CBCRP Structure: Encouraging Public Input
The California Breast Cancer Research Program’s structure has set a standard for community involvement that has inspired similar changes in other research funding agencies around the nation. Breast cancer activists play a leading role in every aspect of our work, from setting research priorities to awarding grants to getting out the word about research results. A part of the University of California, the CBCRP is under the direction of the
Office of the President in Oakland, with a staff managing the solicitation, review, award, and oversight of grants. Our Breast Cancer Research Council includes scientists, clinicians, representatives of industry and nonprofit health organizations, and breast cancer advocates.
The Council provides vision, sets research priorities, and determines how we invest our funds in research. It also conducts one of two reviews every proposal must pass to receive funding. The Council reviews research proposals for their responsiveness to the CBCRP’s mission. Simultaneously, some of the nation’s top research scientists, health care professionals, and breast cancer advocates from outside California judge all proposals for scientific merit.
In addition, all Californians concerned about breast cancer have opportunities to help set the research agenda via the CBCRP’s statewide advisory meetings, open to the public. Our biennial research symposia, held during odd-numbered years to review the CBCRP’s research results, bring the scientific and treatment communities into dialog with a broader range of the public than is common at such conferences. We also encourage public review of CBCRP funded research through our Web site (www.cbcrp.org) and this Annual Report.
Our structure allows us to bring the research, treatment, and advocacy communities into closer cooperation—to work toward an end to breast cancer.
Our Key Strategies:
• Support the best, most innovative research
• Build the research talent pool by training new researchers
• Encourage creativity by financing collaboration across research fields
• Widely distribute research results to scientists, health care professionals, and the public
