PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORE – PROJECT SUMMARY Here, we propose the Professional Development Core, a component of a new U2C/TL1, requesting support to promote high quality, collaborative training in kidney, urology, and hematology research in the San Diego area. The Professional Development Core is designed to structured training in manuscript and grant writing, oral presentation, provides a mock study section for scholars, and provides training strategies to respond to. The Core also provides structured training in preparing for the next phase of career, including personnel management, negotiating conflict, time management, fostering an inclusive team, leadership training, and training in rigor and reproducibility. Diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) is woven into multiple aspects of training to facilitate continual contact, and in team science, which is also supported through many venues, including specifically requiring development of plans for collaborations and co-authorship in the development of each scholar’s Individual Development Plans (IDP) which will be revisited throughout their training and development, formal training in developing and fostering a productive team as they prepare for the next phase of their career, engagement in the “one-step-ahead” near peer mentorship program, and a new KUH Cross- Pollination Pilot Award program, directly funded by the U2C to engage faculty from different KUH areas to collaborate while engaging a TL1 scholar in the conduct of the project. The Core leverages the existing training programs available at UCSD – a national leader in the area of academic professional development, and is led by JoAnn Trejo, PhD, who has developed and leads a number of programs designed both for faculty and scholar professional development. The U2C/TL1 at large represents a collaboration across 3 outstanding research institutions in the San Diego area (UCSD, TSRI, and SDSU), and all scholars and faculty participating in the U2C/TL1 will have access to training in this core. The Professional Development Core will serve to deliver Aim 2 of the overall U2C/TL1, “to provide structured curricula designed to enhance scholar professional development, and training in mentorship for both faculty and scholars for investigators working in kidney, urology, and hematology research across the San Diego region.”