The National Cancer Institute recently awarded a $12 million partnership grant to UNC-CH and N.C. Central University.
The grant is one of three types of partnerships established by NCI to reduce cancer health disparities in minorities.
UNC received about $4.9 million while NCCU will be granted $7 million in the next five years. The amount NCCU received from the grant is a record for the institution.
Ellen De Graffenreid, director of communications and marketing at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at UNC, said NCI picks a committee to choose the recipients based on merit.
UNC and NCCU jointly applied for the grant. The partnership between the two institutions has grown in the past six years.
Dr. Shelton Earp, director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, said the cancer institutes worked on projects together and recruited faculty.
“We tested the waters, tested out the partnership, and found it to be very beneficial to both of us,” Earp said.
Richard Goldberg, professor and researcher at Lineberger, said the two institutions wrote the grant application together.
“It was a collaborative effort,” he said.