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Oversight committee approves 15 academic research grants totaling nearly $27.6 million
Summary
The CPRIT oversight committee approved a slate of 15 academic research awards recommended by the Program Integration Committee, covering core facilities, childhood and adolescent cancers, computational oncology and recruitments of tenure‑track and established investigators.
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) oversight committee voted Aug. 20 to approve 15 academic research grant awards recommended by the Program Integration Committee (PIC), totaling nearly $27.6 million.
The grants cover multiple mechanisms, including core facility support, early clinical investigator awards, high‑impact/high‑risk research, a TREC pilot study, and recruitment of established and first‑time tenure‑track investigators. The slate won approval after the committee voted to consider all slates at once rather than taking separate votes on each mechanism.
The awards include funding targeted to childhood and adolescent cancers (about $6 million) and roughly $11 million for computational oncology and analytic methods, including artificial‑intelligence research aimed at early detection and prevention. Core facility awards highlighted by staff include a device accelerator proposed by the Texas Medical Center Foundation and a data science and AI core from UT Southwestern intended to extend AI tools into rural hospitals.
Chief Scientific Officer Scott Hiebert presented the PIC recommendations and noted the inclusion of awards that the SRC (Scientific Review Council) reconsidered after initial declines because of newly available funds. Hiebert also described several individual awards the PIC recommended: a device accelerator, a data science and AI core, high‑impact enzyme‑based early‑detection projects, an osteosarcoma synthetic‑lethal pilot study, and multiple recruitment awards to bring computational and drug‑discovery experts to Texas institutions.
Mister Burgess, chief compliance officer, provided a certification memo that the peer‑review and award processes complied with CPRIT statute and administrative rules. After no conflicts were reported by oversight committee members, the committee approved the PIC slate by voice vote. The committee also delegated contract negotiation authority to the CEO and CPRIT staff to sign contracts on CPRIT’s behalf.
What this means: the awards fund a mix of basic, translational and early clinical work, with explicit emphasis on expanding data science, AI methods and childhood/adolescent cancer research in Texas. The delegation to the CEO lets staff begin contract negotiations and issue awards without separate votes for each grant.
The oversight committee asked staff to continue monitoring conflicts of interest and to ensure compliance steps are documented during contract negotiations and initial award execution.
