The BCRP Multi-Team Award supports the creation of a collaborative research project among three teams, each led by a Principal Investigator (PI) with a history of creativity and innovation, to focus on a critical area of breast cancer.

The Multi-Team Award should create an environment that fosters

credit: Flickr photo by Stefano Mortellaro

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and supports innovation and creativity, with consistent, intensive interaction across teams in a way that engages all members of the teams in all aspects of the research project.

The multi-team approach is expected to transform the research process through the integration of basic and clinical disciplines, substantive cross-disciplinary training among the scientists on the teams, and integral participation of consumer advocates.

The requirements for this award are as follows:
Research Question:
Research proposed under the Multi-Team Award must focus on a question of significant importance to breast cancer that has been inadequately addressed, or for which there may be an absence of an established paradigm or technical framework.

The research question should address overarching issues that have broad implications for the disease and risk management (e.g., risk factors, dormancy) and not focus merely on the study of specific pathways or genes.

Clinical research (may include clinical trials) must be included as part of the proposed work.

Teams of Scientists and Consumers:
The Multi-Team Award supports the collaborative efforts of three teams consisting of scientists and consumer advocates.

PIs:
The three PIs, one for each team, must include one basic scientist, one clinician, and one additional individual from any appropriate area of expertise (e.g., epidemiology).

At least two different institutions must be represented by the three PIs.

Each of the three PIs is expected to have a track record of innovation and creativity, and be well qualified to lead his/her respective team in this intensive collaboration.

The collaborating PIs should work together to develop the research plan, determine the management structure, and prepare the application.

It should be clear that all PIs have an equal level of intellectual input into the proposed project.

Collectively, the members of the teams should represent the appropriate DOD FY10 Breast Cancer Multi-Team Award 3 diversity of expertise necessary for addressing the research question.

Effort is expected to be balanced among the three teams, unless otherwise justified.

Consumer Advocates:
Each PI’s team must include one or more breast cancer consumer advocates who will be integrally involved throughout the planning and implementation of the research project and management of the collaboration.

Consumer advocates should be involved in the identification of the research question, project design, oversight, recruitment, and evaluation, in addition to other areas.

Interactions with the research team members should be well-integrated and ongoing, not limited to attending seminars and semi-annual meetings.

As lay representatives, the consumer advocates must be individuals who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, they should be involved with a breast cancer advocacy organization, and their role in the project should be independent of their employment.

They should not be employees of any of the organizations applying for the grant.

Regardless of their professional credentials, they should have a high level of training and familiarity with current issues in breast cancer research.

Team Interaction and Training:
Regular in-person meetings and cross-training among members of all three teams are requirements of this award.

The in-person multi-team meetings are intended to assess research progress, address problems, and define future directions.

These meetings must take place at least twice a year and must be attended by all three PIs and key research team members (including consumer advocates).

It is also expected that frequent (e.g., weekly) meetings of all team members will occur using phone conference/webcast communications technology to share data and monitor progress toward specific aims.

A server should be established that makes team member presentations and source data available to all team members.

To provide immersive training and interaction across disciplines, at least two key members of each research team must dedicate time to working on the funded research in another collaborating team’s laboratory or clinic.

This cross-training may be accomplished through one extensive visit of several weeks or through several separate visits.

The PIs must present a clear plan for how they would manage and facilitate meaningful collaboration among the separate research teams to enable successful completion of the proposed research.

Participating institutions must be willing to resolve potential intellectual and material property issues and remove institutional barriers to achieving high levels of cooperation.

The proposal should include an organizational chart identifying the roles of all team members and the workflow within and between labs.

The required Statement of Work (SOW) should indicate specific milestones, and how specific aims toward these milestones will be staged or integrated.

Key decision points in the organizational/work flow chart and SOW should be clearly defined, and their impact on the overall project should be clear.