Science Convener for Program Initiatives - Full
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Non-technical overview of the research topic and relevance to breast cancer: The mission of the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) is to eliminate breast cancer through cutting-edge research, communication, and collaboration in California scientific and lay communities. The Breast Cancer Research Council funds special research initiatives to increase knowledge and create solutions for breast cancer, specifically when breast cancer is caused by environmental factors or when it affects some groups disproportionately. The CBCRP has recently launched a program initiative that will bring together scientific experts and breast cancer advocates to develop a new strategy for researching breast cancer disparities and prevention in California and advance progress on CBCRP’s goal of eliminating breast cancer. 
 
 
 
 Research question(s) or central hypotheses: The guiding question for this effort is what types of research, if funded, would reduce the likelihood that a person will get breast cancer caused by environmental factors or because the person is part of a group that experiences breast cancer disproportionally. The process is designed to explore whether progress can be made on breast cancer prevention and incidence if intelligent, informed people with diverse expertise are brought together in an effectively facilitated structure to: study a problem, build a common foundation of knowledge, examine current research, identify gaps and opportunities, and then target finances to address these gaps and opportunities. The scientific questions are: 1) what are the most compelling strategies for research to identify and eliminate environmental causes or exacerbations of breast cancer? 2) What are the most promising research opportunities for identifying and eliminating disparities / inequities in the interventions for breast cancer prevention? 3) What are the gaps and opportunities for high-impact research on population-level interventions on the prevention of breast cancer? 4) What impacts have the projects from the two previous CBCRP strategy development efforts had and what opportunities have they created? 
 
 
 
 General methodology: The Consensus Building Institute (CBI) will serve as the principal investigator and lead facilitator for this important initiative. CBI will bring together a Steering Committee to identify and describe research priorities and Strategy Advisors to offer perspectives and special knowledge to fine-tune the objectives for this initiative. CBI will facilitate meetings with both groups over a five-year period to build agreement on the research priorities. First, the Committee and Advisors will explore “lessons learned” from two previous CBCRP strategy efforts and the best available science to understand what types of research might be most helpful. CBI will then facilitate the gathering of input from Committee, Advisor, and community members to inform research priorities and summarize outputs in concept papers. The CBCRP Council will ultimately approve the priorities and then invite and fund scientists to conduct research on those topics.
 
 
 
 Innovative elements: CBI will work with CBCRP to launch a global Grand Challenge to identify trailblazing ideas that push the boundaries of breast cancer prevention. The Grand Challenge portends fresh ideas and approaches to energize research efforts, increase public awareness for breast cancer prevention, and contribute to reducing the burden of breast cancer. The strategic planning process will integrate winning ideas into funding initiatives. CBI will develop and implement a Community Engagement Plan to identify activities to raise awareness and solicit input from the community on research priorities. CBI will make sure that the concept papers and funding priorities consider and, where possible, incorporate community input.
 
 
 
 Advocacy involvement: CBI will facilitate advocates’ participation in the meetings and conversations to identify future research priorities for CBCRP funding. CBI will also develop a plan to engage the community to share information and receive feedback on breast cancer research priorities, integrating advocacy feedback into the research priorities papers.