MW CTR-IN Program -- Abstract The diverse Mountain West (MW) population continues to be plagued by high rates of health disparities (HD) and lower life expectancy rates when compared to the rest of the US1. The MW Clinical and Translational Research Infrastructure Network (CTR-IN) was established in 2013. During the last 4 years, we have created an impactful and transformative research network with our 13 MW university partners located geographically among 7 Institutional Development Award (IDeA) states to address the health disparities affecting the MW population in Year 6-10. Yet, despite this huge territory and an overall insufficient regional clinical research infrastructure, we have successfully created and implemented a highly functional CTR-IN program in the last 4 years that has seeded a transformative culture of CTR among the 13 MW universities. Over the last 4 years, we created and implemented 4 highly productive Cores consisting of Pilot Grants, Biostatistics, Professional Development and Administration that have positioned us to focus on addressing the health disparities in our MW region for the next 5 years. Hence, we propose to expand the original mission of the MW CTR-IN Program by further enhancing the research infrastructure in the 7 MW IDeA states for the conduct of rigorous clinical and translational research (CTR) focused on health disparities. The 3 major themes of our proposal are as follows: (1) CTR focused on the MW health disparities; (2) Priority on the professional development of the MW junior faculty investigators; and (3) Providing leadership to the other IDeA programs & Universities in the MW region. Hence, we are proposing 4 major aims to focus our activities on the health disparities in the MW region through rigorous CTR as follows: Aim 1. Enhance the infrastructure and human resources required to conduct rigorous CTR in our 7 IDeA MW states at our 13 major public university partners. Aim 2. Focus on the health disparities experienced by our diverse populations such as the medically underserved and/or rural communities in our 7 IDeA MW states through our CTR programs. Aim 3. Enhance the ability of our IDeA universities and investigators to develop competitive clinical and translational research grants for subsequent extramural funding. Aim 4. Foster increased collaboration and coordination of clinical and translational activities within and across our 7 MW IDeA states and our 13 MW university partners.

Overall -- Project Narrative In our 7 Mountain West (MW) IDeA states, health disparities are a major health crisis. During the past four years, the MW CTR-IN program has established a research infrastructure working in conjunction with our 13 MW University partners located geographically among our 7 IDeA states. The MW CTR-IN program plans to expand the original mission of the CTR-IN program by further enhancing the research infrastructure of the MW region for the conduct of rigorous clinical and translational research to focus on health disparities in years 6-10.