MISSION:  Develop a plan for leveraging, linking, partnering or coordinating the activities of established programs, services or departments with relevant expertise.

The responsibility of this core is to weave all of the disparate institutions, factions, laboratories and departments into an organic unit.  The objective is to build bridges among all relevant programs, services, departments, institutions and professions. The formation of seamless relationships, a sine qua non of a virtual center concept, among all relevant programs and/or services throughout the Commonwealth is the most critical requirement for a vibrant and viable comprehensive virtual center.  Therefore, this core will make extraordinary efforts to establish the infrastructure for strong links among all the constituents or components of the “Center” e.g., services, programs, clinics and research laboratories. 

The Achilles' heel of multi-component projects is the communication links among the participating units. One of the most critical impediments to the development and the integration of statewide large multi-component programs is the lack of communication. The establishment of the functional communication pathways for regular or clear communication is a prerequisite to all collaboration. 

Work Plan:

This core’s plan is to: prepare a detailed work outline, defining specific goals and dates (time lines) for completion of various tasks, formation of subcommittees and completion of drafts; identify all existing resources within the Commonwealth, including the talents, expertise and common scientific interest of the participating professionals; enlarge the group of participating institutions/professionals; as the planning proceeds invite an ever-expanding circle of resource people and/or potential participants in the Virtual Center's programs; evaluate and catalogue current human and material resources, services, programs; determine the needs for additional resources, services, and programs; prepare recommendations for programmatic actions and/or legislative initiatives; formulate a business plan which will become a critical prerequisite for the eventual a fund raising campaign for the overall Virtual Center concept; and initiate plans for each core to contribute to an omnibus proposal and marketing document  for this virtual center.

Progress Report:

This core, by design, interacts with the several other cores engaged in developing the virtual center. As such, it is enabling other cores to achieve their work plans, while simultaneously making its own progress. Most notably, with regard to its own work plan, this core has identified over a dozen potential additions to the various cores, both individuals and institutions whose expertise would enhance development of various tasks, and has identified a number of potential funding sources for aspects of the virtual center’s work.

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