Developmental Funds

The University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center (Rogel) seeks to reduce the burden of cancer and advance access to care through transdisciplinary collaboration in research, education, patient care and community outreach. The Center places a high premium on leveraging its CCSG Developmental Funds to expand and enhance catchment area impact including research across the basic, translational, clinical, population science continuum. Developmental Funds support activities that are consistent with goals and strategic priorities in Rogel’s 2022-2027 Strategic Plan – Discoveries to Cures to Communities – supported by the following pillars: Research; Community Outreach; Education and Training; Infrastructure and Clinical Research; and Patient Care. Rogel uses Developmental Funds to support new faculty recruitment, with an emphasis on earlystage investigators, as well as innovative research pilot projects. As part of the new strategic plan, Rogel senior leadership has identified high priority areas of research that will inform future faculty recruitment, including researchers with expertise in the following areas: epigenetics, systems biology, metabolism and metabolomics, mechanisms of treatment resistance, cancer immunology and immunotherapy, early-stage clinical research, and epidemiology, among others. Rogel also supports members to advance their research with two types of pilot projects, both supported by Developmental Funds: • The Innovation Award, for innovative, high-risk projects that stimulate new multi-investigator projects and promote the development of new technologies • The Catchment Area Award to support research in or related to the Rogel catchment area, including highpriority cancers and behavioral factors contributing to cancer development.