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Round 1 Centers

The first round of the initiative funded centers at five institutions: Boston University, Duke University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. Each center undertook a range of unique activities to enhance interdisciplinary geriatric health care research, including interdisciplinary pilot projects, steering committees, retreats, seminars, and communication networks. The RAND Coordinating Center provided technical assistance to the centers, with a major focus on furthering the career development of junior investigators and building strong mentor-mentee relations in the areas of interdisciplinary geriatric health care. These activities led to a number of accomplishments ranging from progress on or completion of the pilot projects to grant submissions and awards, manuscript acceptances, conference presentations, and individual career advancements. Although it is not possible to definitively attribute all of these results directly to the initiative, the reporting criteria used by the centers was sufficiently systematic to suggest a reasonable connection.

Lessons learned from the experiences of the five funded centers offer useful insights into the barriers encountered when developing interdisciplinary centers and teams; strategies employed to overcome these barriers; and broader learning about the ideal composition and function of interdisciplinary research centers and their impact upon individual research careers. We learned that creating and sustaining interdisciplinary research teams of the future requires:

• Developing formal and informal structures to bring people together, give them a sense of belonging, and then hold them together around an agenda of interdisciplinary geriatric research


• Assertively expanding and maintaining strong interdisciplinary linkages, with a particular focus on involving investigators from disciplines with strong potential for collaboration that are not currently as well represented in interdisciplinary geriatric research


• Supporting the education, training, career development, and interdisciplinary mentoring of junior investigators engaged in interdisciplinary work

For more information please contact:

Harold Alan Pincus, MD
Director

c/o Dana Schultz, MPP
Project Manager