Priorities and Utilization Limits
It has always been the goal of the UNC Lineberger BIOS SR to give cancer researchers as much assistance as possible, particularly new and/or junior researchers who may not have well established funding sources.
All projects will be subject to a triaging procedure, where projects for UNC Lineberger members involving grant applications will often receive the highest priority.
Consultations which discuss study design and data analyses plans are seldom problematic when it comes to resource allocation if enough time has been allotted for the involved parties to meet, and for follow-up tasks to be completed. Some of these tasks might include standard power and sample size calculations, fundamental or standard statistical analyses for abstracts or manuscripts, and/or write-ups concerning statistical design for grants and/or study protocols.
Projects that require extensive consultation, statistical programming, and/or non-standard statistical methods are more likely to be subject to statistical support limitations. In all cases, efforts will be made to try and find alternative funds and/or statistical support.
Writing in funding for statistical support in grants is strongly encouraged!
All decisions concerning the allocation of BIOS SR resources will be made by the BIOS SR leadership on a case-by-case basis. BIOS SR leadership works hand in glove with the BIOS SR Oversight Committee.
A Note Concerning Data Management Services
It should also be noted that the BIOS SR does not provide data management services. While BIOS SR statisticians may be able to provide insight on how to the setup of a small study spreadsheet-type database, data management services are not provided.