CHERP – Pilot Research Projects

Cancer is the second cause of death overall with certain cancers showing disparate incidence and mortality patterns among specific groups. Despite decades of focused research and training efforts in cancer control, persistent health disparities remain for ethnic/racial populations, people with disabilities, those who live in rural areas, and/or who have lower education and economic resources. Currently, the health disparities workforce does not reflect the needed diversity in the United States and there are still critical gaps to address when it comes to accessing quality education and training to support the development of talented students/early career investigators in this field.  

CSUF is an academic institution serving underserved populations and underrepresented students (ISUPS), and the UCI-CFCCC is an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center at UC Irvine. CHERP is a collaborative cancer-specific partnership between these two institutions that aim to support highly interactive pilot cancer health disparities research that will not only advance cancer health disparities knowledge, but also serve as foundational training in this area of need for underrepresented undergraduate (CSUF) and master’s level (CSUF/UCI) students. 

Disparity research: 

• Cancer health disparities are differences in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of cancer and related adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups.
• These population groups may be characterized by gender, age, race, ethnicity, education, income, social class, disability, geographic location, or sexual orientation.

Under-represented student categories:

• Race/ethnicity: Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, or other groups that can be demonstrated as underrepresented by the grantee institution
• Disability
• And/or from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as below established low-income thresholds

CHERP priority areas of interest: 

Cancer risk factor reduction (e.g., tobacco, obesity)

Cancer screening

Cancer epidemiology (including epigenetics)

Cancer survivorship

• CHERP will prioritize pilot projects that address disparity needs in the catchment area of Orange County.
• Topics can be in any area of cancer-related basic clinical, translational, prevention, control, behavioral and/or population research.
• Pilot projects must be highly interactive and involve at least one principal investigator from CSUF and UCI. 
• Projects that can generate critical preliminary data for a planned submission/resubmission of a peer-reviewed extramural NIH/CI or similar grant proposal will be considered, with special consideration given to applications supporting resubmissions that generate new data in response to prior critiques.
• A collaboration strategy and mentoring/training plan for early-stage investigators (if applicable) and under-represented students from each institution must be clearly described in the application.  

All UC Irvine and CSUF faculty members are eligible to apply. An investigator from CSUF must partner with an investigator from UCI. The awarded UCI PI must join CFCCC membership prior to the project’s launch. A collaboration between junior faculty and senior faculty co-leaders is not required but highly encouraged to provide mentorship opportunity. Though not required, it is also strongly encouraged that minority investigators from both institutions apply.