Developmental Core

Services provided by the CFAR Developmental Core are listed below.   Please contact the Developmental Core with recommendations for other faculty support services not listed below.

Funding for pilot projects
The Developmental Core provides research support through the peer-reviewed Small Grants and Emerging Opportunities Awards.  Requests for proposals are released each spring and fall.   Grant applications are based on the NIH R21 format.   A written critique based on the NIH scoring system and summary statement will be provided to all applicants as a tool to provide scientific feedback and grant-writing mentoring.  Applicants submitting proposals for pilot funding are encouraged to include other CFAR cores when preparing pilot project proposals (i.e., Immunology Core, Biostatistics and Computational Biology Core, Clinical Core and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Core).

For a list of previous grant awards, see this link.

Faculty recruitment (professional network development)
The Developmental Core provides direct financial support to allow recruitment of talented faculty in targeted areas who complement and enhance the CFAR HIV/AIDS research agenda.   The Developmental Core may partner with other Departments, Centers or Institutes in the recruitment or retention of faculty members performing HIV/AIDS research.   Please contact the Developmental Core to recommend a faculty recruit that may be suitable for a support from the CFAR Developmental Core.

Mentoring
The Developmental Core provides mentoring resources to ensure effective mentoring is available to support junior faculty members.  Mentoring resources include tools to enhance a previously developed mentoring plan (mentor and mentee evaluation forms, mentoring plan templates, etc.) or assistance developing a mentoring plan or selecting a mentor.   Assistance with grant preparation and grant pre-review prior to submission to external funding agencies is also available.
Mentoring Resources

Grant Review
The Core staff will perform or arrange for an internal review of any HIV-related grant prior to submission, as well as meet to review a grant revision in response to reviewers, including the CFAR Small Grants. 

Early Career Grant Review Training
The Core staff will provide early career grant review training by inviting senior postdocs and junior faculty to participate in the CFAR Small Grant Review process and receive mentoring around the review of a grant application.  This training provides insight into the process behind an NIH-style study section review.