Join us in developing innovative research ideas to better communicate evolving cancer information
Background
The National Cancer Institute launched the Creative Collaborations Foundry in 2023 to spur innovative solutions to intractable problems in cancer control. The Foundry’s Innovation Labs aim to accelerate progress by bringing together collaborative and open-minded people with diverse experiences, expertise, and perspectives.
The Challenge
Changing guidelines about when women should start yearly mammography screening.
Disagreement among researchers, healthcare providers, and private companies about the benefits that new multi-cancer early detection tests offer to current patients.
Changes in protection of the rights, welfare and wellbeing of all human subjects involved in clinical research human subjects
We know that changing health information can lead to confusion, mistrust, disengagement, and difficulty making health decisions. In part, these consequences result from a failure to convey the nature of information and scientific discovery, leaving many poorly prepared to interpret and use new information to make health decisions.
Practices and guidelines will continue to change as we learn and interpret new information. Innovative strategies are needed to prepare communicators and the public to deal with evolving information when it inevitably arises. We need proactive solutions that foster a realistic public understanding of the values and limits of information to prevent future changes from eroding trust and confidence and to prepare individuals to use new information to make the best health decisions for themselves.
The Goals
We believe that solutions to this challenge are likely to exist at the interface between fields of expertise and lived experience, which is why we want to bring together a diverse community of people who bring different perspectives to the challenge. The goals of this innovation lab are:
- to form an interdisciplinary community of scholars,
- to nurture new collaborative teams,
- to pilot projects for subsequent submission to existing NCI funding opportunities.
What to expect
The Innovation Lab is an immersive, interactive experience. You will join a highly interdisciplinary group selected, in part, based on a low likelihood for prior interaction in a process designed to catalyze creative thinking.
From July 15-19, participants will engage with each other, their event facilitators, and expert mentors to develop a shared understanding of the research challenge, explore novel solutions, and generate teams to shape these ideas into research proposals. Each day will build on the previous one as we develop and share novel approaches and new collaborations.
On July 26, teams will present their research ideas for the opportunity to win one of five $10,000 challenge prizes, which are intended to facilitate further development of research collaborations and grant proposals for submission for NIH funding.
Questions?
Please feel free to contact either Nicole or Ellen, co-directors of this lab, if we can help clarify any questions you may have.