Contact:

H. Nelson Aguila, D.V.M.
Comprehensive Minority Biomedical Branch
Office of Centers, Training and Resources Office of the Director
National Cancer Institute
Telephone: (301) 496-7344
E-mail: ha60x@nih.gov

Objective of Project:

To help researchers and faculty at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) in collaboration with the researchers and faculty of NCI-designated Cancer Centers (or other institutions with highly organized, integrated research efforts focused on cancer) plan and initiate collaborations focused on following areas; cancer research, cancer research training and career development or cancer research education that will lead to the submission of specific grant applications traditionally supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) or other equivalent funding agencies. Planning grants must be focused on two of the target areas that would achieve the following goal(s): (1) increase the number of individual minority scientists engaged in cancer research through the submission of research grants that are collaborative efforts between individuals at MSIs and Cancer Centers (e.g., R03s, R01s, project on a P01, project on a P50 etc); (2) implement collaborative training and career development programs between MSIs and Cancer Centers designed to train minority scientists (e.g., T32s, R25Ts, K12s); or (3) implement collaborative education programs designed to provide minority students and trainees with research experiences that will serve to motivate them to pursue cancer research careers (e.g. R25E) or collaborative programs designed to address the cancer health disparities in underserved racial and ethnic minorities and the socio-economically disadvantaged.

Description of Project:

Feasibility Studies for Collaborative Interaction for Minority Institution/Cancer Center Partnership (P20) will support focused collaborative planning activities beneficial to the researchers, faculty, students and communities of the MSI and Cancer Center. Applicants are expected to develop a formal planning process that would clearly lay out an initial planning stage (in which the participants establish appropriate means of communicating and identifying areas of potential collaborations), a priority setting stage (in which a specific area of collaboration and strategies for implementation are established by key individuals), and an initial implementation stage of pilot projects or pilot programs with one co-leader from the MSI and one from the Cancer Center (in which preliminary data is acquired) for the purpose of enhancing the competitive potential of an NCI or NIH grant application.