The principal goal of the MRDA program is to improve the success rate for grant submissions by junior faculty. To accomplish this objective, MRDA recipients (MRDA Scholars) will work with their chosen mentor(s) to achieve milestones associated with the preparation of a targeted grant application. To assure highly-competitive grant submissions, MRDA Scholars will also take advantage of extensive ACCEL resources. These include grant writing workshops, peer mentoring groups, grant review sessions, support from the Professional Development Core (PD Core), and biostatistics and study design consultations with experts from the ACCEL Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) Core.

MRDAs support awardees by releasing them from non-research responsibilities (e.g., clinical work, teaching, administration) and/or providing minimal funding to allow for participation in defined activities associated with writing and submitting a competitive grant proposal. At the end of the MRDA period, awardees are required to submit a fully-developed grant proposal to one of the following mechanisms:

1. IDeA Program Pilot Grants (e.g., CTR, COBRE, INBRE, CTSA, ISPCTN);
2. NIH; PCORI; AHRQ; other federal agency;
3. A well-recognized grant-issuing foundation or organization (AHA, ACS, etc.).