CDI

Child Health Research Career Development Award (CHRCDA) Program (PAST)

Overview:

This is a comprehensive yet targeting two-year K12 training program for pediatrician physician scientists, focusing on training benched-based researchers to become successful researchers and eventual pediatric academic leaders. The training program has an outstanding track record over the last two decades. It is an innovative training program which combines nurturing, rigorous mentoring, and individual training plans with core research experience and career development. Scholars are surrounded with: 1) a scientific community of well-trained faculty mentors; 2) research, scientific, and career-development programs; 3) a comprehensive and innovative matrix mentoring program; and 4) core support from the department and institution. The goal is to train physician scientists to pursue major breakthroughs in improving child health. The overall objective of the UCLA CHRCDA K12 Program is to increase the number and impact of Pediatric physician-scientists engaged in bench research on child health programs. The objectives include:

  • Further enhance our Center of Excellence for mentoring future pediatric physician-scientist leaders.
  • Advertise, inform and engage the Pediatric and broader UCLA research communities regarding the CHRCDA and its training opportunities.
  • Continue to develop an optimal flexible and adaptable training environment to meet the needs of a diverse group of scholars with different degrees of research training.
  • Facilitate outstanding mentoring and speed transition to independent scholars.
  • Leverage institutional matching support, infrastructure, and technologies towards scholar success.
  • Synergize with other institutional training and mentoring programs, including those run by CTSI.
  • Create access for scholars to the latest research technologies and state-of-the-art facilities and services.
  • Foster collaborative research, promote leadership, and encourage entrepreneurship and development of intellectual property in our young scholar community.
  • Continue to promote women and minority candidates, and emphasize the ethical conduct of research to our scholars.
  • Continue to implement an oversight and programmatic review of the CHRCDA program and its scholars and mentors.

Program Director/Principal Investigator:
Sherin U. Devaskar, M.D.

Training Director:
Martín G. Martín M.D., M.P.P.