ABSTRACT – DEVELOPMENTAL FUNDS Developmental funds provide an essential source of support for the strategic initiatives of the Lurie Cancer Center (LCC), consistent with its overall planning processes and priorities. In the current project period, we used CCSG developmental funds in two major areas: recruitment of new investigators and development of one new shared resource. CCSG funds were leveraged by additional institutional resources and philanthropy to support faculty recruitment and retention, pilot projects, and equipment and technology upgrades of existing shared resource facilities. The LCC Executive Committee determines the priorities for the allocation of Developmental Funds and supplemental institutional support, with input from the Program Leaders and the External Advisory Board, to ensure alignment with CCSG guidelines and the LCC strategic plan. Eight faculty received CCSG recruitment support during the current cycle. In addition, during the current cycle, we used CCSG Developmental Funds to support one new shared resource, the Proteomics Core Facility, which is presented as an established facility in this application. Although CCSG funding was not used for pilot projects, the LCC invested substantially in intramural awards. This value-added investment has stimulated and promoted innovative research efforts in basic, clinical, translational and population sciences research, leading to new extramural grant funding, new transdisciplinary collaborations and important cancer relevant publications. Developmental Funds have leveraged additional institutional support and provided a superb return on investment, with approximately $1 million CCSG funds allocated to new faculty recruits over this grant period, generating a total of $33.3 million in grants and clinical trials; a 33-fold return on the investment (ROI). The $33.3 million includes $15.7 million in NIH funding, greater than 15 times the ROI of the CCSG funds invested. Given the continued substantial growth of the LCC’s overall research enterprise, and the successful use of Developmental Funds in the current project period, we request $400,000 per year to be used in two categories: 1. Recruitment of investigators in areas of strategic priority for the LCC, including cancer immunology/immunotherapy, cancer epigenetics, cancer epidemiology and drug discovery and development. 2. Development of a Metabolomics Core that will be of high value to LCC members.