CTSA K12 Program at the Medical University of South Carolina - This application requests support for the K12 Mentored Career Development Program (formerly KL2), an integral part of the NCATS-supported South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Institute (SCTR) at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Established in 2009, the overall objective of the K12 program is to deliver high-quality mentoring and training to promising emerging scholars to support their progression to independent translational science careers and to facilitate translation of observations in the laboratory, clinic, and community into interventions that improve the health of individuals and the public. There are 5 scholar positions in the program (3 funded by this award and 2 funded by institutional funds). Each scholar is appointed to the program for two years. If scholars are making satisfactory progress but have not yet obtained independent funding, they may be considered for a third year of programmatic support. Scholars will be junior faculty members who are recruited from internal and external pools. In the previous funding periods, scholars have had significant success with 86% of program graduates obtaining independent extramural funding. This application requests support to build on our programmatic strengths and transition our focus to training in translational science as well as in translational research. The specific objectives of the MUSC K12 Program are to: 1) provide innovative personalized training in translational science and research methods through mentoring, coursework, and programmatic support to prepare our scholars for sustained and productive careers as independent investigators; 2) prepare our scholars to be biomedical research leaders through immersion in MUSC’s rich interdisciplinary team science environment that features training across the translational spectrum and is focused on improving efficiency of scientific translation; and 3) ensure that a pool of highly trained scientists from a range of disciplines receives the appropriate training to address our state’s and nation’s critical health care needs and to improve health.
