OpportunityTitle: Prostate Cancer, Health Disparity Fellowship Award
Description: The Health Disparity Fellowship Award supports prostate cancer-focused disparity research opportunities for individuals in the early stages of their careers, under the guidance of one or more designated Mentors. This opportunity allows for postdoctoral fellows to develop a research project, investigate a problem or question in prostate cancer disparity research, and further their intellectual development as prostate cancer health disparity researchers of the future. All application components for the Health Disparity Fellowship Award are to be written by the Principal Investigator (PI), with appropriate direction from the Mentor(s). Key elements of this award mechanism are as follows: &#183; Principal Investigator: The postdoctoral investigator is considered the PI of the application and must exhibit through his/her past achievements a strong potential for, and commitment to, pursuing a career as an investigator at the forefront of prostate cancer health disparity research; however, the PI is not required to have previous health disparity or prostate cancer research experience. The PI must have 3 years or less of postdoctoral research experience (excluding clinical residency or clinical fellowship training) as of March 31, 2019. &#183; Mentor(s): Applications must include at least one Mentor, appropriate to the proposed research project, who has experience in prostate cancer health disparity research and mentoring as demonstrated by a record of active funding, recent publications, and successful mentorship. The primary Mentor may be a junior faculty member, in which case the PI is encouraged to include a secondary Mentor with a more robust track record in prostate cancer health disparity research and mentorship. The selected Mentor(s) should also demonstrate a clear commitment to the development of the PI toward independence as a prostate cancer health disparity researcher. &#183; Research Approach: Proposed research ideas are required to address one or more of the FY18 PCRP Overarching Challenges. The scientific rationale and experimental methodology should demonstrate in-depth analysis of the research problem presented and should focus on reducing and ultimately eliminating disparities in prostate cancer incidence, morbidity, and mortality. The proposal must explicitly state how the proposed research is related to a health disparity area within an affected population or community. The PCRP is interested in research that addresses all different aspects that contribute to health disparity in prostate cancer, including, but not limited to, social, cultural, and/or biological contributors. The feasibility of the research design and methods should be well defined, and a clear plan should be articulated as to how the proposed goals of the project can be achieved. The inclusion of preliminary data relevant to prostate cancer and the proposed project is encouraged but not required. Any preliminary data provided should be from the PI, Mentor(s), or member(s) of the collaborating team. Additionally, required resources should be identified and supported through documentation. &#183; Researcher Development Plan: The application must outline an individualized, prostate cancer-focused researcher development plan for the PI, which should include a clearly articulated strategy for acquiring the necessary skills, competence, and expertise that will enable the PI to successfully complete the proposed research project and foster the PI&#8217;s development as an independent prostate cancer health disparity researcher. An environment appropriate to the proposed mentoring and research project must be clearly described, although any deficiencies of resources and/or mentorship at the PI&#8217;s institution can be mitigated through collaboration(s) with other institutions. If the PI will be utilizing resources at another institution to successfully complete the proposed project, then the PI is strongly encouraged to designate a co-Mentor at the collaborating institution. To maximize the potential for impact, investigators are strongly encouraged to incorporate the following components into their study design where appropriate: authentication of proposed cell lines; statistical rigor of preclinical animal experiments; incorporation of experiments to assess clinical relevance and translatability of findings. As such, the PCRP-funded Prostate Cancer Biorepository Network (PCBN) (http://www.prostatebiorepository.org) and/or the North Carolina &#8211; Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project (PCaP) (https://pcap.bioinf.unc.edu) are important resources to consider if retrospectively collected human anatomical substances or correlated data are critical to the proposed studies. Studies utilizing data derived from large patient studies that include long-term health records, biospecimen repositories, and pre-existing research that apply state-of-the-art genomic and/or proteomic analysis, bioinformatics, and/or mathematical models to such data are also encouraged. The proposed research must be relevant to active duty Service members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the American public.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: CDMRP Help Desk
GrantorContactText: CDMRP Help Desk &lt;br/&gt;Phone:  301-682-5507 &lt;br/&gt;Email:  help@eBRAP.org