About the California Breast Cancer Research Program…
Thanks, California Taxpayers!
Every year, California taxpayers have an opportunity to contribute to a variety of nonprofit organizations, including the California Breast Cancer Research Program, by checking a box on—and adding a donation to—their state income tax returns. Last year, the CBCRP was #1 in the state for tax check-off donations.
By the end of 2001, 62,238 taxpayers made donations with a total of $623,991.
Thanks, California taxpayers!
Making California a Leader among States
In 1993, California breast cancer activists joined forces with scientists, clinicians, state legislators, and University of California officials to catapult the state into national leadership for breast cancer research.
The activists, most of them women who had survived or currently had breast cancer, were impatient with the slow pace of progress against the disease. With their allies, they wrote and won passage of statewide legislation to push breast cancer research in new, creative directions. The California Breast Cancer Act, sponsored by then Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman, raised the tobacco tax by two cents per pack, with 45% of the proceeds going to what was then, and still is, the largest state-funded breast cancer research effort in the nation, the California Breast Cancer Research Program.
Funded primarily by the tobacco tax (a steadily declining source), supplemented with taxpayer donations selected on state income tax returns, and private contributions, the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) has provided a total of $115,667,191 in research funds since 1995. In 2001, the CBCRP awarded $18,758,851 for 66 single- and multiple-year grants at 32 California institutions.
The California Breast Cancer Research Program's Key Strategies
- Support the best, most innovative research
- Build the research talent pool by training new researchers
- Encourage creativity by financing collaboration across research fields
- Widely distribute research results to scientists, health care professionals and the public
Pushing the Research Boundaries
During our eight-year history, the CBCRP has established a record for filling gaps not covered by other research funders, jump-starting new areas of research, and fostering new types of collaboration. Three examples of CBCRP funding strategies illustrate how we push the boundaries of research:
- To tap the expertise of people most affected by breast cancer, the CBCRP has pioneered collaboration between research scientists and community-based organizations, including community clinics, organizations serving women with breast cancer, and organizations serving minority communities. The collaborations are available in even wider circles. “Not a Breast Cancer Researcher? Concerned Community Member?” say headlines on the cover of our call for research applications. Inside, the call invites Californians with promising research ideas to team up with professional scientists.
- Because the results of basic science research can sit on the shelf for years, with no one in the scientific community being aware of any possible implications for fighting breast cancer, the CBCRP also funds “translation” grants. These grants spark collaboration between basic research scientists and scientists who may be able to translate basic research into improvements in breast cancer prevention, detection, or treatment.
- Since the disease is still raging despite increasing research efforts, new breakthroughs are likely to come from thinking outside established patterns of scientific thought. So the CBCRP brings together scientists from different fields to develop creative ideas outside traditional research channels.
A Structure that Encourages Public Input
The CBCRP's has inspired similar changes in other research funding agencies around the nation. Breast cancer activists play a leading role in every aspect of our work, from setting research priorities to recommending grants for funding to getting out the word about research results.
A part of the University of California, the CBCRP is under the direction of the Office of the President, in Oakland, with a staff managing the solicitation, review, award, and oversight of grants.
Our 16-member Breast Cancer Research Council includes scientists, clinicians, representatives of industry and non-profit health organizations, and five breast cancer advocates. The Council provides vision, sets research priorities, and determines how we invest our funds in research. It also conducts one of two reviews that every proposal must pass to receive funding. The Council reviews research proposals for relevance to the CBCRP's breast cancer advocates from outside California also review all proposals for scientific merit.
In addition, all Californians concerned about breast cancer have opportunities to help set the research agenda via the CBCRP's statewide advisory meetings, which are open to the public. Our bi-annual research symposia, brings the scientific and treatment communities into dialog with a broader range of the public than is common at such conferences. We also encourage public review of CBCRP-funded research through our Web site (http://cbcrp.ucop.edu) and this Annual Report.
Donations
Revenue from the California Breast Cancer Research Program's main source of funds, the tax on tobacco, decreases every year. You can support innovative breast cancer research in California by:
- Checking the donation line on your California Income Tax Return and adding a donation to the California Breast Cancer Research Fund
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Sending a check payable to The Regents of the University of California, with a letter designating the funds for the CBCRP, to:
California Breast Cancer Research Program
300 Lakeside Drive, 6th Floor,
Oakland, CA 94612-3550
