CTSA K12 Program at UNC

Univ Of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

There is an urgent need to develop a new type of scientist, one who is motivated by a need to bring scientific advances to clinics and communities in a timely fashion, and to make a long-term impact by contributing to health policies. This scientist is fluent in the language of team science and collaboration and recognizes the principles that contribute to scientific translation across disciplines. This scientist brings a broad mindset to how they include team members and lead their research teams as well as the methods they use in their research. These characteristics describe a translational scientist. Transforming translational researchers, historically trained in discipline- and disease-specific approaches, into translational scientists requires a departure from traditional career development programs. To address this need, the proposed new CTSA K12 program, the Gene Orringer Advancing Translational Science Career Development Award at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), will support nine early-career Scholars with at least 75% protected time for research and career development activities for up to 3 years. The objectives of the CTSA K12 are to: 1) Recruit a cohort of Scholars that reflects the spectrum of translational science and the different schools and departments on the UNC Campus. These Scholars will be dedicated to accelerating the implementation of biomedical advances through team-based translational science and will model these principles for other scientists; 2) Provide the necessary infrastructure and protected time for Scholars to conduct research and obtain training through mentored, didactic, and experiential learning in a format adapted to their specific needs; 3) Demonstrate how to incorporate methods of translational science into the Scholar’s research projects; 4) Empower Scholars with the necessary leadership, management, well-being, and resilience skills needed to lead research programs through didactic and experiential trainings, career coaching and career development experiences; 5) Prepare Scholars to identify and address differential health outcomes in populations through focused trainings and applied experiences in systems science, dissemination and implementation science, and community/stakeholder engagement; 6) Optimize mentor-Scholar relationships by requiring mentor and mentee training based on evidence-informed mentoring practices and active monitoring and assessment of mentoring relationships; 7) Develop Scholars into effective mentors through didactic training and mentor skills development; 8) Integrate Scholars into programs and services of the UNC UM1 and current and future companion grants and the CTSA Consortium. Our approach is to foster Scholars in embracing a translational science mindset using a “cohort training model” that we have leveraged successfully at UNC, immersing Scholars in the frameworks, methods and operational principles used by their peers in other disciplines while creating a support system that encourages retention in science. CTSA K12 Scholars will mature into productive and independent translational scientists that will accelerate research findings into health and societal benefits.