Membership
DF/HCC membership grants access to Center-sponsored core facilities at a reduced rate, clinical research support for protocol management, and members-only developmental funding opportunities. The Center promotes opportunities for collaboration among members through Program retreats, symposia, and publications and communications highlighting research and news across DF/HCC.
Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) is a research consortium of more than 1,100 cancer researchers across five Boston academic medical institutions—Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Massachusetts General Hospital—and two Harvard Schools—the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. DF/HCC, a NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center funded through a Cancer Center Support Grant awarded by the NCI, is one of the largest cancer research consortia in the country.
Responsibilities of members include active participation in a DF/HCC program, adherence to the DF/HCC Protocol Review and Monitoring System for the creation and implementation of all DF/HCC-sponsored clinical cancer research, and acknowledgement of use of Cancer Center shared resources on research publications.
Both the NCI and DF/HCC consider membership in a cancer center a privilege, and take very seriously the approval review processes for membership. Every three years, DF/HCC membership status is reviewed. Program leaders conduct annual reviews of program membership to determine which individuals should and should not continue as program members based upon contributions to and participation in the activities and research.
Full Membership
Full membership in DF/HCC is open to all Harvard faculty of Instructor level or above who complete and submit an online application, together with a current NIH biosketch, including other support pages as required by the NCI, and who meet the following requirements:
- Principal Investigator or Project Leader on a peer-reviewed cancer-relevant grant, or
- Co-investigator on a peer-reviewed cancer relevant grant, a primary focus of which is population science, or
- An Investigator who participates in clinical cancer research (patient-oriented and/or population science-based) through protocol development or implementation, or
- A newly independent investigator in the cancer field with start-up support from his/her academic department, and
- The endorsement of the candidate by the Leader of the Program that the candidate proposes to join.
Associate Membership
A candidate for Associate Membership must be:
- A faculty member of a non-HMS/HSPH, non-DF/HCC-affiliated organization that does not have its own NCI-designated Cancer Center and is engaged in collaborative research with a member(s) of DF/HCC; the nature of such collaboration must be essential to the goals of DF/HCC, or
- An independent researcher in a field(s) not represented by traditional academic departments at HMS or HSPH (e.g., nursing, oncology social work, complementary and alternative medicine) whose efforts are deemed important or essential to the goals of DF/HCC and who does not meet standard criteria for membership.
The Associate Member category applies to researchers whose expertise is deemed critical to the mission of DF/HCC but do not hold faculty appointments at HMS or HSPH. The Associate Member designation also applies to Harvard-affiliated professionals who do not hold independent faculty posts but contribute in a significant way to research important to disease-based programs.
Applying for Membership
Before you begin the application for DF/HCC membership, please have an electronic version of your current NIH Biosketch including other support pages, on your computer or in an accessible file. You will be required to upload your biosketch during this application.
Please note that the current NIH Biosketch format has been updated and is required for use beginning in May, 2021. You may download the updated template by clicking on one of the links below:
For reference, NIH notices on new biosketch format:
This application will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. If you need to stop in the middle of the application process, you may save your application and return to it later by clicking on the "Save and Exit" button located on the bottom of the application page.