Project Summary / Abstract – Administrative Core The Administrative Core will serve as the executive, coordinating and oversight component of the Cincinnati Rheumatic Diseases Resource Center (CRDRC). The Admin Core will provide executive, administrative (including fiscal), and personnel services to the CRDRC, as well as scientific oversight of the resource cores. This includes coordination of resources within the Research Cores to enhance ongoing studies and promote new projects. The Administrative Core will monitor progress and evaluate all aspects of the CRDRC’s operations, including appropriate expenditures by the Resource Cores and Enrichment Program. The Administrative Core will prepare required progress reports and regulatory documentation. Leah Kottyan, Ph.D., is the proposed Director of the CRDRC, and Alexi Grom, M.D. is proposed as Associate Director. Dr. Grom will function as Medical Director of the CRDRC by providing the liaison to the rheumatology clinic and the fellowship training program. The CRDCC’s chief executive and administrative body will be a four-member Executive Committee, which consists of the Director, Associate Director, and leaders of each Research Core. An Advisory Committee will provide advice to the Director and Executive Committee and will include local and external leaders with expertise to provide meaningful guidance to CRDRC leadership and Research Core directors. Members will include individuals experienced in core and center administration who are independent of the CRDRC, but who are part of, and familiar with, the academic setting within which the CRDRC resides or offer experiences of other comparable academic centers. Members will include individuals who complement the expertise of and utilize the Research Cores, and local leaders of programs that synergistically interact with the CRDRC. An Enrichment Program will be offered that includes research seminars, education relevant to technologies of the resource cores, and strategic planning of research goals. A novel and innovative P&F Program is proposed and will be managed by the Administrative Core to extend impact of Center resources to a larger number of investigators. This program will focus on advancing utilization of CRDRC cores or institutional cores to provide access to key technologies that might otherwise be cost-prohibitive. Projects will be solicited from the research community and the larger academic health center. A P&F Study Committee will assist in the selection of new P&F Studies and monitor progress of ongoing P&F Studies. This program will provide a valuable mechanism for advancing new investigators and new projects in the field of pediatric rheumatology. A Visiting Scholars program will fund travel grants to bring trainees and faculty underrepresented in medical research to Cincinnati to learn from our Resource Cores. These grants are intended to provide opportunity and training while expanding the diversity of future research trainees, ph...