Administrative Core

This application proposes to continue a successful collaborative partnership between North Carolina Central University (NCCU) and the UNC Alcohol Research Center (UNC ARC) in response to RFA-AA-21-015. NCCU, founded in 1910, is a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) that has partnered with the UNC ARC since 2010; this partnership

contributed to the enrollment of NCCU’s first PhD students in 2012 and to several of the current 10 PhD graduates. NCCU is a comprehensive institution offering bachelor’s degrees and graduate degrees, with 80% of NCCU students being underrepresented minorities (African American or Hispanic). NCCU is located near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and

the UNC NIAAA Alcohol Research Center, which has been funded since 1997. The previous UNC-NCCU partnership involved 10 NCCU biomedical faculty in alcohol research (about 30% of NCCU faculty laboratories), with up to 15 students each year contributing to 37 publications and three funded NIAAA R grant applications. None of this occurred prior to this partnership.

This U54 Administrative Core proposes to continue to build and promote alcohol research expertise and to develop research infrastructure and capacity, particularly for health disparities- associated pathology. Further, the Administrative Core will develop and administer collaborative education-training of URM NCCU students in UNC ARC labs and other UNC training activities.

This will be accomplished through 5 aims: Aim 1: Provide scientific and administrative leadership; Aim 2: Monitor and enhance collaborative partnerships; Aim 3: Mentor leadership among faculty; Aim 4: Support the Scientific Mentoring and Research Experiences Core; and Aim 5: Recruit NCCU laboratories to alcohol research. Through structured mentoring and

experimentation, this proposal will create successful alcohol research programs, leading to both discoveries and the education of large numbers of URM students on health disparities associated with alcohol use disorders.