The Administrative Component will assure the effectiveness of the DRC in meeting the center’s stated goals and specific aims. This component includes the Administrative Core, the Pilot & Feasibility Grant Program, and the Enrichment & Training Program. The DRC will be directed by W. Timothy Garvey MD, assisted by associate directors Drs. Barbara Gower, Anath Shalev, and Andrea Cherrington. The Director and Associate Directors will be joined by other key DRC faculty in comprising the DRC Executive Committee, Drs. Stuart Frank and Kirk Habeggar. The ultimate goal of the Administrative Core is to assure the growing vitality of an intellectual community and a highly productive research program in diabetes, by effective deployment of DRC resources, for the benefit of our members, trainees, patients, and community. Operationally, the Core will assure productivity and effectiveness of DRC activities including the biomedical and translational research core facilities (Animal Physiology, Human Physiology, Interventions & Translational), a pilot & feasibility grant program that promotes research progress of promising investigators and innovative lines of investigation, and an enrichment program that advances the DRC as an intellectual community, promotes interactions and discussions regarding new discoveries and concepts, provides a forum for the formation of multidisciplinary collaborations, and establishes a dynamic educational environment for training and career development. The Administrative Core will be responsible for the managing membership, the network of DRC communications and website, bookkeeping, progress reports, quality control and evaluation, interface with NIH/NIDDK, assurance of responsible fiscal management and regulatory compliance, and will obtain and implement recommendations of Internal and External Review Committees. Over the 14 years of UAB DRC existence, the Administrative Core has: · Overseen a progressive increase in members, publications, research grant dollars, recruitment of new faculty, and development of new research areas such as islet cell biology, sleep/circadian biology, and early life influences on cardiometabolic disease that have enhanced and broadened the scope of our diabetes research. · United areas of research excellence under the umbrella of diabetes and cardiometabolic disease and established a cohesive intellectual community. · Facilitated the evolution of the DRC by initiating new core services to meet investigator needs, an enrichment program that introduces new ideas and scientific discoveries, career development of mentored members, and development of new areas of research excellence. Thus, the DRC will continue to exert a pronounced impact on diabetes research excellence at UAB and we are confident that further evolution and growth will be achieved over the next 5 years.