# Institutional Career Development Core

> **NIH NIH KL2** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · 2022 · $1,130,598

## Abstract

Contact PD/PI: Bernard, Gordon R Inst-Career-Dev-001 (640)
Vanderbilt-Meharry Edge for Scholars Career Development Core (KL2)
ABSTRACT
The goal of the Vanderbilt-Meharry Edge for Scholars Career Development Core is to inspire careers
dedicated to interdisciplinary translational science and to produce leaders in the field who are optimally
prepared to guide and participate in ground-breaking transdisciplinary teams. We have a record of excellence
preparing early career scholars. Overall 93% remain in academics, 96% in research, and 81% are federally
funded as PIs; 55% are site PIs or co-investigators with 50% or more of effort for research. Their careers are
thriving. Current and prior awardees represent more than 20 disciplines and many clinical backgrounds
including anesthesiology, chemistry, emergency medicine, hearing and speech, medicine, nursing, pediatrics,
and thoracic surgery, with nearly even numbers of clinically trained and PhD-prepared scientists. We serve ten
trainees (5 grant; 5 internally funded), and request an increase to 12. Program elements are purposefully
designed for connecting, enlarging, and sustaining our community of translational scientists. Edge Scholars are
grounded in the fundamentals of translational research, prepared to lead independent research programs,
trained to effectively deploy innovative interdisciplinary approaches to attack and solve problems, and are
committed to pursuing research that taps into the power of teams for driving breakthroughs. Scholars are
selected by competitive review of applications from a demographically diverse pool of early career faculty.
Training is individually tailored to the investigator in the context of structured interdisciplinary mentorship and is
overseen by the PI (Hartmann) and Co-Director (Bastarache). The environment is further enriched by myriad
institutional resources that ensure our researchers flourish. In this proposal we add a science communications
initiative and extend Pathways to all Scholars. Pathways combine didactic, intensive, and experiential learning
to consolidate competencies in eight areas: Biostatistics & Epidemiology, Data Sciences, Clinical Context (for
non-clinical scholars), Learning Healthcare System, Measurement Methods, Sex & Gender Biology,
Technology Transfer & Innovation, and Race, Ethnicity, Disadvantage & Health. Scholars form a mentor panel,
participate in frequent work-in-progress groups and activities, receive formal evaluation each year, attend
twice-monthly career development seminars with other K scholars, and are regularly exposed to case studies
on responsible conduct of research, and rigor and reproducibility. Scholars access: 1) an array of cores; 2)
biostatistics consultations; 3) manuscript groups; 4) technical editing; 5) studios with experts to vet scientific
ideas, research designs, and aims; 6) robust intramural pilot and feasibility funding; and 7) grant writing
resources including grant workshops, a library of funded gran...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10523604
- **Project number:** 2KL2TR002245-06
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** KATHERINE E HARTMANN
- **Activity code:** KL2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $1,130,598
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2017-06-01 → 2027-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10523604

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10523604, Institutional Career Development Core (2KL2TR002245-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10523604. Licensed CC0.

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