2022 UCI-CSUF CHERP Pilot Research Projects

All UC Irvine and CSUF faculty members are eligible to apply. An investigator from CSUF must partner with an investigator from UCI. The awarded UCI PI must join CFCCC membership prior to the project’s launch; the CSUF PI will be eligible to become an Associate Member of UCI-CFCCC. A collaboration between junior faculty and senior faculty co-leaders is not required but highly encouraged to provide mentorship opportunity. Though not required, it is also strongly encouraged that minority investigators from both institutions apply. 

BACKGROUND

Cancer is the second cause of death overall with certain cancers showing disparate incidence and mortality patterns among specific groups. Despite decades of focused research and training efforts in cancer control, persistent health disparities remain for ethnic/racial populations, people with disabilities, those who live in rural areas, and/or who have lower education and economic resources. Currently, the health disparities workforce does not reflect the needed diversity in the United States and there are still critical gaps to address when it comes to accessing quality education and training to support the development of talented students/early career investigators in this field. 

Orange County is the third largest and second most densely populated county in California. The county mirrors the state’s vast ethnic/racial diversity which includes a sizeable proportion of non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanic/Latinos, Asian Americans, Blacks, and mixed/other. CSUF is an academic institution serving underserved populations and underrepresented students (ISUPS), and the UCI-CFCCC is an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center at UC Irvine. CHERP is a collaborative cancer-specific partnership between these two institutions that aim to support highly interactive pilot cancer health disparities research that will not only advance cancer health disparities knowledge, but also serve as foundational training in this area of need for underrepresented undergraduate (CSUF) and master’s level (CSUF/UCI) students. The anticipated outcomes of each successful pilot project are to generate preliminary data that may be used in future competitive grant applications and provide student mentorship.