Developmental funds play several critical roles in furthering the Consortium's strategic objectives. Several outstanding investigators who received recruitment funds during the project period would not have come to Seattle without the extra support that was offered through the availability of CCSG new investigator funds. The availability of CCSG pilot project funding provides investigators a very tangible benefit of cancer center membership, and, as described later in this section, has stimulated new collaborations that would otherwise not have occurred. And, funds to catalyze new shared resource development have afforded Consortium members access to technologies and expertise that would otherwise not be sustainable on an individual laboratory or even in many cases an institutional basis. During the past grant period, developmental funds supported the recruitment of 28 productive Consortium faculty members in areas of strategic growth; 47 pilot projects resulting in the acquisition of 26 grants and the publication of 32 papers; and four developing shared resources for Bioinformatics, Tissue Bank, Tumor Models, and High Throughput Screening. In this application, developmental funds are requested for these three types of high impact activities as well as two Special Populations Staff Investigators. Clearly defined, longstanding Consortium processes for allocating these funds are described in each subsection below.
The Specific Aims of Developmental Funds are to: 1. Provide critical research support for up to 9 new Consortium investigators per year in areas of high strategic importance to the Consortium, including solid tumor translational research, immunotherapy, health disparities research, health economics and obesity research. 2. Provide pilot funding to stimulate 5-7 of the most innovative Consortium cancer research projects annually. Awards will be targeted to areas of strategic growth (see specific aim 1) as well as to encourage new avenues of research to support the most promising new projects in cancer diagnosis, treatment or prevention, with emphasis placed on likelihood of stimulating follow-on funding and potential impact in the catchment area. 3. Develop a new Biomedical Informatics shared resource. This resource has been strongly endorsed by senior leaders and our External Advisory Board, and will integrate data on all Consortium patients, specimens, clinical trials and studies, and associated genomics or other assay data, and efficiently support the further development of Consortium solid tumor translational research. 4. Support two Special Populations Staff Investigators who will advance our strategic objective to increase research in the catchment area and enhance inclusion of minorities in Consortium research.
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