DEVELOPMENT CORE PROJECT SUMMARY The Development Core represents an important component of the University of Colorado’s Population Center (CUPC) proposal in response to RFA-HD-20-015 for the Population Dynamics Research Infrastructure Program FY 2020 (P2C). CUPC requests renewal of infrastructure support for the five-year project period 2020–2025. Fueled by NICHD funds, the Center is firmly established as the hub of population science at CU and CUPC’s Development Core has been redesigned to build on CUPC’s strong momentum. In the next five years, the Development Core has three specific aims: (1) increase the scientific impact, innovation, and productivity of CUPC's population researchers; (2) increase CUPC affiliate's competitiveness for external funding in population science; and (3) continue and increase support for early investigators in population science. A variety of new and reconfigured activities are proposed to meet these aims. To enhance productivity and innovation, as well as to increase cohesiveness within primary research areas, in the past five years, thematic working groups have been established with faculty leads. These groups have had notable success in spurring new research collaborations and in the next grant cycle, resources are requested to support innovative activities within the working groups. Also, to increase external funding competitiveness, CUPC will develop a grant writing workshop to build on the already-impressive success of the Center’s energetic, early stage investigators. Finally, substantial new investment from CU Boulder provides resources to raise the funding on seed grants and increase the pool of available funds. Throughout, the CUPC director and Development Core director collaborate to ensure that early stage investigators are centrally considered within investments with a target of this group receiving at least 50% of seed grants in the next five years. Faculty accomplishments have been recognized at the university scale as evidenced by generous, new support from across the Boulder campus. A formalized Memorandum of Understanding with CU Denver expands the Center with new funding, space and collaborative commitment. These combine to lay a foundation for CUPC’s continued growth in productivity, innovation and impact and the Development Core has been redesigned to support the Center in this growth.