Creating Opportunities for Unparalleled Researchers to Achieve Growth and Excellence (COURAGE) - Obesity, nutrition, and diabetes are major areas of need for biomedical research in the United States as the prevalence of obesity and associated comorbidities – including cardiovascular disease and cancer – remains high. Early career researchers in these areas face multiple challenges in establishing their careers, including lack of peer mentoring and adequate guidance from senior faculty. We propose a comprehensive longitudinal career advancement program, Creating Opportunities for Unparalleled Researchers to Achieve Growth and Excellence (COURAGE), to provide skill-building, leadership development, hands-on mentored experience in manuscript writing and grant preparation, and multi-level mentoring to support researchers in obesity, nutrition, and diabetes. Two cohorts of COURAGE Scholars will be recruited to participate in a 3+ year program. The first two years will consist of group and individualized curricula, mentored research and writing experiences, execution of the pilot project, and multi-level mentoring. Year 3 onward will consist of ongoing mentoring from faculty and program leadership, continued engagement with COURAGE peers, and access to program resources. The MPIs leading COURAGE are accomplished researchers who bring complementary expertise in implementing programs to advance early-career researchers. Dr. Morone led a successful career development program at the University of Pittsburg and is now MPI of an NIH U01 testing this year-long intervention at sites around the country. Her expertise in implementing skill-building curricula makes her ideally suited to lead Aim 1, to provide a longitudinal program of skill-building to promote success in obesity, nutrition, and diabetes research. Dr. Stanley has extensive experience mentoring fellows and junior faculty, and she leads the successful pilot and feasibility program for the Boston Area Nutrition Obesity Research Center. She is thus ideally suited to lead Aim 2, to mentor COURAGE Scholars in the successful completion of pilot projects and application for an NIH grant. Dr. Stanford is an accomplished national leader within academic medicine; she is ideally suited to lead Aim 3, to prepare Scholars for academic leadership. Scholars will build a mentorship network that includes their peers, the MPIs, other COURAGE faculty/Co-Is, and COURAGE faculty mentors. Scholars will complete the program with key deliverables including at least one submitted manuscript, a completed pilot project, and a submitted grant application. At the completion of COURAGE, Scholars will have enhanced academic and leadership skills, mentored research and writing experience with completed manuscript(s) and grant submissions, and a robust mentoring network that will continue supporting them as they move forward in their careers.
