Developmental Funds

ABSTRACT - DEVELOPMENTAL FUNDS
The Developmental Funds of the CCSG represent a vital component of O’Neal because they empower the
Director to respond to, and provide leadership for, the strategic scientific needs and priorities of O’Neal. Funds
from other non-CCSG sources are leveraged to recruit new faculty; therefore, O’Neal Developmental Funds will
be used only for its pilot grants through the O’Neal Invests Program. This mechanism is critical for fostering a
vibrant research environment, allowing Members to test innovative ideas and gather preliminary data for
submission of extramural grants. Our emphasis is on promoting inter- and intra-programmatic collaborative
translational research and to provide seed funding for R01s and multi-project grants such as SPOREs and P01s.
In addition, each year O’Neal supplements four early-stage investigator grants that are primarily funded by our
American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant. The recipients of our pilot grants have an excellent track
record of obtaining successful grant funding and have added to the scientific growth of our programs. During
the current CCSG cycle, $2.8M in Development funds were allocated to O’Neal including $0.77M to developing
shared resources ,and $2.1M to pilot grants with an ROI of $7.33:1.
In 2020, Sleckman CBI revamped our pilot grant program. All funding from small donors, as well as foundations
(i.e., Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama, the Mike Slive Foundation for Prostate Cancer Research),
and Developmental Funds are now combined into one the O’Neal Invests Program (OIP). This allowed us to
increase the amount of each Pre-R01 pilot grant to $80,000 per year, with the possibility of a second year of
funding contingent upon progress made in the first. For pre-P01, pre-SPORE and pre-multi-project grants, the
program provides $250,000 per year with a second year available with demonstration of progress in year one
for a total of $500,000. Our Review Committee and Community Outreach and Engagement Office evaluate all
OIP applications for scientific rigor, alignment with the O’Neal’s research priorities, relevance to our catchment
area, and the potential for extramural funding. Besides growing membership, this encourages researchers from
areas not usually associated with biomedical research, such as physics, synthetic chemistry, and engineering,
to apply their expertise to the field of cancer research. The OIP reviews progress at the end of the first year and
provides an additional $80,000 for projects that have made significant advances. At the end of two years,
awardees are expected to apply for an R01 or a P level grant. With these aims and the OIP in place, O’Neal has
consolidated all of its resources, including the CCSG Development funds, into a highly focused strategically
driven effort to promote the research goals of the Strategic Plan. Development funds will be utilized as an integral
resource to promote meritorious science, attract members to the Center, build productive and successful
collaborative multi-disciplinary teams, and foster the growth of its members.

Grant Number: 5P30CA013148-53
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: MICHAEL BERTRAM