CORE 001 – CANCER RESEARCH CAREER ENHANCEMENT AND RELATED ACTIVITIES PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Ensuring the highest quality cancer research education, training and career development is key to the mission of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC). VICC leadership and membership have catalyzed and propelled Vanderbilt’s nationally recognized strengths in the training and mentoring of graduate students, residents, postdoctoral fellows and faculty in cancer research careers to advance discovery and translation. VICC recruits and invests in the career development of researchers, clinicians and allied-health professionals, encompassing the spectrum of the cancer space; from basic, population-based, translational and clinical research to clinical practice and patient care. VICC, through significant annual investment, has created and facilitated robust and comprehensive cancer-focused training, education and mentoring activities. More than 525 faculty, over 3,400 allied-health professionals, and over 1,900 trainees (graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, medical students, resident trainees, and clinical fellows) have participated in VICC-sponsored educational and training activities since 2015, including ethics and responsible conduct of research, and ongoing training of clinical fellows and staff. These activities are essential for the development of the next generation of cancer researchers and clinicians and provide the foundation on which the greatest changes in cancer incidence, morbidity and mortality will emerge. VICC has been deliberate in addressing the issues of diversity in our workforce, providing enriching mentorship to >4000 underrepresented minority (URM) Kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) students (our future workforce), undergraduate students, graduate/postdoctoral researchers, medical students and early career faculty. VICC members participate in the Vanderbilt Augmenting Scholar Preparation and Integration with Research Related Endeavors (ASPIRE) and STEM educational outreach to >6,000 K-12 and undergraduate students per year. Notably, the key education and training activities address the academic challenges of rural Tennessee and the diverse population of the VICC catchment area and extends these approaches globally. Academic and professional development activities are available to all trainees and faculty through intensive mentored research engagement and/or formal research training, including formal curricula in cancer biology. Further, 21 cancer-related T32 training programs support cancer career development for trainees (six NCI-funded, catalyzed by VICC leadership), four institutional K12 awards along with numerous individual F, NRSA, ACS, Komen, and DOD grants. Early career faculty benefit from team- based, inter-disciplinary mentoring through advisory committees, grant writing studios and mock study sections.