Acknowledging the critique from the last CCSG competitive renewal, the IUSCC has made the increase of the depth of clinical and translational studies at IUSCC part of its ongoing strategic plan. To achieve this goal, we have leveraged Project Management resources through the IUSCC Translational Research Acceleration Collaboration (ITRAC) to coordinate translational projects and cultivate a more robust translational/clinical research portfolio. The project management initiative under the guidance of the Associate Director (AD) of Clinical Research, Dr. Sherif Farag and the AD of Basic Science Research, Dr. Mark Kelley facilitates collaborations by removing traditional barriers between bench and clinical research, and aids in identifying funding resource options (more information on the ITRAC initiative is in section 7.4 Developmental Funds). The Clinical Research Office (CRO) protocol development service team works closely with the ITRAC Project Management team during study design to promote and assist with interdisciplinary connections/collaborations among investigators. These collaborations often involve the connection of junior clinicians with senior clinical and basic science research leaders for mentoring in the development of competitive internal and extramural grant applications (e.g. NIH ROI, R21, multi-PI ROI, U01 and peer-reviewed foundational funding).