This application, the "Emory Mentored Clinical Research Scholar (EMCRS) Program", responds to national efforts to support the training and development of physicians who will become well trained, successful, and independent patient-oriented clinical investigators. There is an urgent need to develop well trained physicians as patient-oriented clinical investigators who can assure that the findings of basic research are translated to clinical settings and are able to conceptualize and implement cutting edge clinical research. This proposal builds on the considerable strengths and outstanding resources at Emory University and in the Atlanta area including 1) the NIH funded Emory General Clinical Research Center (GCRC); 2) the NIH funded satellite GCRC being established at Grady Memorial Hospital which will serve a predominantly inner-city and minority population; 3) the successfully established Master of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR) Program which provides didactic training (leading to a graduate degree which requires a mentored thesis) for physicians interested in pursuing a career in clinical investigation (supported in part by a NIH K-30 award), and 4) a wide variety a clinical research activities at Emory including interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teams, and 5) talented and established faculty members engaged in clinical investigation at the School of Medicine and School of Public Health who are willing and eager to serve as mentors for junior faculty trainees in the EMCRS program. The specific aim of this project is to establish the EMCRS Program, which will support career development for junior faculty physicians with outstanding potential to become independent, established and ethical patient-oriented clinical investigators. Candidates accepted into the program would spend 90% of their time in training and receiving mentoring for a career in clinical investigation over a two to five year time period. The goal of the program is to provide superb clinical research training for junior faculty, including didactic training leading to a MSCR degree for skills needed for patient oriented research and research mentoring by an established Emory clinical investigator who would serve as the trainee's faculty mentor. Junior faculty candidates who complete this mentored research training program would include physician clinical investigators who would have the training and skills to conceptualize and implement all phases of cutting-edge patient-oriented clinical research and be able to function as a part of and subsequently lead cross-disciplinary research teams.