Synergies among NICHD P50 Capstone Centers of Excellence for Child Maltreatment Research and Training

• In Event: Innovations in Child Maltreatment Research: Leveraging Institutional Partnerships to Investigate Intergenerational Transmission Pathways

Abstract

The P50 funding mechanism is part of the NIH P Series focused on specialized centers that house large, multi-project efforts and take a multidisciplinary approach to addressing a specific biomedical problem area. The current abstract outlines emerging research and synergy across three P50 capstone centers focused specifically on child maltreatment.

The P50 mechanism allows the whole of any one Capstone Center of Excellence to be greater than the sum of its parts. Similarly, the NICHD-commitment to multiple Capstone Centers focused on maltreatment prevention calls for synergy such that the whole consortium is greater than the sum of the individual centers. As such, the three centers (comprised of the Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies (TCCMS), the Translational Research that Adapts New Science FOR Maltreatment (TRANSFORM) and the Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy, Research, and Training (CICM) work to support and complement one another in ways that strengthen the reach and impact of each and maximize the NICHD investment for shifting the paradigm of child maltreatment research.

The three Centers have several points of intersection and cross-center initiatives across the areas of leadership and communication, research training, community engagement, and diversity efforts. Intentional efforts towards synergistic leadership across the three centers are promoted through regular directors’ meetings with center PIs and inclusion of other centers’ leadership teams on center advisory boards. Such synergistic leadership supports shared data linkage tools and data-driven solutions to maximize empirical efforts across each of the three centers. To maximize the impact of the investment in P50 research projects, efforts are underway to harmonize cohort studies that are included as major research projects across centers. One example is the harmonization of the Family Health Study of TRANSFORM and the Child Health Study of TCCMS to improve lifecourse risk modeling from childhood through middle adulthood. Further, trainees across centers are supported by synergistic research training collaborations, including individual level co-mentoring on publications and K-level awards, shared summer training institutes, and an annual Data Summit series. Finally, a core mission of the research training conducted across the P50 Centers is diversifying the next generation of child maltreatment researchers. In line with this mission, the centers promote community engagement and diversity efforts through various DEI initiatives, including the Diversifying the Child Maltreatment Sciences Day and the LEAD Institute.

In this presentation, we will showcase the products and progress of the three Centers with particular focus on the work of promising young scholars who have benefitted by the infrastructure afforded by the P50 mechanism. We will also discuss the three Center synergy model (see Figure 2) in detail and highlight our collective future directions to elevate science, translation, and training to address the complex problem of child maltreatment and its deleterious and intergenerational consequences. Thus, the proposed presentation will highlight future directions in the field of child maltreatment research and present key principles of synergy and collaboration through the NIH P50 mechanism that can also generalize to other areas of study.

Authors

• Jennie G. Noll, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Presenting Author

• Sheree L Toth, University of Rochester

• Melissa Jonson-Reid, Washington University in St. Louis