Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) High-Impact/High-Risk Research Awards

The State of Texas Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) High-Impact/High-Risk Program is designed for relatively short-term high-impact/high-risk projects that are innovative, developmental or exploratory in nature targeting new avenues of cancer research.  These projects, if successful, would contribute major new insights into the etiology, diagnosis, treatment or prevention of cancers.  Because High-Impact/High-Risk Research Awards are designed to support new ideas, preliminary data are not required.  Also, CPRIT intends to support innovative, developmental projects that focus on exceptionally promising topics that are not yet sufficiently mature to compete successfully for more conventional funding.  Applicants must explain why more conventional sources of support are not available for the proposed research and how short-term funding will lead to strong proposals for additional support.

Applicants may address any research topic or issue related to cancer biology, causation, prevention, detection or screening, treatment or cure.  Further, CPRIT encourages applications that seek to apply or develop state-of-the-art technologies, tools and/or resources for cancer research, including those with potential commercialization opportunities.  Areas of interest include laboratory research, translational studies and/or clinical investigations.

In that cancers arise from a large number of derangements of basic molecular and cellular functions and in turn cause many alterations in basic biological processes, almost any aspect of biology may be relevant to cancer research, more or less directly.  The degree of relevance to cancer research will be an important criterion for evaluation of projects for funding by CPRIT.  For example, are alterations in the process in question primarily responsible for oncogenesis or secondary manifestations of malignant transformation?  Will understanding the process or interfering with it offer selective and useful insight into prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer?  Successful applicants for funding from CPRIT will have addressed these questions satisfactorily.

NOTE: Internal Selection Procedures and Deadlines

September 11, 2009:  Deadline for an email of intent, including the name of the PI, title of internal proposal and a 1-3 sentence description of the project.  Send email of intent to osppc@tamu.edu

September 14, 2009:  Deadline to obtain approval from your department head and dean to submit an internal proposal to the Research Policy and Development Support Office for review by the internal selection committee.  The internal proposal should include:
    (1) An executive summary, up to three pages, based on the proposal description as outlined in the CPRIT Announcement;
    (2)  Project and Management Plans;
    (3)  Summary budget.
The form for completing the internal proposal is here.