DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Advancing the care of children with nervous system disorders is critically dependent on training the next generation of academic pediatric neurologists to be both outstanding clinicians and successful independent basic and translational researchers who can work effectively in multidisciplinary research teams. The Colorado Neurosciences Academic Development Award (NSADA K12) program based at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Children's Hospital Colorado will leverage the combined resources of an outstanding neuroscience research community, our extensive university infrastructure for research training and one of the best children's hospitals in the country to provide exceptional basic-translational pediatric neuroscience research training for the next generation of academic pediatric neurologists. The overall goal is to provide our Scholars the scientific and professional skills needed for productive academic research careers as independent investigators and leaders who will make significant impacts in Child Neurology research. We will meet this goal with two aims: 1) provide the highest quality, personally designed training and career development opportunities focused in basic and translational science research; 2) provide training experiences that will educate the Scholars in multidisciplinary, integrated, team science required for translation of basic discoveries into opportunities to help solve and prevent major unmet problems in Child Neurology. To accomplish these aims, we have engaged outstanding research faculty in basic and translational science that have highly successful research and research training programs with proven track records of excellence to provide our scholars with optimal research training and career development. During this 5 year program we will recruit 3 Scholars from graduating pediatric neurology fellows and junior faculty (Instructors or Assistant Professors) who have strong academic records, are motivated and committed to establishing independent research careers, and have demonstrated evidence of research potential, and provide each of them with 3 years of uninterrupted research time. We will create a leadership and training program structure that will establish: a) criteria and processes for recruitment of scholars, research mentors, and individual mentorship teams; b) required research and career development training; c) evaluation of all aspects of the program. The Scholars will be exposed to a broad array of research and career development opportunities, and will learn the mechanisms involved in multidisciplinary, collaborative team science. We are committed to preparing the next generation of independent Pediatric Neurology/Neuroscience investigators to discover mechanisms of disease and effectively translate these discoveries into improvements in care for children with neurological disease.

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The absolute number of clinicians engaged in research has declined over the past 20-30 years; further there is a worsening national shortage of pediatric neurologists. Advancing the care of children with nervous system disorders is critically dependent on training the next generation of academic pediatric neurologists to be both outstanding clinicians and successful independent, innovative basic and translational researchers who can function effectively in multidisciplinary research teams. The Colorado Neurosciences Academic Development Award (NSADA K12) program based at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (UCAMC) and Children's Hospital Colorado (CHC) will leverage the combined resources of our large, active neuroscience research community, an outstanding university infrastructure for training in clinical-translational research and one of th best children's hospitals in the country to provide exceptional basic-translational pediatric neuroscience research training for the next generation of academic pediatric neurology leaders.