and the Institution by scheduling seminar series and other meetings, leveraging institutional support and working closely within and outside our institution to ensure that resources and infrastructure are optimally utilized and overlaps eliminated.; 4) To maintain and support an adequate cancer patient population by providing an organizational infrastructure that assures adequate research subjects and human specimens are available to conduct the Projects outlined in this SPORE; 5) To develop capabilities and oversee data operations by confirming data sharing and defining and developing best practices for data operations in collaboration with Core B to ensure that reliable and valid data are generated, managed, and analyzed in a way that ensures data integrity and replicability of research findings; and 6) To evaluate research progress by measuring research progress and making decisions regarding project continuation or replacement through weekly meetings, formal quarterly reports to EC and SC, and semi-annual presentations to the IAB or EAB, and patient advocates.