C. KENNETH AND DIANNE WRIGHT CENTER
FOR CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH

K12 PROGRAM

There is a national need to increase the clinical and translational research workforce – to prepare our future research leaders to address healthcare challenges. A key step in this process is providing early-career investigators with the support and skill sets required to translate their research discoveries into clinical treatments.

The K12 Mentored Career Development Award at VCU is a two-year award funded and administered by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) and the Wright Center. The K12 award provides talented junior faculty investigators a mentored, research-intensive experience in a multidisciplinary setting. It enables the development of future leaders in clinical and translational research. 

NCATS defines translational science as “the field that generates scientific and operational innovations that overcome the long-standing barriers along the translational research pipeline. By advancing translational science, we can improve the process of turning research observations into health solutions and ultimately bring more treatments to all people more quickly.”  The K12 Program engages a diverse pool of faculty mentors and mentees across a range of disciplines to approach science through a “disease-agnostic,” translational lens.

The last round of scholars was chosen in the summer of 2021. The Wright Center will select the next cohort of scholars Fall 2024.