Team Science Development Program
The Cancer Center is committed to developing nationally competitive multidisciplinary team science programs. The Team Science Development Program provides a structured pathway to help investigators build collaborative research initiatives from early scientific planning through submission of complex externally funded grants, including Program Project Grants (P01s), Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs), U54 Cooperative Agreements, multi-PI R01s, and similar team science mechanisms.
Rather than duplicating existing pilot funding opportunities, the Team Science Development Program complements the Cancer Center's broader research development ecosystem by supporting the organizational work required to build successful multidisciplinary research programs.
The program currently offers two development mechanisms:
Early Development Award
The Early Development Award supports a structured scientific planning retreat for investigators interested in exploring an emerging area of cancer-focused research with team science potential. The retreat is intended to bring together investigators with complementary expertise to identify potential collaborators, assess institutional strengths and gaps, evaluate available research resources, and determine whether the scientific opportunity warrants further development as a multidisciplinary team science initiative.
The Cancer Center provides up to $2,500, along with administrative support, to facilitate a one-half to one full day scientific planning retreat.
Learn more about the Early Development Award and application process.
Planning Grant
The Planning Grant provides up to $75,000 over 18 months to support the protected planning time needed to develop the scientific, organizational, and leadership framework for a nationally competitive team science program.
Unlike traditional pilot funding, Planning Grants do not support hypothesis-driven research or the generation of preliminary data. Instead, they support activities such as scientific integration, leadership development, program planning, and engagement of Cancer Center infrastructure to position multidisciplinary teams for competitive external funding.
Throughout the award period, funded teams work in partnership with the Team Science Development Committee, which provides strategic guidance, facilitates connections with Cancer Center resources, and helps teams overcome barriers to program development.
Learn more about Planning Grant eligibility, application requirements, and award expectations.
Relationship to Other Team Science Development Opportunities
The Team Science Development Program is designed to complement—not replace—existing Cancer Center and institutional funding Cancer Center and institutional funding opportunities. Investigators may also benefit from pilot funding programs that support preliminary data generation and, for mature teams within the CU Anschutz School of Medicine, the ASPIRE program, which is intended to support initiatives expected to be ready for submission of a large multidisciplinary grant within approximately 12–24 months.