Purpose
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH) has been at the forefront of a wave of medical schools that implemented a new highly integrated curriculum. While we have tracked program evaluation and student outcomes over time, we have not had the resources and infrastructure necessary to approach our education innovations through rigorous scholarship or research methods. Our goal was to create a Center for Innovation, Scholarship, and Research (CISR) that will provide long-standing infrastructure to support research on undergraduate medical education.

Methods
We used a scholarly approach to review current resources, identify gaps and opportunities as well as explore successful models and best practices to guide the creation of CISR. Data gathered through a literature search, needs analysis survey, interviews with SMPH departments and external centers/institutions, and the support of three pilot projects were analyzed for cross-cutting themes to inform the foundation and direct CISR development.

Results
The faculty needs assessment survey identified lack of protected time, data analysis support, and the IRB application process as obstacles. Interviews from internal departments highlighted gaps in funding mechanisms, project management, and medical education research expertise. Pilot projects provided additional insights into needed support in study design, tool development, and manuscript writing. Interviews with external institutions revealed that successful medical education research centers commonly offer comprehensive support through faculty workshops, communities of practice, and resources for navigating research challenges.

Conclusions
Through this process, we have been able to synthesize best practices and research-based methods and integrate findings into a proposed structure for CISR that will be implemented and evaluated in the context of meeting identified needs. Our process and insights gained can also be useful to other institutions looking to better support undergraduate medical education scholarship.