ADMINISTRATIVE CORE – PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT The overall goal of the Administrative Core (Admin) is to coordinate the development, high impact functioning, and sustainability of the COBRE for Restoration of Neural-Based Function at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) with standing as national and international leaders. In order for the COBRE to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the field of restoration of neural-based function (RNF), we oversee numerous individual component functions to ensure a cohesive program that aligns with the needs of our research user base while aligning COBRE initiatives to take optimal advantage of the strategic research and faculty development resources of the university. Our work is organized under these Specific Aims: 1) Leadership and Oversight: the Executive Committee (EC) provides balanced leadership, program integration, oversight and accountability for all COBRE programs, services, and interactions. The EC discusses and confirms all strategic decisions, issues approvals for all independent resource requests and prioritizes and approves the annual budget. Oversight of the Executive Committee is provided by the Advisory Council. 2) Operations and Fiscal Management: the PD/PI and the Admin staff are responsible for operations. 3) Strategic Planning and Sustainability: Admin provides scientific and programmatic leadership for success and sustainability via three sub-aims to: a) Lead strategic planning and implementation; b) Promote activities that increase and diversify the research funding portfolio; and c) Achieve financial independence for the center by optimizing tailored funding and reimbursement models. 4) Program Evaluation: The Evaluation Director is responsible for developing an integrated, long-term evaluation plan to ensure quality control of programs and continual improvement responsive to research community needs as well as document the impact of the COBRE. 5) Pilot Project Funding: Admin will continue to administer our successful Pilot Project Program to attract new and/or established investigators and enable them to generate preliminary data and access COBRE cores with goals of obtaining competitive extramural research grants and publishing peer-reviewed manuscripts in high quality journals. We will give priority to early-stage investigators, investigators new to RNF research, and diverse investigators.