Abstract The Eastern DDRCC Alliance (including (Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, John’s Hopkins University, The Massachusetts General Hospital, The Medical University of South Carolina, The University of North Carolina, The University of Pennsylvania, The University of Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University) is proposed to be created in an effort to improve the effectiveness of P30 centers through collaboration and interaction. All individual DDRCCs serve to encourage and foster interdisciplinary collaboration amongst established investigators in digestive disease and ancillary research programs within their own medical center. Given recent advances in communication methods, and a recognition that such approaches can be and are effective, we believe that now is the time to create an alliance of centers in regional proximity of one another. In aggregate, creation of the Eastern Alliance will contribute substantially to the overall DDRCC program by promoting enhanced collaboration among DDRCCs and extending their impact beyond their current capabilites. The specific aims of the proposal include to (1) begin an Alliance wide sharing of enrichment programs, and (2) develop a junior investigator exchange program. It is expected that these particular specific aims will provide an essential launch point to future greater collaborative opportunities within the Alliance.