University of Utah Program to Provide Pain Research Knowledge (UP3RK)

To effectively address the nation's biomedical, behavioral, and clinical pain research needs, it is imperative to prepare an interdisciplinary, diverse pool of well-trained, clinical pain research scientists. To accomplish this charge, the University of Utah Program to Provide Pain Research Knowledge (UP3RK) mission is to

impart the science knowledge, skills, and core competencies needed by post-graduate, interdisciplinary Scholars to address the nation’s scientific needs in clinical pain research. UP3RK is situated at the University of Utah (UU), a rich environment to train interdisciplinary Scholars on clinical pain research in diverse settings.

UP3RK training focuses on our institutional strengths of: 1) nonpharmacologic pain treatment; 2) effective interventions for pain and co-morbidities, particularly substance use disorders; 3) implementation science, and

4) research with diverse and underserved populations. Annually, UP3RK supports five Scholars—within a twoyear training duration—through dedicated UP3RK Mentors within an innovative, multi-level mentor model (Mentor Matrix Model) that has proven extremely successful in developing independently-funded investigators

who remain in academic research careers. The UP3RK trains our Scholars in: 1) in our four focus areas, 2) career development and programmatic skills, and 3) interdisciplinary research skills. UP3RK’s emphasis on communication, grant writing, and team science at all levels equip our Scholars with key knowledge, skills, and

abilities to advance innovations to improve health for persons with chronic pain and enable a transdisciplinary approach to team science. To accomplish our mission, we leverage new and existing local training curricula and national trainings available from the HEAL PAIN Cohort Program. We evaluate UP3RK training activities

through a dedicated evaluation process. UP3RK program objectives are: Objective 1: Recruit and support a diverse and interdisciplinary group of clinical pain research Scholars with particular emphasis to attract scholars underrepresented in medicine and clinical research, and those with diverse career paths and clinical

backgrounds. Objective 2: Provide a state-of-the-art training environment and curriculum to develop the next generation of clinical pain researchers with emphasis on the UP3RK focus areas; nonpharmacological pain treatments; effective interventions for pain and co-morbidities, particularly SUDs; implementation science; and

research within vulnerable, diverse, and underserved populations. Objective 3: Provide Scholars with opportunities to improve the impact of their clinical pain research careers and achieve independent research support within 5-years of completing the UP3RK program by developing career development and

programmatic skills (e.g., technical, operational, professionalism, communication skills) and interdisciplinary research skills (e.g., working with an interdisciplinary research team). The research environment and novel training opportunities available through the UP3RK will facilitate achieving these objectives and ensure the

program develops Scholars with the characteristics of successful, independent clinical pain researchers.