Core Curriculum
All fellows participate in the CCEP’s core curriculum that combines five required courses, additional coursework as appropriate, and professional development/other activities.
Fellows take four content courses and one professional development course. Content courses provide fellows with a basic understanding and the common language of the wide range of disciplines (from basic to behavioral science) that contribute to effective cancer prevention and control.
The professional development course promotes grant writing skills.
Content Courses
All fellows take a survey course in the fundamentals of cancer prevention and control (HPM/HBHE 765/EPID 772). All fellows also take three other content courses (or their equivalents), ranging from basic science to behavioral theory.
Suggested courses include:
- Cancer Pathobiology (PATH 725), or Diet and Cancer (EPID/NUTR 815) or Cancer Epidemiology and Pathogenesis (EPID 770) or Seminar in Carcinogenesis (PATH 792)
- Cancer Epidemiology Methods (EPID 771) or Advanced Cancer Epidemiology (EPID 775)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health — Theory and Methods (HB 730) or Social Psychological Theories of Individual Health Behavior (HB 800)
Choice in required content courses provides flexibility to match fellows’ backgrounds, interests, and schedules.
At the same time, the courses assure that fellows receive training in the basic tenets and vocabulary of at least three major perspectives: basic science/carcinogenesis; epidemiology; and behavioral science.
Professional Development – Grant Writing
Fellows must take a course in grant writing.
Predoctoral fellows may take NUTR 880 or grant and proposal writing seminars offered by their home departments, such as EPID 726.
Postdoctoral fellows take NUTR 880, a grant writing seminar. Postdoctoral fellows, with an interest in a specific department, may opt to take the equivalent grant writing seminar in that department rather than NUTR 880.
Other Courses
Fellows take, as needed, other courses to develop mastery of a content area, additional collaborative capabilities, and/or competency in research methods. For postdoctoral fellows, the Training Advisory Committee, in collaboration with the preceptor teams and the fellows, identify the need and/or desire for specific coursework.
Predoctoral fellows take coursework in research methods as part of their doctoral programs. Postdoctoral fellows take research methods coursework as individual needs dictate.
Options for formal training, especially for physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals include: the Public Health Leadership Program (PHL) and its Health Care and Prevention MPH program; and the Translational and Clinical Research Curriculum, a core curriculum that includes a two-year seminar series/for-credit course (EPID 896, Miller) focused on advanced research methods and case studies in conducting clinical research.
In addition to formal University-based coursework, fellows are encouraged to take short courses either on- or off-campus to enhance content and methods expertise. Off-campus programs include such opportunities as the summer cancer prevention core curriculum sponsored by the NCI’s Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program and the new investigator workshops sponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology. On-campus programs include an array of methods short courses through various departments and centers, such as those offered Odum Institute for Research in Social Sciences.
In addition the curriculum incorporates integrative/professional development activities, including a journal club, seminars, workshops, and other specialized activities.
Professional Development/Other Activities
Throughout the academic year, all fellows attend a monthly fellows meeting to present on their work in progress.
Fellows regularly participate in RCR training, a monthly Professional Development Seminar Series, training on rigor and reproducibility in research, regular meetings with mentors, journal clubs, and other educational tools and supports. The CCEP and UNC Lineberger also sponsor or co-sponsor special seminars or small group meetings featuring cancer prevention and control researchers. These Visiting Scholars are nationally recognized leaders in cancer prevention and control research. In addition to presenting a seminar and visiting with faculty mentors, these Visiting Scholars meet with the CCEP fellows as a group. Fellows also attend seminars of interest organized by other campus groups or at nearby universities. Fellows are also encouraged to attend several of the weekly multidisciplinary clinical conferences at the NC Cancer Hospital. Weekly conferences include breast, lung, and GI cancer, as well as melanoma and hematologic diseases.
Fellows must also complete their certification of training in the use of human subjects.