Career Enhancement Program

Despite recent gains, driven in part by Hillman Cancer Center (HCC) HN SPORE-funded research, translational research in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) lags that of many other malignancies. The HCC HN SPORE is uniquely positioned to build upon its past successes and foster the next generation of translational scientists studying HNSCC. The Career Enhancement Program (CEP) of the HCC HN SPORE has been designed to attract, educate and mentor new scientists committed to understanding and eradicating HNSCC. HCC and the University of Pittsburgh have committed substantial funding and infrastructure to this endeavor, with institutional matching to double the number of CEP awards given annually. Potential CEP awardees will be new to the study of HNSCC, either because they are junior faculty who are establishing their careers; established investigators studying other scientific questions who wish to transition to HNSCC; or clinical investigators well versed in the design and performance of clinical trials who wish to broaden their translation research experience. The selection process for these awards is rigorous and includes all aspects of HNSCC research. Once awarded, the CEP grantee will meet regularly with a more established HNSCC investigator with an established record of successful mentorship as well as a mentoring team. They will be encouraged to participate in courses in clinical and translational research and participate in mock study sections where their extramural funding applications will be scored by their mentoring team. The goal of this program is to develop CEP awardees research into larger projects as well as foster the next generation of HNSCC researchers.