Administrative Core

Emory University, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Project Summary – Administrative Core (Core A) The Administrative Core will support all aspects of the Center’s research, training/career enhancement, and outreach missions. In terms of the Center’s collaborative research (Aim 1), Core A will provide the organizational structure for meetings of Center personnel, advisory boards and other researchers. The Core will also foster collaboration among Center investigators and other researchers in the Parkinson’s disease (PD) research community at Emory University and within the Udall Center network. The Core will administer the Center’s internally funded pilot grant program for PD research at Emory University. Further, the Core will provide fiscal and regulatory oversight, will prepare and submit progress reports to NIH and facilitate resource sharing by handling external requests for non-clinical Center research resources and materials. The administrative Core will also oversee the Center’s extensive education and training activities for students, postdoctoral fellows, clinical residents and fellows, and junior faculty members (Aim 2). Besides helping with the organizational aspects of laboratory-based training, the Core will organize a quarterly PD research seminar series as well as other recurring educational sessions. Core A will closely interact with partners at Emory to optimize career enhancement options for trainees and will provide one-on-one grant-writing mentoring for investigators generating proposals concerning PD research. Finally, in conjunction with a Community Outreach Board, the Core will plan and implement the Center’s active outreach program (Aim 3). Outreach activities will include lectures at PD support group meetings and other public teaching sessions, as well as an annual outreach event which will be organized in a small-group format, allowing patients and caregivers to learn about ongoing PD research within the Udall Center and across the Emory campus. Many of these outreach activities will utilize partnerships with local and national PD organizations. Serving all three aims, the Core will maintain the Center’s website. The Core’s activities will benefit greatly from existing University attributes and resources, such as the University’s traditional focus on basal ganglia research, with multiple ‘systems’ oriented researchers on campus, the presence of very active undergraduate and graduate training programs in Neuroscience and related fields, a robust slate of academic services for postdoctoral fellows, and the presence of one of the largest movement disorder programs in the US. The Core’s three aims will also be strongly supported by internal financial contributions, generously contributed by several stakeholders at Emory University, in recognition of the importance of the Center’s contributions.