Research Education Component
Key Functions
The Research Education Component (REC) contributes to the JHU Older Americans Independence Center’s (OAIC) overall goals as follows:
1. Development of future research leaders in frailty research. REC attracts, selects and provides to outstanding junior faculty the protected time and the career development, mentoring and didactic skills essential to their growth into independent investigators. These skills enable them to:
a. Understand and translate advances in basic science research on frailty and integrate them with clinical needs to provide unique insights and understandings of strategies to prevent or treat frailty to preserve independence of older Americans.
b. Develop, design, test and evaluate clinical research interventions to prevent and treat frailty associated with aging and its complications.
c. Develop abilities essential for academic career advancement, including written and oral communication, grant development, time management, explicit goal setting and collaboration.
d. Successfully bridge the critical period between fellowship and independent funding for investigator-initiated research and become independent investigators in frailty research and translation.
2. Infrastructure: Provides the environment, structure, intellectual input and guidance, and critical mass of investigators needed to ensure successful basic and clinical multidisciplinary research collaboration among the supported faculty so as to accelerate the development and translation of breakthroughs in the prevention and treatment of frailty. This includes the leadership of a clinical translation unit, in collaboration with other OAIC cores, which focuses on investigator training and mentorship in clinical research. This unit incorporates contributions from all cores in order to provide an effective, multidisciplinary resource to investigators.
3. Diversity: Continues to achieve full and equitable representation and inclusion of women and minorities among OAIC REC faculty.
4. Leadership: Works with the Leadership/Administrative Core to establish scientific goals and coordinate activities with other cores and core leaders to evaluate the program and to appropriately revise the goals and processes, as needed, to optimize the careers of academic junior faculty in the field of frailty research.
5. Productivity: Establishes and monitors productivity and accountability benchmarks and supports REC faculty in achieving them.
6. Monitoring: Provides coordination, oversight, and reporting of all REC-supported activities.