California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) and the University of California, Irvine Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCI-CFCCC) plan to establish a collaborative partnership to develop pilot research projects between faculty members at CSUF and UCI-CFCCC that will generate preliminary data for ROI or other competitively funded grant applications and, as part of these projects, to mentor and train early stage investigators and students in cancer health disparities research. The first pilot study, Disparities in Social Support, Isolation and Coping in Cervical Cancer Survivors, is submitted with this application. The Partnership plans to fund four projects during the length of the proposal. There are two objectives; * To conduct pilot cancer health disparities research projects involving at least one investigator at each institution that will lead to submission of research proposals to NCI and other funding agencies. These projects will advance knowledge regarding cancer health disparities. * To provide mentorship and training in cancer health disparities research to early stage investigators and students who are involved in the pilot research projects. By doing so, we hope to increase the number of investigators conducting research in cancer health disparities. Sora Park Tanjasiri, D.Ph., M.P.H., Professor of Health Sciences at CSUF, and F. Allan Hubbell, M.D., M.S.P.H., Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing Science at UCI, will serve as Principal Investigators for the Partnership. The PIs, along with the Program Managers at each site, will form the Executive Committee (EC) that will provide oversight for the Partnership. The EC will receive advice from an Internal Advisory Committee (lAC) comprised of the PIs and equal representation from other key faculty members at CSUF and UCI. The UCI-CFCCC Senior Leadership Council (SLC) will conduct scientific reviews of the research projects. The lAC will be the responsible for recommending projects for funding to the EC after scientific review by the UCI-CFCCC SLC. The lAC will also be responsible for the evaluation of the pilot research project and the overall Partnership using the Logic Model as the theoretical framework to evaluate both processes and outcomes.
The overall goal is to establish a collaborative partnership between investigators at CSUF and UCI-CFCCC that will increase cancer health disparities research at both institutions; By doing so, the Partnership will contribute to reducing and eventually eliminating disparities, leading to cancer health equity.
