LJWorld.com

As Kansas University’s Cancer Center continues its march toward National Cancer Institute designation, leaders are increasingly pinning their hopes on the recruitment of top-notch researchers to propel them to success.

It’s a costly process — a new endowed position for an interim deputy director and chair of radiation oncology next week comes with a $10 million price tag for the center.

If successful, KU’s application would be an economic boon for the state, with projections of an economic impact that could exceed the impact of Manhattan’s National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.

Candidates are being heavily recruited by a team of six stakeholders in the cancer center, said Paul Terranova, vice chancellor for research at KU Medical Center.

Of 25 positions the center has identified to be filled before it applies for National Cancer Institute designation in September 2011, four have been filled.

Advertisements and position descriptions are being posted in a number of medical journals, and the center’s leaders are also relying on their own networking efforts to identify people who would be a good fit.

Erica Brown, a spokeswoman for the KU Cancer Center, said the center has identified a number of qualified candidates for additional key positions and searches will continue in the coming weeks for positions like associate directors for prevention, basic science and clinical research.

The candidates would augment KU’s already strong drug discovery, delivery and development efforts.

“These are key leadership positions we need to fill before we apply,” she said.

The Cancer Center is aiming to have $11 million in NCI funding by the time it applies for designation, as grant funding is a critical factor in any successful application. Currently, KU researchers have a total of $7.6 million in NCI funding.

Therefore, KU is targeting researchers with grant money already in hand.

“We will not turn down really great people,” Terranova said. “But, for our basic science positions, we’re requiring, for the most part, that they have NCI funding.”

KU’s last recruit, Rakesh Srivastava, came from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, and brought more than $600,000 in NCI funding with him.

Though most of the recruitment efforts are being funded with private dollars, Srivastava was named an eminent scholar by the Kansas Bioscience Authority last week, meaning KU will receive $1.8 million over five years from the KBA to support his work.

To pull talented faculty away from positions that are already typically relatively lucrative, Terranova said KU highlights its focus on cancer research, and how the university’s leadership has made cancer research KU’s No. 1 research priority.

And, he said, it takes money.

Of the $10 million for the chair in radiation oncology position, $3 million will be used to support the salary needs of the position in the near term, $4 million will be used to help support the researcher’s immediate needs including equipment and lab costs, and $3 million will be endowed to ensure that the position remains paid for in the long term, said Stephanie Grinage, vice president for medical center development for KU Endowment.

The endowed funds can be used to support salary, travel and other scholarly activity, she said. The position is being paid for with a gift from Joe and Jean Brandmeyer from El Paso, Texas.

“If you want the best pitchers in baseball, you’re going to have to pay for them,” Grinage said.

While every situation is different, Grinage said, $10 million is on the high end of recruitment costs. Startup and support costs for more basic science positions may be in the $1 million range, she said. An effort to raise $92 million in private funds is being led by a group of philanthropists from the Kansas City and Wichita areas.

More than $37 million has been raised so far.

“The opportunity for people to engage philanthropically with this effort, it’s pretty boundless,” Grinage said.