ABSTRACT - DEVELOPMENTAL FUNDS The Developmental Funds of the CCSG represent a vital component of O’Neal because they empower the Director to respond to, and provide leadership for, the strategic scientific needs and priorities of O’Neal. Funds from other non-CCSG sources are leveraged to recruit new faculty; therefore, O’Neal Developmental Funds will be used only for its pilot grants through the O’Neal Invests Program. This mechanism is critical for fostering a vibrant research environment, allowing Members to test innovative ideas and gather preliminary data for submission of extramural grants. Our emphasis is on promoting inter- and intra-programmatic collaborative translational research and to provide seed funding for R01s and multi-project grants such as SPOREs and P01s. In addition, each year O’Neal supplements four early-stage investigator grants that are primarily funded by our American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant. The recipients of our pilot grants have an excellent track record of obtaining successful grant funding and have added to the scientific growth of our programs. During the current CCSG cycle, $2.8M in Development funds were allocated to O’Neal including $0.77M to developing shared resources ,and $2.1M to pilot grants with an ROI of $7.33:1. In 2020, Sleckman CBI revamped our pilot grant program. All funding from small donors, as well as foundations (i.e., Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama, the Mike Slive Foundation for Prostate Cancer Research), and Developmental Funds are now combined into one the O’Neal Invests Program (OIP). This allowed us to increase the amount of each Pre-R01 pilot grant to $80,000 per year, with the possibility of a second year of funding contingent upon progress made in the first. For pre-P01, pre-SPORE and pre-multi-project grants, the program provides $250,000 per year with a second year available with demonstration of progress in year one for a total of $500,000. Our Review Committee and Community Outreach and Engagement Office evaluate all OIP applications for scientific rigor, alignment with the O’Neal’s research priorities, relevance to our catchment area, and the potential for extramural funding. Besides growing membership, this encourages researchers from areas not usually associated with biomedical research, such as physics, synthetic chemistry, and engineering, to apply their expertise to the field of cancer research. The OIP reviews progress at the end of the first year and provides an additional $80,000 for projects that have made significant advances. At the end of two years, awardees are expected to apply for an R01 or a P level grant. With these aims and the OIP in place, O’Neal has consolidated all of its resources, including the CCSG Development funds, into a highly focused strategically driven effort to promote the research goals of the Strategic Plan. Development funds will be utilized as an integral resource to promote meritorious science, attract members to the Center, build productive and successful collaborative multi-disciplinary teams, and foster the growth of its members.