RCMI Center for Cancer and Health Disparities Research

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SUMMARY – OVERALL To sustain Xavier’s overall research momentum and advance to the next level of excellence in cancer and health disparities research, the RCMI Cancer and Health Disparities Research Center will implement program activities to support early stage, underrepresented investigators, enhance core facilities to support Xavier researchers, and promote long-lasting, bidirectional partnerships between Xavier and local communities to address health disparity issues. The RCMI Center will consist of three research projects in basic biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research and four Cores: The Administrative Core, the Investigator Development Core, the Research Capacity Core, and the Community Engagement Core. These programs will be implemented to achieve the following specific aims: Aim 1. Enhance Xavier’s research capacity for basic biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research. The RCMI program will maintain, strengthen and optimize core services in support of Xavier investigators. Core facilities will be restructured, consolidated, and operations will be streamlined to maximize productivity and efficiency of Xavier’s ongoing research projects. Aim 2. Enable Xavier investigators to become more competitive in obtaining external funding. This will be achieved by a) supporting three research projects in three areas encompassing basic biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research to enable these project PIs to become competitive in R01 applications; b) providing critical research resources for research projects through the Research Capacity Core; c) providing, through the Investigator Development Core, pilot funding to obtain necessary preliminary data and/or data analyses for the development of fundable research proposals; and d) providing grantsmanship training through grant writing workshops and professional review services. Aim 3. Promote career enhancement of Xavier’s early-stage investigators through a Research Development Network supporting new faculty for five years to obtain extramural funding. Aim 4. Enhance the quality and dissemination of research on minority health and health disparities. We will organize semi-annual symposiums and workshops on the quality of health disparities research to offer training in good scientific practices, appropriate statistical usage, and responsible laboratory practices for researchers at all levels. Aim 5. Expand sustainable relationships with community-based organizations that will partner with Xavier researchers. A Community Engagement Core will be enhanced to a) promote and sustain community-academic partnerships through bidirectional knowledge sharing on intervention strategies and scientific discovery in health disparities; b) facilitate greater community involvement in setting research priorities and creating more opportunities for academic-practitioner-community research partnerships; c) build capacity (knowledge and skills) among research investigators, community members, health systems, and potential research participants to conduct innovative and transformative research that addresses community health needs; d) provide support for investigators to better disseminate research findings to the scientific community, community organizations, and lay communities.