CLEVELAND DDRCC ENRICHMENT PROGRAM PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Cleveland DDRCC Enrichment has three major goals: 1) to foster membership development, 2) to grow the Research Base by attracting new investigators and established investigators without a focus in digestive diseases to the DDRCC, and 3) to disseminate knowledge gained from the presence of the Center. To continue to achieve these goals during the next funding cycle, the Enrichment Program proposes the following Specific Aims: (1) Continue to organize the DDRCC Seminar Series, which fosters an environment ripe for collaboration opportunities between Center members through Research-in-Progress talks and a Distinguished Visiting Professor lecture series. Research-in Progress talks enhance awareness among the membership of the breadth and depth of digestive disease-related research currently being conducted by the Research Base. During the previous funding cycle, the Distinguished Visiting Professors lecture series invited 23 visiting professors, all of whom were nationally and internationally renowned in the fields of Digestive Inflammation/ Tumorigenesis or Liver Disease/Metabolism. (2) Continue to organize the Strategic Planning and Operational Retreat, to obtain critical feedback from the membership at large. The retreat is open to all DDRCC members to discuss programmatic, operational, and research issues related to the Center, and is an essential component of the Center’s process for understanding the evolving needs of our members and adapting accordingly, as well as identifying synergistic areas of research that can be targeted for future collaboration. Provisional Center members are encouraged to attend. (3) Continue to organize the biannual Cleveland IDEAS Symposium to foster membership development, attract investigators, and disseminate scientific knowledge in digestive diseases research. This program, held in September 2016 and 2018, has been extremely successful and achieved national recognition. It includes a Basic Science workshop focused on the scientific themes of the Cleveland DDRCC and a clinical course. (4) Continue to support the professional development of junior investigators. A major focus of the Cleveland DDRCC is development of junior investigators in digestive diseases research. During the previous funding period, the Young Investigators Symposium was held during Cleveland IDEAS and was moderated by the Cleveland DDRCC Young Investigators Network, which was established in 2017 by two former P and F awardees. This Network and meets quarterly to promote mentorship and career development opportunities through dinners with guest speakers, and provides critical feedback for scientific papers and grant applications, and a “Mock Study Section”. The Center also hosted the Midwest DDRCC Alliance Research Symposium. (5) Continue to promote and develop Center communication. The DDRCC Enrichment Program also coordinates communication among DDRCC members at both CWRU and the ...