SUMMARY/ABSTRACT - INVESTIGATOR DEVELOPMENT CORE The RCMI-Center for Collaborative Research in Health Disparities (RCMI-CCRHD) at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus proposes an Investigator Development Core (IDC) for its budgetary cycle 2017- 2022. The RCMI-CCRHD will coordinate a pilot-project program (PPP) to nurture the growth of promising junior faculty within the UPR-MSC by soliciting and reviewing grants, and awarding funds to innovative proposals that will lead to competitive independent funding. The overall goals of the IDC are three-fold: 1) to mentor early career investigators as they transition to independent funding; 2) to fund innovative basic, behavioral and/or clinical pilot projects focusing on health disparities and/or minority health; 3) to match RCMI faculty with outside collaborators/mentors in order to strengthen collaborative networks. At the end of the proposed cycle, it is expected that 6-8 Early Stage Investigators (ESI), working on basic biomedical, behavioral and/or health services/clinical research, will have been funded, mentored, and well on their way to independent funding relevant to minority health and health disparities. We plan to accomplish this goal through the following Specific Aims: Grantees will receive a two-year grant of $40-50,000 per year in order to sustain studies for a sufficient period of time to compete successfully for outside funding. Mentoring activities will include bimonthly meetings to review progress, developing personalized short- and long-term career development plans, rehearsal of scientific presentations, discussion of topics relevant to successful transition to running their own labs; and CSR- style mock study-sections. Tracking and evaluation mechanisms will be established to measure scientific progress and ensure that the goals of the program are met, including increasing the number of publications, generating preliminary data, and increasing grant applications and awards (including R-type and K awards). Outcome metrics will be used to refine or refocus the solicitation, review, selection, and funding of applications made to the PPP. Staff from the Administrative Core will support and monitor full compliance with local and federal regulatory requirements. The IDC will be directed by Dr. Gregory J. Quirk, a retired senior neuroscientist at UPR-RCM, and Dr. Luis Montaner, a senior scientist and Vice President for Scientific Operations at The Wistar Institute in PA. Both directors have extensive mentoring experience, which has been documented in recent publications. The directors will be assisted by the scientific mentors to include added scientific expertise as determined by mentee needs inclusive of representation of the basic, behavioral and health services/clinical areas. The IDC will coordinate closely with other NIH-supported programs at the UPR-MSC to share mentoring activities and resources and avoid support overlap.