Developing Effective, Evidence-Based Training for Cancer Team Science Leadership for National Impact

A 2025 National Academies' report, The Science and Practice of Team Science, identified critical gaps in leadership development and highlighted evidence-based best practices and infrastructure needs to enhance team science. This brief perspective addresses team science approaches needed to overcome the complexities of cancer biology, carcinogenesis, and the processes for advancing cancer knowledge and clinical practice to effectively develop novel interventions. To define evidence-based leadership education programs rooted in the National Academies' report and tailored for cancer researchers, we conducted a survey-based educational needs assessment and performed a structured literature review using Medical Subject Headings terms for cancer and team science. The review identified 53 articles with few focused on team science leadership and none on team science leadership training for cancer research. Survey responses from 58 national cancer research leaders involved in NCI P30 CCSG (n=45), P01 (n=18), U54 (n=18), and P50 SPORE (n=16) programs identified key skills for successful team science leadership: team leadership, strategic planning, grant planning/writing, translational/clinical leadership, science communication, mentorship, and conflict resolution. Cancer research leaders identified the biggest gaps in current training as: team leadership, conflict resolution, team evaluation/metrics, systems thinking and analysis, and institutional navigation. From 68 mid-career faculty representing the audience for training, self-assessments revealed developing/managing large research grants, managing shared resources, and interdependencies as the most desired topics for training with most preferring training in‑person. Delivering structured training in the competencies of team science will better prepare established, independent investigators to lead larger complex, multi-component cancer research programs.