Project Summary/Abstract: Core 1, Administrative The Administrative Core will facilitate team cohesion and provide support for all the research projects and resource cores in this multi-component U19 program. In particular, the core’s administrator will support the team director and the Internal Advisory Committee as they supervise budgets and scientific activities. The first aim of this core will be to manage research teams to foster synergy across projects and laboratories. That goal will not be very challenging because the investigators in this proposal have worked together as a U19 team for four years and have a strong history of collaboration over the past eight years. Coordination of the research projects and other resource cores is the highest priority of the Administrative Core, and the team director takes it as part of his mission to make sure that all investigators and students of each project are well informed of the activities in other projects and of relevant new findings in the field. An Annual Meeting will include the project leaders, students, and postdocs, along with an External Advisory Board. This core’s second aim is to organize the planning and evaluation of research projects, including fiscal oversight. By supporting planning, coordination, and regulatory compliance, the Administrative Core will allow PIs, postdocs, and students to focus on their research without spending excessive amounts of time puzzling out paperwork. Overseeing the finances of a large collaboration involves a substantial management and reporting effort, which the administrator will help to alleviate by producing monthly, quarterly, and annual budget reports for the team director to review. Another task that involves significant administrative work is personnel recruitment and management. The administrator will help to schedule interviews for job candidates, meet reporting requirements, book travel, and acquire major supplies and equipment, as well as strengthen ongoing outreach activities to ensure an even more diverse applicant pool. The third aim will be to support outreach to other research groups and to the public, including disseminating the methods, tools, and results of this research. The collaboration has its own website, which the administrator will update, highlighting the team, projects, publications, and alumni. The administrator will also design and implement outreach activities, such as public lectures and workshops, that translate how scientific findings on decision-making and working memory relate to daily life. By managing these resources and activities, the Administrative Core will help the team director to coordinate the five research projects and the four resource cores, allowing project leaders and other research personnel to concentrate on their strengths in research. This work will contribute substantially to enabling the U19 team to achieve its overall goal of determining the neural basis of working memory and decision-making.