# Investigator Development Core

> **NIH NIH P50** · CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF LOS ANGELES · 2021 · $911,254

## Abstract

The Investigator Development Core (IDC) of the Southern California Center for Chronic Health Disparities
in Latino Families and Children (SCC-CHDLFC) will play a central role in developing new rigorous, translational,
and community-engaged science, and supporting the growth and impact of the Center. The IDC will support new
research that addresses the disparities in co-occurring chronic diseases affecting Latinos in Southern California,
including obesity, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and dyslipidemia, and that is led by
investigators who are early-career, new to the field, or from underrepresented populations. We will promote and
prioritize support for projects incorporating transdisciplinary and community-engaged team science. Two funding
mechanisms will support this effort across the region: 1) Pilot grants, awarded competitively to seven projects
each year ($50,000/project); and 2) Vouchers to supplement existing projects from early-stage investigators via
support from Center or other Institutional Research Cores ($50,000/year for vouchers up to $10,000 each). In
addition, the Core will create a mentoring network, that will match pilot study investigators with more established
investigators based on an initial pool of 41 multi-disciplinary researchers who are focused on disparity research
across Southern California. The IDC leadership builds on a long-term collaboration between the co-Directors
(Drs. de la Haye and Spruijt-Metz at USC), expertise in leadership of similar career development cores (Dr. Elder
at SDSU), and experience overseeing research development at the Southern California Clinical and
Translational Science Institute (Dr. de la Haye). Specific Aim 1 will build and support a pool of diverse research
teams to be successful in submitting and obtaining pilot project funding. We will support transdisciplinary team
science from the initial stages of project development through project launch and evaluation. We will leverage
the Center’s cores and other institutional resources to engage diverse researchers, requesting pre-submission
Letters of Intent (LOIs) for initial project review. Selected LOIs will be linked to mentors and with pre-award
support to increase their potential for success, adoption of transdisciplinary team science principles as well as
expertise from the center’s Methods and Data Sub-Core. A multi-disciplinary, community-engaged review
process will ensure funding of innovative and translational science. Specific Aim 2 will support pilot-funded teams
to achieve their research goals by providing multidisciplinary mentoring, networking, and training. Research
success and impact will be supported via regular meetings with matched mentors, training and support on project
launch and management, team science, research translation and community engagement, a seminar series,
and an Annual Research Showcase featuring pilot project updates. Specific Aim 3 will evaluate pilot project
outcomes and IDC activ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10437270
- **Project number:** 1P50MD017344-01
- **Recipient organization:** CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Donna D Spruijt-Metz
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $911,254
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-24 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10437270

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10437270, Investigator Development Core (1P50MD017344-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10437270. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*