Twenty-eight years have passed since the War on Cancer was initiated, and during this period the disparities in cancer incidence and mortality in underserved ethnic minorities have continued to rise. The CMBB is exploring a potentially powerful approach for addressing this difficult issue by offering funding and support to create collaborations and partnerships between Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) and NCI-designated Cancer Centers to take maximum advantage of their respective expertise and experience. MSIs conduct high quality programs for educating ethnic minorities and they represent a rich source of talent with appropriate cultural sensitivity and perspectives needed in cancer research. However, MSIs have had difficulties developing and sustaining independent programs in cancer research, and there is a paucity of minority scientists who are pursuing successful cancer research careers. The NCI-designated Cancer Centers are geographically dispersed research-intensive institutions and are the only organized units supported by the NCI that conduct research, sponsor research training and career development in the basic, clinical and population sciences, provide information services, and develop and sustain educational and outreach programs that benefit their communities. Yet, the progress of cancer centers in focusing on research issues of particular importance to cancer in minorities, in training minority scientists, in reaching out to and partnering with different minority populations in their communities, and in bringing the benefits of cancer research to these populations has been slow and often disappointing.

Through planning activities dedicated to developing stable, long-term comprehensive partnerships that are mutually beneficial to MSIs and NCI Cancer Centers, the objectives of the Minority Institution/ Cancer Center Partnership (MI/CCP) program are to increase the participation of MSIs in the nation's cancer research and research training enterprise, to increase the involvement and effectiveness of the Cancer Centers in research and research training and career development related to minorities, and to develop more effective research, education and outreach programs that will have an impact on minority populations.

Unlike the existing platforms used for creating partnerships between MSIs and research intensive institutions, this concept is based on the idea of a "True Partnership" where both profit and gain mutual benefits. Furthermore, this concept is based on long-term infrastructure support and the requirement of limited projects/program support in order to generate "traditional" NIH/NCI peer-reviewed grant applications and funding for minority scientists and projects/programs that focus on cancers which disproportionately affect minority populations.

The MI/CCP emphasizes fours target areas: 1) Cancer RESEARCH, where joint pilot research projects may be in any area of basic, clinical, prevention, control, behavioral, or population research. However, research projects conducted primarily at the MSI may be in any area of cancer research, but research projects conducted primarily at the NCI Cancer Center must specifically address areas of cancer disparity in minority populations; 2) Cancer RESEARCH TRAINING AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT, where cancer research training and career development programs can be in any of the research areas above but must focus on joint programs between MSI and Cancer Center(s) that place an emphasis on the training of minority scientists and majority trainees to appreciate the issues and problems associated with cancer incidence and mortality disparities in minority populations; 3) Cancer EDUCATION, where cancer education programs could focus on any effort to augment existing or create new curricula in the MSI and/or the Cancer Center that would apprise and culturally sensitize graduate and postdoctoral students in research, medicine and public health of the need to reduce disproportionate cancer incidence and mortality in racial and ethnic minority populations; and 4) Cancer OUTREACH, where outreach programs may be defined as proactive efforts to help minority communities develop and manage their own culturally sensitive programs for educating their populations about cancer risk, early detection, screening, prevention, and treatment.

Other unique features of this linkage of research intensive institutions with Minority-Serving Institutions are that there is an opportunity for ALL Minority Institutions to participate, not just the "big five MSIs associated with medical schools, and that each partner is equal and is required to submit separate applications. Furthermore, these initiatives utilize the Cooperative Agreement mechanism that allows substantial programmatic involvement to not only provide appropriate evaluation and advice but also to insure the success of the collaborations and partnerships.

An institution (whether an MSI or CC) is limited to participating in no more than TWO applications and if participating in two, each application must be aligned with a different collaborator/partner. There must be commitment from the leadership, common planning, priority setting, and evaluation shared between the partners; and all projects and programs must have co-leadership.

The MI/CCP program has three mechanisms of support. Please click on the titles below to determine which mechanism is appropriate for your funding needs:

Planning Grant for Minority-Institution/ Cancer Center Collaborations (P20)

Cooperative Planning Grant for Comprehensive Minority Institution/ Cancer Center Partnership (U56)

Comprehensive Minority Institution/Cancer Center Partnership (U54)