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Findings

Since 1995, the CBCRP has invested $15,290,601 in 43 New Investigator Awards.⁴ Funding of New Investigator Awards represents 12% of the total dollars invested by CBCRP and 8% of the total number of grants awarded. During the period evaluated in this study, cycles I-V, the CBCRP invested a total of $8,866,948 in 28 New Investigator Awards.⁵

I. Description of the Sample

Of the 28 new investigators in cycles I-V, 24 were eligible to participate,⁶ and 20 (83%) respondents participated in the study.⁷ Twelve respondents agreed to a telephone interview and eight respondents preferred the electronic questionnaire.⁸ On average, approximately three years have passed since respondents completed their CBCRP new investigator funded research and the range was from one to five years since funding completion.

Data were gathered on gender, ethnicity, priority area of the grant, and institution associated with the grant. Thirteen (65%) of the respondents were female, and seven (35%) were male. Eleven (55%) were Caucasian, five (25%) were Asian, two (10%) were Latino/Hispanic/Chicano, one (5%) was African American, and one (5%) respondent declined to state his ethnicity (see figure 1).

Figure 1. Gender and Ethnicity of Respondents

The 20 New Investigator Awards were affiliated with 15 different institutions (see table 1).

table 1

Table 1: New Investigator Funds Invested by Institution: Cycles I-V (1995-1999)

Six of the grants sought new information on the progression and spread of breast cancer, four grants focused on discovering innovative treatments for the disease, three aimed at finding ways to detect breast cancer at an earlier stage, three concentrated on breast cancer prevention, three sought to better understand the causes of breast cancer, and one focused on health policy and health services relevant to breast cancer (see figure 2).

Figure 2. Priority Area of New Investigator Awards

4 This amount is representative of cycles I-VIII (1995-2002).
5 See Appendix A for a complete list of New Investigator Awards by institution and years grant was awarded.
6 Four new investigators were ineligible to participate because they either did not utilize at least half of their awarded funds or their studies were still in progress.
7 Contact information for two eligible respondents was not located, one eligible respondent is deceased, and one respondent declined to participate without providing a reason.
8 Respondents most often cited lack of time to commit to a telephone interview as the reason for completing the electronic version of the survey.