# Career Enhancement Program

> **NIH NIH P50** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2022 · $75,427

## Abstract

ABSTRACT: Career Enhancement Program (CEP)
The mission of the MSCP SPORE Career Enhancement Program (CEP) is to stimulate basic, translational,
and clinical research by recruiting and supporting new investigators in the area of melanoma and other skin
cancers. The CEP provides financial resources for this mission, while the SPORE itself provides a supportive
and stimulating research environment. In the most recent MSCP SPORE grant period, we supported 8 CEP
awardees, all of whom were early-stage investigators (2 Instructors, 1 Research Assistant Professor and 5
Assistant Professors). CEP Awardees have experienced success in advancing their careers (with 6 receiving
academic promotions and 1 assuming a senior leadership position in industry), publishing their work, and
obtaining extramural funding. We will continue to solicit proposals via RFP 1-2 times/year and to use a peer-
reviewed scoring system to prioritize proposals for funding (2-3/year at up to $75K each). The CEP and
SPORE Co-Directors, RMC representatives, Internal and External Advisory Board members participate in the
review process, together with Patient Advocates and additional experts who may be called upon if special
reviewer expertise is necessary. The CEP will track progress of the successful applications and provide
advisors to funded investigators to ensure that they obtain any needed services from the MSCP SPORE Cores
and that they are fully-integrated into the SPORE program. Awardees present their research results to the
SPORE investigators after one year of support in order to become eligible for a second year of support.
Progress toward translation as well as likely impact and innovation determine whether ongoing CEP projects
evolve into future full SPORE projects (as in the case of Projects 1 and 2 in the current application). Awardees
will also be advised as appropriate in the preparation of grant applications for funding outside the SPORE
mechanism and given access to Core resources to aid in this endeavor.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10469640
- **Project number:** 5P50CA254865-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Walter J. Storkus
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $75,427
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-08-15 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10469640

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10469640, Career Enhancement Program (5P50CA254865-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10469640. Licensed CC0.

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