Cancer Research Career Enhancement and Related Activities

CANCER RESEARCH CAREER ENHANCEMENT AND RELATED ACTIVITIES PROJECT SUMMARY The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center (MCCC) embraces career enhancement and education as one of its core missions. NIH-funded training mechanisms and Mayo Clinic philanthropy support cancer researchers at all career levels. Faculty and trainees benefit from MCCC seminars and conferences that provide ongoing state-of-the-art education updates. The specific aims of the MCCC Career Enhancement and Related Activities are as follows: 1) to mentor and develop the next generation of high-achieving cancer researchers, and 2) to provide MCCC trainees and faculty with continuing research and medical education to further their career development and to support the MCCC mission of improving cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, and therapy. The MCCC is well-positioned to accomplish these aims, as demonstrated by its 1) 12 NIH-funded training programs whose trainees have amassed 600+ cancer-focused publications this past grant cycle; 2) 13 competitive, philanthropically- funded, MCCC grant mechanisms that award $50,000 to $100,000 of annual support to each junior investigator 3) the competitive, philanthropically-funded Eagles mechanism that annually awards over $500,000 in direct research funding, primarily to junior cancer investigators; 4) career development opportunities within the MCCC's SPORE's, which forge strong alignment between MCCC research priorities and the interests of junior investigators; 5) institutional salary subsidization of trainees on K awards ($20M allocated since 2012 to cancer researchers) and financial incentives for junior MCCC trainees to apply for NIH funding, both of which are intended to retain junior cancer investigators within academic medicine; and 6) a commitment to diversity that permeates the MCCC's career enhancement and educational efforts and that allows the MCCC to train, to recruit, and to promote high-achieving cancer researchers. In view of its commitment to career enhancement and education, the MCCC is poised to accomplish its specific aims and to train the next generation of cancer researchers who will conduct ground-breaking research that will improve the lives of cancer patients.