To be eligible for the CTS Scholars Program, prospective scholars must:

• Be US citizens, non-citizen nationals, or permanent residents.
• Have a full-time position at the University of Pittsburgh at the time of his/her appointment to the program.
• Be able to commit a minimum of 75% effort toward research and career development while in the program.
• Have a clinical doctorate (e.g., MD), PhD, or equivalent doctoral degree.
• Be an Assistant Professor.
• Be within 5 years of your first faculty appointment.
• Typically, be within 10 years of your terminal degree or completion of clinical training. If you are beyond that, please justify why the KL2 is right for you at this time.

Individuals are not eligible if:

• They have another federal career development award (K series).
• They are a former or current program director or principal investigator on any NIH research project grants (this does not include NIH small grants [R03], Exploratory Developmental [R21], or Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer [R43, R44] grants) or equivalent non-Public Health Service peer-reviewed grants that are more than $100,000 direct costs per year.
• They are a former or current project leader on subprojects for program project (P01) or center grants (P50).

• Customized Career Development Plan (CCDP). The KL2 Program Directors will work with each Scholar and mentoring team to develop an educational program uniquely tailored to meet the Scholar’sneeds and goals. The CCDP allows scholars to master a core didactic set of competency-based skills needed for successful multidisciplinary translational research careers.
• Mentored Research. The central component of the CTS Scholars Program will be the conduct of one or more research projects under the mentorship of a multidisciplinary team of outstanding scientists (two or more mentors from different disciplines). Scholars will be supported, from the beginning of their tenure on the KL2, to use their research as initial studies and to apply for independent funding. The Program Directors will meet regularly with scholars to facilitate progress in their research, remove any barriers, and assure scholars are making progress.
• Training Components. The CTS Scholars Program provides a broad and deep range of training opportunities in fundamental clinical and translational methods, design and analysis, advanced CTS methods, grant writing, and interdisciplinary professional skills. Additional training activities include leadership and scientific management skills, time management, effective oral and written communication, team science, stakeholder engagement, and entrepreneurship and commercialization processes.
• K club. Scholars participate in a biweekly K club, in which they workshop pieces of their external K applications in real-time with their peers, facilitated by an expert senior faculty member. K club typically focuses on aims pages but can also include career development, mentoring plans, and research strategies.
• Introduction to the TIPs Program. The Transition to Independence (TIPs) program is a multi-year program that guides junior investigators who have already matriculated from the KL2 career development award to their own K award. The objectives of the TIPs program are to understand the rules of engagement and the grant writing process, gain new skills, and to ultimately write competitive grant applications to achieve research independence. Transitioning from mentored to independent investigator status is primarily focused on K grant awardees and their transition to NIH R01 grants, referred to as the K to R transition.
  
  Pitt’s Institute for Clinical Research and Education (ICRE) has established a program to guide KL2 to research independence. TIPs is comprised of mentoring from independent scientists outside of the KL2 scholars’ mentoring team, peer support, and pre-submission mock grant review process for their first R-level application
  
  Participants of this program will receive insight into the grant review process and help to improve the science and format of their applications thereby increasing their chances for success. The program provides a structured, interactive experience to facilitate the preparation and submission of an initial R-level grant before the end of the K award period, decreasing the likelihood of a gap in funding. The TIPs program will provide a safe space and time in which issues can be discussed openly and honestly behind closed doors. With the knowledge and tools provided by TIPs, participants will be better prepared to transition to research independence.

Duration of Appointment:

• CTS Scholars are given consecutive, 12-month appointments. Program leaders assess each Scholar’s career progress annually.

The CTS Scholars Program provides the following financial support:

• Seventy-five percent effort and salary support. The CTS Scholars Program employs a University-based salary cap of $120,000. At the required 75% effort, the program cap will support salary expenses during a 12-month period of $90,000 maximum.
• An annual amount of $25,000 to support a Scholar’s career development activities, including expenses related to research studies (e.g., personnel, supplies, professional services); tuition and fees; and conference travel. Conference travel is limited to $2,500 annually

Scholars can find information about other Funding Opportunities here.

Each CTS Scholar must have a multidisciplinary mentoring team with a minimum of two primary mentors from different disciplines. The primary mentors must be NIH-funded, independent investigators who are highly accomplished and have a proven commitment to developing mentees’ careers.

The entire team is expected to meet at least monthly to design and plan research projects, discuss progress, develop solutions to specific problems, provide advice on project management, and help guide data collection, analysis, and manuscript preparation.

The ICRE has implemented several mentoring resources, which are available to CTS Scholars and their mentors. We also provide CTS Scholars with half-day training on mentoring, which emphasizes mentor expectations, effective communication, goal setting, career planning, and constructive feedback.

Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) Scholars Program (KL2) Handbook

A comprehensive record of information relevant to the KL2 including information about Mock Reviews and the Annual Meeting of the Association for Clinical and Translational Science.