Abstract The Developmental Research Program of the Roswell Park Ovarian Cancer SPORE is a platform to support innovative, potentially high-risk/high-reward, investigator-initiated projects with the potential for maturation into translational ovarian cancer research projects that will transition basic and/or population research findings into research focused on human clinical specimens/patient populations. Furthermore, the funds of the Developmental Research Program will be leveraged by encouraging the development of the pilot projects into collaborative, multi-investigator, multi-institutional translational research programs, or as new Individual Research Projects of the Roswell Park Ovarian Cancer SPORE. Therefore, the Developmental Research Program projects are the ultimate measure of the success of a SPORE and form the base for future translational ovarian cancer research at the individual institutions, as they are springboards for the next generation of R01, P01, Consortium, and SPORE grants. The goals of the proposal review process are not only to identify the most exciting projects, but to provide constructive critiques that are of value both for future submission of the projects to extramural funding sources, and for identifying potential collaborators and resources within the Roswell Park Ovarian Cancer SPORE to increase the competitiveness of future applications. Proposals from faculty with established ovarian cancer research programs, or faculty interested in transitioning to translational ovarian cancer research, will be evaluated by a study section identified by the Executive Committee for scientific merit, with recommendations for funding referred to the Internal Advisory Board for award. The unique strengths of the Developmental Research Program lie in its ability to provide significant financial support in a timely manner to high-risk/pilot projects to develop critical preliminary data, provide a flexible mechanism that can respond rapidly to new initiatives or exciting findings through a formal application procedure using the Executive Committee and Internal Advisory Board, or receive even quicker but lesser funds through an ad hoc award from the Discretionary Fund of the Roswell Park Ovarian Cancer SPORE Principal Investigators.