The Advanced Course on Cancer-Related Health Disparities Research, Mentoring, and Leadership
The Advanced Training Course
The Advanced Training Course brings in world leaders in cancer disparities research skills for a 3.5-day intensive training and networking event. This course focuses on increasing skills in leveraging databases, increasing mentoring skills, and enhancing leadership capacity for researchers who are beginning or near the beginning of their cancer research careers. As part of this course, participants will learn how to work with health disparities, how to mentor and be mentored, and will gain additional leadership skills that will propel them in their roles. This conference will provide insight into expert techniques of health disparity research and provide access to expert advice.
Participant Eligibility Criteria
The Advanced Training Course aims to enhance early career cancer researchers' technical and/or soft skills in areas that are critical for establishing and maintaining successful independent academic cancer research careers. The primary objective of these courses is to help participants maintain long-term productivity in their cancer research careers.
Researchers with active grants focused on cancer disparities research, or those who wish to increase their focus on cancer disparities, are encouraged to apply to the Advanced Training Course. This includes junior faculty such as assistant professors, instructors, research scientists, or equivalent. To ensure that participants include adequate representation with respect to race, ethnicity, gender, and disability, a recruitment plan was developed for this training course.
In order to be eligible for the Advanced Course, applicants must:
- Be a PI, Co-I, or MPI on an active funded cancer research grant (this is the portion where eligibility has expanded)
- Must hold a doctoral degree from an accredited institution
- Have a full-time faculty or scientist appointment - postdoctoral fellows transitioning to a faculty position will also be eligible provided they have an offer letter for a full-time faculty position
- Be a United States citizen or permanent resident
Creation of the Advanced Training Course
The Advanced Training Course was originally established as a UE5 member of the NASDC consortium in 2020. NASDC was composed of four UE5 training centers and one U24 coordinating center:
- Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI)/Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center (MGHCC) - UE5 Short-Course Awardee
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) - UE5 Short-Course Awardee
- University of Pennsylvania/Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (UPenn/CHOP) - UE5 Short-Course Awardee
- The University of Utah/Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) - UE5 Short-Course Awardee
- The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - U24 Data Coordination Center Awardee
The Advanced Training Program would like to thank all other members of the NASDC consortium and the NCI support members for their coordinated efforts to increase the careers of early-career cancer researchers, including the combined efforts to create course infrastructure, recruitment tactics, evaluation methodology, and training components that the current course continues to rely on under its new R25 funding mechanism.