ed from page 460 of the application) The goals of the Developmental Research Program include: (1) increase the number of researchers directly committed to research in ovarian cancer; (2) stimulate and support innovative pilot projects which have a clear potential to develop into RO1 grants or SPORE projects devoted to translational ovarian cancer research; (3) expand the breadth and depth of the ovarian cancer research effort by recruiting additional faculty members with novel new areas of insight and expertise. A Developmental Research Committee will oversee the Program and report directly to the Executive Committee of the SPORE Program (see Program Description, Section II). The chairman of the Developmental Research Committee will be Dr. Robert C. Young, and Research Committee members will include Drs. Ozols, Hamilton, Engstrom, Godwin, and Bookman. The Developmental Research Committee will initially review pilot project applications which may come from any investigator at the Center or from selected outside institutions. Depending upon the nature of specific pilot project applications, the chairman of the Developmental Research Committee may supplement the review with members of the Internal Advisory Committee (see Program Description, Section II) who have specific expertise in the proposed Pilot applications. Every review of these pilot projects will include scientists from all three Divisions (Medical Science, Basic Science, Population Science) of the Center. Each Pilot application will be reviewed by primary reviewers which will consist of a basic scientist and a clinician. Each application will undergo traditional peer review and will be rated using traditional NIH priority scoring. Pilot projects will be funded for two years, with second-year funding dependent upon satisfactory review after the first year. It is anticipated that the multi-institutional nature of this process will result in a substantial number of proposed innovative pilot projects for review and funding by the SPORE. A similar structure has been in place at Fox Chase and has been used successfully to support pilot projects supported by the American Cancer Society grant and by the CCSG. In the past five years, 128 applications have been received and 35 projects have been funded. Of the funded projects which have reached completion, 16 subsequently went on to receive peer-reviewed funding by outside agencies. Because of our previous track record in developing innovative pilot projects into full grant proposals, it is anticipated that the Ovarian SPORE resources dedicated to the Developmental Research Program will not be sufficient to fund all worthy projects.
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