Our planning related to research activities will be conducted by the Admin. Core and the IAC, and will focus on five main activities. First, the IAC will develop and host the cancer symposia and workshops (see F.2.1.4). Second, Partnership faculty and staff will be responsible for identifying and developing new collaborations, as well as core facilities facilitating collaboration. This will occur through participation on the IAC, and through Admin. Core strategies to communicate broadly with faculty at both institutions (see E.6). DF/HCC and UMB faculty will be informed about opportunities for collaboration and funds to support collaborations well in advance of proposal deadlines to allow them sufficient time to develop competitive and fully collaborative pilot proposals. Third, at DF/HCC, a formalized mechanism has been developed for mentoring and evaluating all faculty hired on the minority faculty supplemental funding mechanism. Designated mentor(s) engage in regular face-to-face meetings with their junior colleagues and help to provide research and networking opportunities for them. They also participate in semi-annual evaluations of each new faculty member for a three-year period after an individual's initial appointment. Minority faculty involved in the Partnership at each institution will be encouraged to participate in this mentoring process in order to ensure their career development. Fourth, as part of the mentoring process, we will identify potential collaborations that would provide junior minority faculty with opportunities to submit minority supplements, as a mechanism for both increasing collaborations and for moving junior minority faculty toward independent funding in cancer research. Dr. Emmons and her colleagues have used the minority faculty supplement mechanism on many occasions, and will facilitate these applications. Finally, we will explore mechanisms to increase minority faculty recruitment at both institutions. For example, UMB will be recruiting a senior minority faculty member with interests in cancer (see Fonteyn letter, UMB appl.). DF/HCC faculty will serve on the search committee. Further, the advantages of the Partnership (e.g. access to DF/HCC core facilities) will be helpful to facilitate interest in this position. Similarly, minority faculty being recruited to DF/HCC will be particularly interested in the resources offered by UMB's ethnic Institutes, access to minority students, and UMB's strong connection to the community.
