UB will host research professionals from around the globe for the 12th Annual Fogarty International Center (FIC) Administrators Meeting, to be held Dec. 1-3 in UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences (CoE).

The meeting was conceived more than 12 years ago to bring together Fogarty award administrators and program coordinators to share their collective experiences in building research programs around the world.

The meeting has grown in significance as one of the primary mechanisms for creating efficient capacity building in the area of research administration, with a focus on recruitment, fiscal management, core facility building and international travel components that are a part of each of the Fogarty programs.

This year’s meeting will focus on the role of FIC administrators in propelling FIC-funded programs and trainees to success.

“We are honored to be selected by the FIC and the meeting will highlight the experiences at UB through years of building international programs,” says Gene D. Morse, professor of pharmacy practice and associate director of the CoE.

“The theme of the meeting is consistent with the provost’s recently released UB 2020: Achieving Academic Excellence. The theme includes core learning capabilities for all UB students to experience and appreciate the diversity of many cultures, people across the world and life experiences, as well as to cultivate a desire and skill to navigate the world.”

The Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is dedicated to advancing the mission of the NIH by supporting and facilitating global health research conducted by building partnerships between health research institutions in the U.S. and abroad while training the next generation of scientists to address global health needs.

Partial funding for this meeting has been received through a supplemental award from the FIC to an award first received in 2009 by Morse for an AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP).

The UB AITRP program consists of a partnership with the University of Zimbabwe and has established an international HIV Clinical Pharmacology and Implementation Research Fellowship program. The UB-Zimbabwe partnership developed in collaboration with government and academic centers in Zimbabwe, where the population included upwards of 14 percent who are living with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis as a co-infection, and where there is a crucial need for new drugs and new formulations of available treatments.

Part of the stewardship of a joint program like AITRP, says Morse, is to ensure that research administration is developed concurrently with the researchers. Cultivating infrastructure is also an essential part of maintaining the program, which requires administrative and operational support for grant administration, laboratory compliance and training, fiscal management and regulatory and patient safety compliance and scientific dissemination.