Frequently Asked Questions about CBCRP Fellowships

1. May I have more than one mentor on my fellowship application?

Yes. However for the purposes of this fellowship, your mentor is responsible for more than your research project. Someone who is teaching you new techniques and skills but is not responsible for supporting you in your overall work should not be listed as a mentor, but should be listed in the personnel table as a “Research Advisor”. You can describe their contributions to your training and research in your training plan and in your programmatic forms. And although they should submit a non-mentor referee letter, in that letter they can describe everything they will do to mentor you.

If both of your proposed mentors are supporting you financially, then you can list them both as mentors. You should provide at least two more letters of reference.

2. Can an investigator serve as a mentor for more than one CBCRP fellow?

CBCRP does not have any restrictions on the number of fellows that a faculty member can mentor or co-mentor. The review committee will evaluate whether the mentor has sufficient time, commitment, and resources to support the number of trainees they are working with, regardless of the funding source(s) of the fellowships. If the mentor appears to have insufficient capacity to support the number of fellows they have committed to, it will negatively affect the application’s scientific merit score.

3. Can I have a co-mentor who is based outside of California?

No. All mentors must be based at a California institution. You may list an out-of-state mentor as a “Research Advisor” in the Personnel table and include their biosketch.

4. What content should my letters of reference include?

Letters of reference will be used by reviewers to assess whether your fellowship would build on your previous experience to set you on a solid trajectory for a career in breast cancer research.

Letters should describe:

• Your previous exposure to breast cancer topics and experience in breast cancer research
• The match between the skills you intend to gain in the fellowship and the proposed training and research environment
• Your achievements or barriers that you’ve overcome that may not be obvious by reviewing your biosketch