Objectives/Goals: 1.To develop the next generation of translational scientists in PR. 2. To equip pre-university/undergraduate students with the necessary skills, knowledge, and experiences for their academic and professional development from a holistic perspective of life. 3. To strengthen the technological-translational science (TS) infrastructure. Methods/Study Population: Develop the Center for Research Education and Science Communication-Counseling Opportunities (CRESCO) to provide support to PuS and UgS in TS skills, statistics, scientific writing, emerging technologies, mentoring-tutoring and counseling-orientation; organize/launched the ACADEMIA-TS (ACAD-TS) with the inaugural activity to provide training/student development in TS to PuS and UgS, including peer-mentoring with graduate students (GS); create the Small Project in Translational Science (SPTS) program to offer PuS and UgS hands-on experiences with participation in up-to-date research in TS under the mentorship of a principal investigator-mentor; offer the Title V Annual Symposium in TS; and acquire computers/laboratory supplies/equipment to health sciences undergraduate schools. Results/Anticipated Results: CRESCO established a training infrastructure by acquiring 535 licenses (Consensus, Scite.ai, Mind-Graph) to integrate AI into research and offered 122 mentoring sessions. There were 296 participants in four new workshops. In ACAD-TS’ inaugural activity (~200 attendees), 67 PuS expressed interest in the ACAD-TS; 12 PuS are part of it, and 38 PuS participated in a counseling workshop. The SPTS program integrated course enrolled 10 students (8 from other UPR campuses) and created five teams involving 26 students (8 PuS, 16 UgS, 2 GS) mentored by 5 Principal Investigators (PIs), representing 15 institutions. The 14th Annual Symposium had 136 attendees, with a 100% satisfaction rate (n=44). The technology/TS infrastructure was upgraded with 50 new computers and supplies/minor equipment for health science schools. Discussion/Significance of Impact: Established a comprehensive model to develop early-career translational scientists, including a course, SPTS, and counseling workshops. Integrating AI tools, focused mentorship, and enhanced infrastructure strengthened participants’ integral development, confirming this model boosts research capacity for the future TS workforce.
García et al. (Wed,) studied this question.