The NCI Center for Bioinformatics (NCICB) submitted a CARRA request for CARRA member participation in planning the February 2004 caBIG^TM Kickoff Meeting in Washington, D.C., to help ensure that caBIG^TM would engage advocate and public audiences starting with its official launch. CARRA member and overall advocate involvement in caBIG^TM has grown steadily since then, with outstanding support from the leadership of caBIG^TM in developing advocate roles for this critical and often technical research initiative.

• caBIG^TM functions through a structure of workspaces - collaborative groups including a wide range of participants - who focus on large topic areas. Each of the workspaces includes the participation of a qualified, selected consumer advocate, who actively participates in the teleconferences, meetings, and other activities of their workspace.
• Together, these advocate representatives to the workspaces have developed a Statement of Expectations, Purpose and Goals. Their fundamental role is expressed in this statement: "The purpose of caBIG^TM patient advocates is to help ensure that the caBIG^TM end product, The Grid, will ultimately benefit the cancer patient by improving patient care and outcomes in the most effective and timely way possible."
• The advocate representatives to the workspaces have developed a poster, illustrating the projected relationships between caBIG^TM and each step of a patient's journey from diagnosis through treatment. The caBIG^TM Patient Poster has already been displayed at the caBIG^TM annual meeting; will be shown at the cancer advocacy community summit meeting "Listening and Learning Together: Building a Bridge of Trust"; and will continue to be available on the caBIG^TM web site and for other events. The poster is an important illustration of how the development of caBIG^TM will impact both the patient experience and cancer research.
• The NCI Office of Advocacy Relations (OAR), NCI Center for Bioinformatics (NCICB), and the caBIG^TM patient advocates collaborated on a conference call for OAR's "Understanding NCI: A Toll-Free Teleconference Series", discussing "Why caBIG^TM is Important to Advocates".