The Administration Core of the MCDTR provides leadership, infrastructure, and resources to carry out the following specific aims:
• Raise awareness of, and interest in, research along the spectrum of diabetes T2-T4 translational research with a particular emphasis on novel approaches to improve health equity and create an environment that supports such research.
• Support new and established investigators, particularly those from underrepresented/diverse backgrounds, in developing, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based approaches to improving care and health equity in communities, health care organizations, and populations disproportionately affected by diabetes.
• Administer Cores that provide MCDTR members with services critical to T2-T4 translational research in diabetes, including addressing social and behavioral determinants of health, leveraging multiple strategies of providing self-management support, and rigorously designing, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based interventions and strategies.
• Provide enrichment programming that fosters interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaborations to develop and support early stage and other researchers through education and training.
• Administer a Pilot and Feasibility Study Grants Program to attract new researchers, especially those from underrepresented/diverse backgrounds, to diabetes translational research that improves health equity and enable awardees to generate sufficient bodies of preliminary data to successfully apply for research funding from NIH and other national granting agencies. (Administration Core)
• Administer a cross-sectoral collaborations initiative that engages and pairs local and state partners with researchers aiming to improve access, equity, and health outcomes for people with and at risk for diabetes.
• Maintain the Center’s website.
The Administration Core is responsible for identifying and supporting researchers engaged in T2-T4 Diabetes translational research: for developing and implementing Cores to provide services to funded diabetes translational researchers locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally; for overseeing the allocation of Center resources; for providing an Enrichment Program; for implementing a process for solicitation, review, selection, monitoring, and follow-up of the Center’s Pilot and Feasibility Study Grants; for administering a cross-sectoral collaborations initiative, and for developing and maintaining a website that integrates seamlessly with the Caswell Diabetes Institute and the NIDDK Diabetes Centers websites.