Developmental Funds

Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corp, Buffalo NY

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Director, Candace Johnson (DT) is responsible for oversight and allocation of all Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) Developmental Funds. This budget line is critical to supporting strategically aligned pilot projects and faculty recruitment. As a stand-alone cancer center, Dr. Johnson can leverage philanthropic funds raised by the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation (RPAF) to ensure the success of CCSG Developmental Fund investments. In the current project period (2018-2023), RPAF allocated $62.6M to support high priority scientific projects. During the current project period, CCSG Developmental Funds supported 13 CCSG faculty ($1,225,000); invested in shared resources to develop new assays and techniques and to enhance new utilization of these services by CCSG members ($699,326); and 24 pilot projects were funded ($910,546). Intra- and inter- programmatic projects were initiated with the ultimate goal of team grant submissions within 2 years. The return on investment, measured by publications and grants awarded, is monitored by CCSG Administration, with reports shared with Senior Leadership bi-annually. Roswell Park faculty consistently reported excellent returns on investment. CCSG Developmental Funds and RPAF Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) funds are administered through standardized processes wherein CCSG Administration provides back-end infrastructure using InfoReady software. Program and Senior Leaders assist in decision making by serving on the internal peer-review committees that select the most meritorious high-impact, high-risk projects for pilot project funding. Dr. Johnson ultimately manages the allocation process and ensures requests are in line with the strategic plan and cancer center priorities. The flexibility to fund innovative pilot projects is critical to CCSG faculty taking risks with their breakthrough discoveries. During the next grant period, CCSG Developmental Funds will support the following recruitment and pilot grant initiatives: • Recruitments: The Cancer Center will recruit two key investigators per year; $300,000 per year will be used to support new investigators in each of the CCSG programs over the project period. • Pilot Grants: Grants will be awarded to individual investigators through the CCSG Developmental Funds/ RPAF SAC process, with allocations to each research program, and for Team Science. Projects aligned with the strategic plan will be prioritized within the anticipated allocation of up to $300,000 per year.