Skip Global navigation and goto content

It's a New Day in Public Health.

The Florida Department of Health works to protect, promote, and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, and community efforts.

Skip MegaMenu and goto content
Megamenu requires javascript to be enabled in your browser.

William G. "Bill" Bankhead, Jr., and David Coley Cancer Research Program

Biomedical Research Section

The Legislature established the following goals: 

Expand cancer research capacity in the state by: 

  • Identifying ways to attract new research talent and attendant national grant-producing researchers to cancer research facilities in this state;
  • Implementing a peer-reviewed, competitive process to identify and fund the best proposals to expand cancer research institutes in this state;
  • Funding through available resources for those proposals that demonstrate the greatest opportunity to attract federal research grants and private financial support;
  • Encouraging the employment of bioinformatics in order to create a cancer informatics infrastructure that enhances information and resource exchange and integration through researchers working in diverse disciplines, to facilitate the full spectrum of cancer investigations;
  • Facilitating the technical coordination, business development, and support of intellectual property as it relates to the advancement of cancer research; and
  • Aiding in other multidisciplinary research-support activities as they inure to the advancementof cancer research.

Improve both research and treatment through greater participation in clinical trials networks by: 

  • Identifying ways to increase adult enrollment in cancer clinical trials;
  • Supporting public and private professional education programs designed to increase the awareness and knowledge about cancer clinical trials;
  • Providing tools to cancer patients and community-based oncologists to aid in the identification of cancer clinical trials available in the state; and
  • Creating opportunities for the state's academic cancer centers to collaborate with community-based oncologists in cancer clinical trials networks.
  • Reduce the impact of cancer on disparate groups by:
    • Identifying those cancers that disproportionately impact certain demographic groups; and
    • Building collaborations designed to reduce health disparities as they relate to cancer.

Researchers at any university or research institute in the state are eligible to apply.