CTSA K12 Program at University of California San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The overall goal of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) K12 program is to provide a diverse, supportive, and inclusive training environment that fosters new changemakers in clinical and translational science (CTS). Graduates have been highly successful in sustaining academic research careers and many now serve as mentors for the next generation of scientists, including in our program. The K12 is tightly integrated with the UCSD Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) CTSA hub, as our K12 MPIs also directing UM1 Workforce Development and Population Sciences and Community Engagement Units. The next phase of the K12 will pursue the following goals based on identified unmet needs: Goal 1: To icrease community input in our program. Leveraging ACTRI’s community engagement resources, we will include community members in our K12 External Advisory Committee, pair each K12 scholar with a community mentor, and deliver longitudinal training in community engagement in collaboration with the ACTRI’s Population Sciences and Community Engagement Unit. Goal 2: To expand diversity of K12 program by building CTS training capacity of the ACTRI’s partners. Over 2500 scholars are eligible for the K12 program across UCSD and the ACTRI partners. Over the past five years, our K12 diversity has increased, as a result of several new workforce development programs to support scholars from under-represented backgrounds that are coordinated with our K program. We will next apply an implementation science approach to build sustainable grant writing and mentor training programs at ACTRI partner institutions to expand the pool of K12 applicants and to provide equitable access to training in our region. Goal 3: To enhance our curriculum to build translational scientist as a discipline. Our CTS training portfolio was founded on NCATS Core Competencies and includes new curricula that train scholars in the characteristics of a translational scientist. We will next introduce new courses that address later phases of translation including emerging clinical trial methods and dissemination and implementation science. These didactics will be integrated with new workshops and experiential learning programs in leadership, commercialization, research ethics, and team science. Goal 4: To rigorously evaluate the impact of K12 mentors, scholars, and program processes. With the ACTRI Evaluation Unit, we have built a robust assessment platform, and we have disseminated program tools and approaches to the CTSA network. In our next phase, we will broaden our evaluation scope beyond standard metrics (e.g., publications, funding, career advancement) to measure translational impact of didactics, mentoring, and scholar outcomes by applying the Translational Science Benefit Model. By achieving our goals and disseminating results, we will catalyze our K12 program’s impact at local, regional, and national levels.
