Revenue Funds “Idea Grants” and Student Fellowships at Ohio State
Last year’s inaugural Pelotonia cycling tour attracted 2,265 riders and raised more than $4.5 million for cancer research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James).
A portion of that revenue has been awarded as two-year Idea Grants to OSUCCC – James investigators, and as fellowships to promising undergraduate, medical, graduate and postgraduate researchers.
Idea Grants were awarded to 10 teams of OSUCCC – James research groups to pursue high-risk, high-reward studies.
“Pelotonia Idea Grants provide seed funding for ideas that can lead to critical preliminary data, new collaborations, and ultimately discovery – and that, in turn, can lead to breakthroughs in science, prevention and treatments, and to larger grants,” says Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, director of the OSUCCC and CEO of The James.
Idea grant applications were judged via a peer-review process that considered potential for discovery, publication, clinical trials, patents and leverage for subsequent funding from the National Cancer Institute.
Twenty-nine Pelotonia fellowships have been awarded to Ohio State undergraduates, one medical student and two postdoctoral researchers. The students will conduct cancer research in various laboratories at the OSUCCC – James during 2010-11. (The selection of graduate and additional postgraduate fellowships was under way at this writing.)
Pelotonia Undergraduate Fellowships were available to all Ohio State University undergraduate students in any field of study. Winning applications were selected by an 11-member committee based on applicant strengths and research potential, mentor qualifications, and relevance of the project to cancer research.