Administrative and Mentoring Core

Project Summary for the Administrative and Mentoring Core Led by the Center Director and assisted by the Program Coordinator, the Administrative and Mentoring Core will serve as the central communication and coordination hub for the Phase III COBRE. Apart from keeping the Center's administrative and fiscal house in order and ensuring compliance with NIH policies, as well as local,

state and federal regulations, the Administrative and Mentoring Core will be responsible for developing a strategic vision and implementing an overall plan that achieves long-term sustainability of the Center and its cores, high-quality mentoring and research training, and well-coordinated and strongly integrated efforts to

foster collaborations and partnerships and promote data and resource sharing with other COBRE and IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) centers and the newly launched Institutional Development Award Program Infrastructure for Clinical and Translational Research (IDeA-CTR) consortia.

Thus, the objective of the Phase III COBRE for emerging infectious diseases – to enhance the conditions that accelerate the pace of scientific discovery, heighten research productivity and optimize competitiveness for extramural funding – will be achieved by (1) enhancing the growth and sustainability of the COBRE core

resources; and (2) developing a collaborative COBRE Small Grants Program. For Aim 1, the Core will coordinate the activities and monitor the sustainability plans of the technical cores in biocontainment, bioinformatics and molecular and cellular immunology, which aim to provide the triad of customized service,

research and development, and education and training. Marketing efforts will be expanded and new revenue streams, including international collaborative research, will be explored. For Aim 2, the Core will facilitate the activities associated with a collaborative Small Grants Program that will provide personalized mentoring and

modest funding to UH faculty to maximize their research productivity and grants success. Collaborations with faculty from other COBRE, INBRE and IDeA-CTR programs will be result in a more robust and diversified research portfolio that will expand the core user base. Effective communications and focused evaluations will guide the Center leadership to achieve the strategic

objective of the Phase III COBRE. And these coordinated efforts will strengthen and sustain the translational science center of excellence for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of emerging infectious diseases of regional relevance and global importance.