# Career Enhancement Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2024 · $664,761

## Abstract

ABSTRACT: CAREER ENHANCEMENT CORE
The Career Enhancement Core will focus on recruiting, training, and mentoring the careers of trainees,
including pre-doctoral fellows, post-doctoral fellows, and new and early-stage investigators, as independent
investigators focused on tobacco regulatory science (TRS) and the reduction of tobacco-related health
disparities. Consistent with the UNC TCORS theme, we will focus on skill acquisition key to building the
science for effective regulation of, and communication about, tobacco products disproportionately used by
priority populations, especially flavored tobacco products and e-cigarettes. The Core will facilitate
comprehensive mentored research and training experiences annually for 4-8 pre-doctoral fellows, 4 post-
doctoral fellows (one for each research project), and 2 new and early-stage investigators. Experiences will
include participating in research projects, grant writing, monthly trainings, meetings, seminars and
conferences. The Core will also fund 3-5 pilot research projects annually and facilitate experiential and
networking opportunities between our TCORS projects and investigators at other TCORS. Throughout the
Core, we will incorporate and evaluate evidence-based strategies to recruit and mentor trainees with
backgrounds under-represented in tobacco control; implement best practices for cultivating inclusive research
environments; and host Center-wide discussions of emerging issues in health equity research. Core co-leads
Drs. Goldstein and Golden have a combined 55 years of successfully mentoring students and early career
researchers. In the past ten years, Core leads and UNC TCORS faculty provided mentorship and trained 36
pre-doctoral students, 14 post-doctoral students and 12 new and early stage investigators who collectively first-
authored over 150 publications in high impact journals, and successfully transitioned to independent faculty or
assumed federal and other research positions.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10934545
- **Project number:** 5U54DA060049-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Shelley Golden
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $664,761
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-30 → 2028-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10934545

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10934545, Career Enhancement Core (5U54DA060049-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10934545. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*