Project Funding Details

Title: 2/2 Collaborative Union for Cancer Research, Education, and Disparities (CURED)
Alt. Award Code: 1P20CA284967-01
Funding Organization: National Cancer Institute
Budget Dates: 2023-09-21 to 2024-08-31
Principal Investigator: Ajewole, Veronica B
Institution: Texas Southern University
Region: North America
Location: Houston, TX, US

Collaborators

This project funding has either no collaborators or the information is not available.

Technical Abstract

CURED Overall Abstract Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center (DLDCCC) at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Texas Southern University (TSU) are jointly submitting a P20 application to build a collaborative partnership in cancer research, education, and outreach. DLDCCC is a National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated cancer center. TSU is one of the nation's largest Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) serving underserved populations and underrepresented students (ISUPSs). BCM and TSU have had several successful collaborations. This relationship was strengthened recently through TSU's U54 'Center for Biomedical and Minority Health Research', where BCM faculty have partnered closely on collaborative cancer disparities community education and outreach. This P20 program provides an excellent opportunity for TSU and BCM to expand collaborations. We propose a BCM-TSU P20 program 'Collaborative Union for Cancer Research, Education and Disparities' (CURED) that will foster strong collaborations utilizing our complementary strengths. Overall objectives are to create a shared infrastructure that will provide an optimal environment for cancer research, education, community outreach, and career development and diversify the biomedical workforce. CURED was established under the direction of senior leadership at each institution, reflected in the significant institutional support for this partnership. BCM has committed $160,000/year for four years in cost matching funds, $ 50,000 for Pilot project 2 for one year, and committed funds to support the training of TSU summer students in the Cancer Research Education Program. TSU has committed to return the Indirect Cost allocation amounting to $98,000 each year. All TSU investigators are members of the DLDCCC. Leaders of each institution are thus committed to empower the P20 partnership to address cancer health disparities among URM and underserved populations in Houston. Our goals are to (1) establish a collaborative alliance between BCM and TSU for cancer research, education, and community outreach. We will (a) establish CURED offices in both institutions that will provide coordination for relevant activities, evaluate progress of current projects, and ensure a pipeline of innovative pilot projects; (b) centralize institutional resources for faculty/trainee research needs (c) lead a cancer research and career development program for TSU students that includes mentored cancer research, an educational curriculum, hands-on training in emerging technologies, and professional development; (d) build a BCM/TSU comprehensive outreach program to address cancer disparities at the bench, bedside, and within the community; and (2) to support a pipeline of collaborative innovative cancer research pilot projects. Overall Impact: We are certain that the proposed CURED will enhance cancer research education capacity at TSU, promote a diverse research workforce, and improve BCM/DLDCCC's effectiveness in developing and sustaining research programs focused on cancer health disparities. We will develop sustainable research capacity leading to independent and collaborative applications to the NIH/other Federal/Non-federal agencies.

Public Abstract

CURED OVERALL: Project Narrative The BCM-TSU P20 'Collaborative Union for Cancer Research, Education and Disparities (CURED)' Proposal will establish a formal collaborative alliance between BCM and TSU for cancer research, education, and community outreach. Our multipronged approach will maximize the strengths of each institution and leverage existing collaborative relationships to create a shared infrastructure between BCM and TSU that will provide an optimal environment for cancer research, education, community outreach, and opportunities for career development and pathway enhancement focused on diversifying the biomedical workforce. BCM-TSU P20 CURED will also develop sustainable research capacity and obtain preliminary data through pilot projects that will develop into independent investigator research applications and collaborative applications to the NIH/NCI and/or other Federal/Non-federal funding agencies.

Cancer Types

Not Site-Specific Cancer

Common Scientific Outline (CSO) Research Areas

6.3 Cancer Control, Survivorship and Outcomes Research Behavior Related to Cancer Control
6.5 Cancer Control, Survivorship and Outcomes Research Education and Communication
6.9 Cancer Control, Survivorship and Outcomes Research Resources and Infrastructure

Single-funder organizations
Partner	Caveat
ACS	Dollar amounts found in the ICRP database are different than what is reported in the American Cancer Society's Annual Report. The dollar amounts spent on research reported in audited reports include operating expenses of the Research Department. Additionally, the dollar amounts also exclude all grants that were cancelled after being awarded, but include money that was returned from grants cancelled in the current year that were awarded in previous years. The dollar amounts reported in the database are unaudited and include grants awarded each fiscal year, exclusive of grants that cancelled before activation.
CBCRP	The California Breast Cancer Research Program grants are awarded only to individuals or institutions in California. Grants to the University of California receive only direct funds, while grants to other institutions also receive indirect costs (overhead) at 25% or the federally negotiated rate. Collaborative awards are counted in graphs and tables by the number of co-Principal Investigators rather than the number of projects.
Komen	Dollar amounts found in the ICRP database are different than what is reported on Komen\'s website or in Komen\'s Annual Report for the following reasons: Komen commits all funds necessary to support a research grant in the year it is awarded. Therefore, Komen\'s website reports on the full amount of each grant in the year it is initiated, while the ICRP data is annualized, as described. Komen funds research grants to our Scientific Advisors (Scientific Advisory Board members and Komen Scholars) and also provides discretionary funding of research-related projects that are not traditional research grants (e.g. support of the Komen Tissue Bank, ASCO and AACR meeting support). These are included in the overall Research Program spending, as reported in our Annual Report and on our website, but are not included in the ICRP database.
NIH	NIH projects in NIH Reporter assigned to the Spend Category ‘cancer’ are included in the ICRP database from FY2005 onwards. A small number of projects are excluded if essential information is missing (primarily Project title, Institution). Previous years’ data were drawn from the NFRP and may be incomplete. Starting in FY2007 NCI reports funding supplements, etc., for each grant separately instead of including them in the main project, therefore the number of projects may differ significantly from those of previous years. Projects with a cost of $0 include those that were a no-cost extension of the grant or when funding was provided by another NIH institute or center for that FY. NCI dollars in the ICRP database are drawn from NIH reporter and may not match dollars from other NCI-only databases.
Worldwide Cancer Research	Worldwide Cancer Research is unique in that the majority of our funding is awarded to researchers in countries outside the UK. Like many UK research charities, Worldwide Cancer Research only funds the direct costs of research. This creates significant problems in making quantitative comparisons between our funding and that provided by some of the other agencies in the ICRP, which fund both the direct and indirect costs (often called overheads) of research.

UK Organizations that are part of NCRI
Partner	Caveat
NCRI (GENERIC)	NCRI submits data to ICRP on behalf of all UK NCRI members from its Cancer Research Database (CaRD). The database only includes entries where funding can be directly attributed to a set of clearly defined research objectives. This means that the CaRD only contains information on all direct research funding (project, programme, fellowship, unit and institute) financed by NCRI Member organizations, for which an abstract has been submitted and where the project is active in any given financial year (April - March). Examples of funding that are currently outside the scope of CaRD are infrastructure, meeting grants and research management support."
Breakthrough (UK)	The ICRP database includes all Breakthrough Breast Cancer\'s research spend reported through its Annual Reports & Accounts. There is some variance due to different reporting periods (1 April snapshot versus full financial year) meaning that some research spend that is already committed may not be included in the ICRP figures. Expenditure on non-research charitable activities and management support costs are excluded from the NCRI, and by extension, the ICRP dataset. For further information on Breakthrough\'s research please visit www.breakthroughresearch.org.uk or email research@breakthrough.org.uk
CR-UK (UK)	The ICRP database includes around 70% of Cancer Research UK\'s direct research spend per financial year as reported through its Annual Reports & Accounts. There is some variance due to different reporting periods meaning that some direct research spend that is planned for allocation will not be included in the ICRP figures. Expenditure on vital research services, technology transfer, meeting grants, research management support and infrastructure to support Cancer Research UK\'s activities is excluded from the NCRI, and by extension, the ICRP dataset.
Department of Health (UK)	There will always be some variance between the figures available on ICRP and the figures reported publicly by DH. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, there is variance due to different reporting periods (1 April snapshot of ICRP versus full financial year reporting by DH). Secondly, the Department\'s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) encompasses various expenditure on NHS infrastructure for research relevant to cancer that is not in a format that it is possible to capture for ICRP.
Macmillan (UK)	The ICRP database represents about 90% of Macmillan Cancer Support\'s direct research spend per financial year. There is some variance due to different reporting periods meaning that some direct research spend that is planned for allocation will not be included in the ICRP figures. Expenditure on research management support and infrastructure to support Macmillan Cancer Support\'s activities is excluded from the NCRI, and by extension, the ICRP dataset.
Scottish Government Health Directorates (UK)	Scottish Government is committed to improve the health of the Scottish population and the Chief Scientist\'s Office (CSO) funds across a broad range of relevant disease areas. Overall, 75% of the CSO spend is committed to research infrastructure in NHS Scotland. This and much other research expenditure is therefore outside the NCRI remit and, by extension, the ICRP dataset.

Canadian organizations who are part of the CCRA
Partner	Caveat
CCRA	Caveats/limitations specific to Canadian Cancer Research Alliance organizations can be accessed here.

Difference	Detail	Impact on investment figures
Not all CCRS participating organizations are included in the ICRP.	For the period 2005–2021, CCRA submitted data to the ICRP for 35 organizations and three now defunct multi-funded initiatives (CBCRA, CPCRI, and CTCRI). Note that the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Foundation merged operations with the Canadian Cancer Society in February 2017 and Prostate Cancer Canada merged in 2020. Importantly, Alberta Innovates did not report any research projects for 2020 and 2021 due to staffing constraints. Projects within the CCRS total 30,218, of which 24,129 were reported to ICRP.	Moderate for years 2020 and 2021
Not all CCRS projects are included in the ICRP.	“Related support” grants (i.e., travel awards, workshops/symposia, LOIs, etc.) are not submitted to ICRP, but are included in reports released by CCRA. In addition, equipment/infrastructure grants through the Canada Foundation for Innovation and for other funders where the cancer relevance weighting is less than 80% are not reported to the ICRP, but are included in CCRA reports. Any project with cancer relevance of less than 20% is also not reported to the ICRP.	Moderate
Co-funded projects are listed by the administering organization.	Projects that are co-funded appear under the administering organization and are not duplicated per funder. Within CCRA reports, however, investments are reported by the actual funders.	Minor
ICRP uses a different approach to calculating annual project investment.	CCRA provides ICRP with the project budget (adjusted for cancer relevance) and start and end dates. A pro-rated calculation is used to derive annual investment. Within the CCRS, prorated calculations on the basis of annual project amounts (where those data are available) are used to calculate the annual investment.	Minor
ICRP uses different site coding conventions.	The cancer site/type codes used within the CCRS are different from ICRP site codes so results by site will vary in some instances.	Minor
ICRP has technical limitations.	ICRP has a technical limit of 12 site codes and 8 CSO codes and this requires truncation for a couple of large-scale projects within the CCRS.	Very minor
CCRA provides less descriptive information about its projects to ICRP.	Lay abstracts are submitted by CCRA to the ICRP in lieu of technical abstracts and in their language of origin. For projects without lay abstracts (and there are a significant number of these), only titles are provided. An English translation is provided alongside all French project titles to facilitate use of the search engine.	No impact on investment figures, but limits full functionality of search engine especially for organizations that do not collect/report lay abstracts.