CTSA K12 Program State University of New York at Buffalo - The University at Buffalo (UB) CTSA Mentored Research Career Development Program will provide research training and professional development to a new diverse cadre of translational researchers to address health inequalities that disproportionally impact the populations of Buffalo, Western New York and beyond. The current KL2 scholar program has been very successful in expanding the clinical and translational science workforce. The proposed K12 Program will build on these accomplishments and employ innovative organizational, pedagogic and research strategies to successfully achieve the K12 Program’s Specific Aims: (1) to change the face of translational science by recruiting a competitive and diverse cohort of early career scholars from a wide range of backgrounds and scientific and clinical disciplines; (2) to ensure career success of this diverse cadre of scholars by offering comprehensive, tailored and efficient didactic training, supportive evidence-base mentoring and experiential learning opportunities; and (3) to translate their research findings into efficient, high-quality healthcare. The innovations of the UB K12 Program include (i) increasing the pool of translational research scholars by selectively recruiting both trainees and mentors from highly qualified candidates in all UB health sciences schools including Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Nursing, Dental Medicine, Social Work, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Public Health and Health Professions, as well as a very engaged UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the newly funded UB Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science; (ii) attracting a more diverse trainee pool by aligning CTSI K12 scholar recruitment with the UB-wide diversity, equity and inclusion recruitment pipeline for junior faculty and postdocs supported by competitive compensation packages approved by UB leadership; (iii) using innovative tailored interactive and hybrid teaching strategies, to shorten the time scholars spend on didactic training and in turn, increase opportunities for mentored research and experiential learning; (iv) facilitating process innovation, systems thinking, dissemination and technology transfer by encouraging scholars to develop a long-term dissemination and sustainability plan for their research program including evaluation of commercial potential, understanding of regulatory requirements and financial implications; (v) pairing each trainee with a mentoring team that includes externally funded investigators from several domains of the translational science spectrum as well as a community advisor, a clinician expert and a data science coach to maximize potential for multidisciplinary teamwork and boundary crossing, and a near-peer junior mentor, and (vi) developing reciprocal mentor and scholar exchange programs with other CTSI hubs, and engaging more junior faculty on cross-disciplinary mentoring teams to increase the pool of qualified mentors with matching expertise. Together with established community and industry partners, these constitute a broadly engaged team-based environment that is ideally poised to advance biomedical and translational research and promote health equity.
