Developmental Funds

DEVELOPMENTAL FUNDS PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The use of Developmental Funds is crucial for the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (Case CCC), providing discretionary support for strategic priorities. Through these efforts, the Case CCC is able to augment its Research Programs, driving new and existing cancer-focused initiatives. In the current grant cycle, Developmental Funds and infrastructure have supported: developing shared resources, existing shared resources (via utilization pilots), strategically focused cancer-related pilot projects, and early-phase investigator initiated clinical trials. Institutional support for additional resources has substantially expanded our research scope and accomplishments during this grant period. The Specific Aims of the Developmental Funds section of the CCSG are to: 1. Expand new and existing research initiatives aligned with the Center's Strategic Plan and coordinated through its research programs, which: advance new discoveries towards high-impact science, emphasize collaborative efforts across programs and disciplines, support the next generation of cancer researchers, and will have direct impact on catchment area related cancer burden and disparities. 2. Continue to leverage CCSG Developmental fund investments with institutional and philanthropic support to expand program effort and speed its overall impact and reach across the Center. 3. Employ a robust central evaluation and monitoring process to provide funding to inter-programmatic collaborations leading to external NCI funding at the P01 or R01 level equivalent. In the coming grant cycle, use of developmental funds will be aligned with the Case CCC's Strategic Plan and coordinated through the Executive Committee. Funds will be used to continue to support the Case CCC's highly successful pilot award program—in the past grant period, the pilot program resulted in a return on investment of over 8.6X. Pilot grant awards will stimulate strategic projects and encourage multi-investigator and transdisciplinary research, and will focus especially on initiatives to increase scientific collaboration, enhance a robust cancer training pipeline, promote impactful science, and to work with the community to reduce cancer health disparities and improve outcomes.