The overarching goal of the Kentucky Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (KY INBRE) is to build capacity for health-related and biomedical research in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. We will build collaborative research and research-training community throughout the state. Our primary collaborative network is represented by two research-intensive universities, five state-supported and one independent, primarily undergraduate institution. We provide outreach activities in support of many other of our smaller state-supported and independent institutions including community technical colleges. Overall, our activities are designed to build on our established multi-disciplinary research network, with a focus on functional genomics, as a means to strengthen the research infrastructure of the lead and partner institutions.

One aim is to support the development of young research faculty investigators to help them become independently competitive for federal research grants.

Another aim of our network is to provide a variety of research training opportunities for our undergraduate and graduate students. These students represent the next generation of the health care and/or biomedical research industries and they need to be mentored to develop appropriate scientific research skills.

The health-relatedness of this project lies in its goal to build capacity for health and biomedical research throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Moreover, one of its primary concerns is to train the next generation of workers in the health care and biomedical research industries in Kentucky