Introduction
The California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) is one of the top-rated breast cancer research programs in the United States. The mission of the CBCRP is to eliminate breast cancer by leading innovation in research, communication, and collaboration in the California scientific and lay communities. The CBCRP was founded in 1993, when breast cancer activists, scientists, clinicians, state legislators, and University of California officials collaborated to win passage in the state legislature of the California Breast Cancer Act. Funded primarily by a tax on tobacco products, the CBCRP has awarded more than $181 million for 761 grants at 92 institutions throughout the state.
The CBCRP is administered by the University of California, Office of the President. The Breast Cancer Research Council, an advisory committee to the CBCRP, sets our overall objectives, strategies, vision, and research priorities. The council is made up of scientists and clinicians, as well as representatives from nonprofit health organizations, private industry, and breast cancer survivor/advocacy groups.
The Community Research Collaboration (CRC) awards, developed in 1996, bring community members most affected by breast cancer together with experienced research scientists to study breast cancer-related issues that are of interest to both. These awards require a partnership between community members (such as breast cancer advocacy organizations, community clinics, organizations serving people with breast cancer, or organizations serving communities affected by the disease) and academically-trained research scientists. The partnerships work together to identify the research question, develop the research plan, carry out the research, interpret the results, and disseminate information to the scientific community and the public.
The CBCRP has invested over $14.2 million in 59 CRC projects between 1997 and 2007, representing 9 percent of the funds we have invested in breast cancer research. In 2001, a previous evaluation examined the processes we used to solicit applications and support these awards and found the program to be achieving the expected short-term outcomes. Among the findings were that those women most affected by breast cancer were empowered as full partners in the research process, and that research was conducted with populations not often included in research, such as ethnic and racial minority women, rural women, lesbians, and women with disabilities. A recommendation from that study was to conduct an evaluation to determine (1) the types of outcomes resulting from the CRC research projects; (2) whether participating in the CRC was beneficial to the participating community members, agencies, and academic scientists; and (3) whether knowledge generated from the research had any impact on health services or policy.
The 2001 evaluation also uncovered that some teams had difficulties achieving full collaboration throughout their study and that these challenges appeared to have impacted their projects. As a result, our subsequent 2005 evaluation was designed to evaluate the level and types of outcomes achieved by the CRC teams and to investigate if partnership characteristics had any influence on whether the teams achieved project outcomes. The outcomes were described in depth in a previous evaluation report, “Transforming Research: An Evaluation of the Community Research Collaboration Awards.” They are also summarized in the Findings section of this evaluation report.
