The department when making grants and contracts pursuant to sections 81-637 to 81-640 shall consider:

(1) The relevancy of the applicant's proposal to the furthering of research of cancer and smoking diseases;

(2) The feasibility of the applicant's proposal;

(3) The availability of other sources of funding for the applicant's proposal;

(4) The facilities, personnel, and expertise available to the applicant for use in the proposal; and

(5) Evidence of the quality of the applicant's prior or existing programs for research of cancer and smoking diseases or the applicant's potential for developing new programs for such research.