The ReTOOL program was established in February 2012 with funding support from the Department of Defense (DOD) Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) of the office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), Award No. W81XWH-12-1-0083.
The ReTOOL program focuses on increasing the number of underrepresented minority (URM) cancer scientists who will effectively address cancer disparities through outstanding biomedical cancer research enterprise. The primary mission of the ReTOOL program is to develop, promote and sustain an independent, competitive cancer research training program that creates opportunities and promotes careers in oncology for URM students.
The ReTOOL program has received continuous funding since 2012 by the US Army Department of Defense (W81XWH-12-1-0083 and W81XWH-14-1-0243) and the NIH/National Cancer Institute (P20CA192992 and R25CA214225). The Department of Defense awards funded the Basic ReTOOL program, which provided summer research training for URM students with no previous research experience. The National Cancer Institute P20 award funded the Advanced ReTOOL program, which provided students with previous research experience additional summer research experiences. In 2017, the ReTOOL program was expanded to the Comprehensive ReTOOL (C_ReTOOL) program through the National Cancer Institute Award # R25CA214225.
Under the C_ReTOOL program, qualified URM students from University of Florida, Florida A&M University, Bethune-Cookman University, Edward Waters College, Florida Memorial University, University of Florida, and Florida International University will undergo 15-week research training at University of Florida. Within the next 5 years, we will train at least 15 URM students annually to create opportunities and promote cancer research careers for these students in the areas of basic, behavioral, biomedical and clinical sciences