Developmental Funds support strategic priorities of the Duke Cancer Institute by providing resources for new investigators, pilot projects, and development or application of new technologies. All Cancer Center members are eligible to apply for these funds and all funding decisions are made after formal peer review by the DCI Scientific Review Committee (or the Shared Resource Oversight Committee for new technologies for Shared Resources). The recruiting funds are made available at any time through the year to maintain optimal flexibility in faculty recruitment. These funds are used to help support high-priority, newly recruited DCI faculty investigators and represent an important component of their institutional start-up funds. Pilot project applications are formally solicited via Requests for Applications twice each year. All applications are reviewed by the Scientific Review Committee for scientific quality and impact as well as alignment with DCI priorities. The two co-chairs of the Scientific Review Committee, Drs. Chao and Counter, and the Chair of the Shared Resource Oversight Committee, Dr. Dewhirst, are members of the DCI Steering and Executive Committees, the former committee specifically charged with strategic oversight of the DCI; thus, Developmental Funds applications are reviewed with full consideration of DCI priorities. The Review Committee makes funding recommendations with final funding approval by the DCI Executive Director. One annual round of project Requests for Applications specifically solicits applications for innovative pilot projects and a second annual round specifically prioritizes inter-programmatic, intra-programmatic, and/or translational projects. Projects that would facilitate subsequent submission of multi-investigator grants (SPORES, Program Projects, etc.) are specifically encouraged. Typically, projects request approximately $50,000 per year and up to two years of support can be provided, though the second year of funding is dependent on approval of a second year of funding by the Scientific Review Committee which makes a determination of adequate progress during the first year of support by review of a formal progress report. During the funding period to date, $2M of CCSG support was distributed by this competitive application process to support the activities of more than 25 DCI investigators and over 40 pilot projects. Investigators receiving this support spanned all DCI Research Programs. In addition to the CCSG pilot funding support, these funds were supplemented by matching DCI funds and sometimes other sources to further leverage the CCSG support and provide a larger amount and broader distribution of support for these high priority activities. These investments resulted in approximately $41.5M of subsequent peer-reviewed and foundation support for DCI investigators. During the next funding period, plans are to continue to support new investigators, innovative high-priority pilot projects, and development or application of new technologies.
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