# Investigator Development Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · FLORIDA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL UNIV · 2024 · $304,683

## Abstract

IDC Summary:
The major goal of the Investigator Development Core (IDC) is (1) to provide significant research support
to minority early career investigators and junior faculty with innovative pilot projects and (2) to offer the
recipients a mentoring program that will improve their ability to achieve their long-term success as
independent Investigators who obtain extramural funding (mentored K award and R series funding). The
IDC will fund Pilot Projects to support senior research associates or junior faculty with grant support
ranging from $30,000 to 50,000 annually for two years. Grantees will be able to use core facilities at no
cost. The IDC will provide the awardees with resources, mentors, and other strategic components to
ensure success in reaching their research career goals. The specific aims of this project are to (1)
Provide a structured procedure for the selection of the pilot project awardees. 2) Provide awardees
with grant support with a robust mentoring program for the development of successful
researchers. 3) Provide a monitoring process to evaluate the IDC Investigators' Progress. The IDC
committee (IDC, CEC, and other Core leaders) and RCMI Executive Committee will review the pilot project
applications. Criteria for evaluating the pilot projects include scientific novelty, technical merit,
significance/relevance to health disparities, experience and qualifications of the applicant, and record of
accomplishments. Initial local evaluations of each project will be followed by NIH-style evaluations and
scoring of the proposed work by three external evaluators (R01 scientists or equivalent levels) with similar
research interests to the proposed project. Awardees will present their outcomes in progress quarterly
with oral presentations to the committee and mentors of each awardee to obtain inputs on the scientific
ideas and directions of the projects. The progress of the pilot projects will be reviewed and evaluated
quarterly by the IDC committee. The pilot project awardees will closely interact with the Research
Capacity Core and Community Engagement Core and attend monthly seminars/workshops with renowned
external speakers. An investigator must make significant progress by the end of the first year to ensure
funding for the second year is awarded. The committee will actively work with each awardee and mentor
to prepare competitive NIH grant applications. The awardee is expected to publish at least two research
articles in high-impact journals at the end of the two years of funding. By the end of the award's second
year, awardees must submit research grants to federal agencies, such as mentored K award and R series
proposals, using the preliminary data obtained from pilot project awards. Implementing the outlined plan
is expected to result in successful minority scientists, well-trained in health disparities, with the knowledge
and credentials to obtain mainstream external funding.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11001303
- **Project number:** 2U54MD007582-39
- **Recipient organization:** FLORIDA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL UNIV
- **Principal Investigator:** Eunsook Yu Lee
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $304,683
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 1997-08-01 → 2029-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11001303

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11001303, Investigator Development Core (2U54MD007582-39). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11001303. Licensed CC0.

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