PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT – ADMINISTRATIVE CORE A The RUSTBELT CFAR Administrative Core (Core A) integrates support for the combined $56 M/yr HIV/AIDS research portfolios at the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). The Core provides the leadership and organizational structures to coordinate, support, and enhance the efforts of the 305 members of the RUSTBELT CFAR. The Administrative Core will maintain a rigorous set of milestones for Core activities, thus responding to the evolving research needs of CFAR investigators. The Core is committed to equitably serve the HIV research communities in Cleveland and Pittsburgh by ensuring that core services and research programs are transparently and expertly jointly managed. Core A has developed mechanisms to ensure a smooth assimilation of the combined strengths with a focus on balance in the usage and innovation of the laboratory Cores across the two institutions to raise the quality and impact of its research. Core A will (1) provide joint leadership for the RUSTBELT CFAR; (2) coordinate a rigorous annual review and scientific planning process and implement the plan through enhancement of Core services, recruitment, and stimulating new research activities; (3) improve communications and visibility of the RUSTBELT CFAR through the use of an integrated website across the two institutions, a trans CWRU-Pitt community working group, who are represented on the CFAR Steering Committee, and the use of a shared tool for Core usage and charges; and (4) stimulate training activities throughout the CFAR through cross-institutional “catalytic awards” provided through institutional support and developmental awards supported through Core B. Core A will execute integration and planning of these activities by hosting an annual CFAR internal retreat, having quarterly meetings of the Steering Committee comprised of senior scientific leadership from both institutions, weekly calls and/or meetings of the Directors and Co-Directors, hosting a Core retreat to update CFAR members about Core service offerings and to establish best practices for Core management, budgeting meetings, mentoring workshops and mock study sections, and ensuring regular meetings of the strategic working groups and engagement of the External Advisory Board. Thus, the Core will ensure that the CFAR is responsive to emerging needs of the investigator community and maintains a transparent, fair, and cost-efficient process for utilization of resources and will contribute to the overall mission of the RUSTBELT CFAR by increasing the quality and value of the CFAR’s HIV research, expanding programs to end the HIV epidemic in the US, and training the next generation of researchers in the US and Uganda.