The Administrative Core (AC) of the Kansas Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (KIDDRC) is central to the function of the center and its portfolio of projects. It provides well-regarded, proactive, visionary scientific and administrative leadership, an organizational infrastructure that facilitates research and core enterprises, and it maintains communications necessary to ensure a singular identity that helps sustain center-ness of the KIDDRC. It ensures that institutional resources necessary for programmatic advancement are available. It provides a means for the IDD research community to speak with a single voice with other facets of the University and with the community at large. In addition, the Administrative Core provides a means for proactive initiation and rapid reactions in response to opportunities and challenges. The key functions of the AC are to identify, develop, and promote interdisciplinary and translational research that is directly relevant to the KIDDRC’s mission. This includes promoting collaboration among investigators on problems related to intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), recruiting new investigators to IDD research, procuring resources and technologies necessary to advance existing research programs, and promoting collaborative ventures with researchers at other institutions. This is accomplished by the establishment, coordination, maintenance, and oversight of cost-effective, generative, state-of-the-art services, resources, and facilities that directly enhance the quality and impact of the science and scientific products generated by KIDDRC investigators and their collaborators. During its 50-year history, the KIDDRC has existed across three physical locations: the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies on the University of Kansas Lawrence campus, the RL Smith Center at the Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City, and the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project (also in Kansas City); this makes the role of the AC is especially important for coordination, communication, and integration of services and functions across multiple sites. The managerial side of the Core also seeks to free investigators from as many financial, administrative, and clerical tasks as possible, while assuring maximal efficiency in the deployment of Center resources. The crucial link between the programmatic and managerial sides of the AC is provided jointly by the Director and Co-Director working in a coordinated manner with the Administrative Manager as well as the Scientific Directors and Managers of the four scientific Cores.