The Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is a collaborative effort of the College of Applied Health Sciences, the College of Dentistry, the College of Medicine (including its Peoria and Rockford campuses), the College of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy, the School of Public Health and the University of Illinois Medical Center. The context of the program is significant. UIC is firmly committed to serving the entire population of the Chicago area through education, research and service. This commitment is expressed in a multitude of activities and relationships with the area's under-served populations. UIC has close collaborative relations with neighboring institutions that also serve predominantly low SES and minority populations. Interventions to help improve the health and well being of these populations will be one focus of the training of CRTP participants. The CRTP is designed to provide the skills needed to be productive clinical researchers to clinicians from any of the health colleges. The program includes a one-year didactic component (if taken full time) that will include courses containing the biostatistical, epidemiological and clinical evaluative competencies we identified as essential to conduct clinical research. By the end of the second semester, each trainee, in consultation with the program advisor, will identify a research topic and form their mentoring committee, typically chaired by a clinician in their home department complemented by the necessary methodologists and secondary clinicians. The second year of the program is a yearlong period of mentored research that will take advantage of the broad range of clinical research and resources available at UIC. During both years trainees will participate in a series of skill building workshops, in areas such as scientific communication, the ethical conduct of clinical research and conducting research in minority communities. There will be ongoing seminar series including one that provides a forum for trainees to present their work in progress, one with established clinical researchers generally from UIC and other Chicago institutions, and one that focuses on translating basic and social science into clinical practice. The program will culminate with a grant-writing course during the second year where the trainees will be expected to write a draft of an R or K series proposal using their second year research for preliminary results. Trainees will receive a Master of Science in Clinical Research from the School of Public Health having the analytical and theoretical knowledge, professional skills and research experience needed to flourish as a clinical researcher. (End of Abstract)