2/2 Partnership for the Advancement of Cancer Research: NMSU & Fred Hutch

The Partnership between NMSU, a land-grant university, and Fred Hutch, a Comprehensive Cancer Center, has matured into a strong, mutually beneficial partnership. The Partnership has expanded and adapted opportunities for research, education, training, and community engagement for communities (in the U.S. Southwest and Pacific Northwest, responding to its mission of improving cancer prevention, treatment, and survivorship for all Americans. Population health sciences and cross-disciplinary studies are the focus of joint Research Projects to a greater extent than in previous cycles. Expansion of the research education portfolio parallels an increased breadth of cancer and health Research Projects. Lastly, the Partnership has amplified the voices of the communities it serves through community engaged research practices. The Partnership’s goals for the next U54 cycle are to further increase excellence in cancer research, cancer education, and outreach and dissemination portfolios while working towards accomplishing larger process changes within the Partnership. This competing renewal application formulates and implements three Guiding Principles for the Partnership: Restructuring Scientific Environments, Restructuring Scientific Processes, and Restructuring Scientific Engagement. These principles bring new opportunities to strengthen all activities proposed by this U54 Partnership is support of the following three Specific Aims (1) Continue to develop a broad portfolio of robust cancer Research Projects that span clinical, basic and population health sciences (2) Implement, evaluate, and improve our research education programs for current and future scientists from both institutions (3) Collaborate with community organizations on outreach programs in New Mexico and Washington State that focus on cancer prevention, treatment, and survivorship. To achieve these aims, the Partnership has assembled innovative cancer Research Projects that address an unmet regional needs and benefit from strong community input. Each Core - Administrative, Planning and Evaluation, Research Education About Cancer and Health (REACH), Outreach and Resource for AcademIc SuccEss (RAISE) - has also proposed activities to implement the Guiding Principles. The Partnership formulated activities that are highly integrated across Research Projects and Cores to provide the necessary resources to participants while advancing progress to meeting the Partnership’s mission.