ITCR - NCI’s Program for Informatics Technology Development
The central mission of the Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR) program is to promote research-driven informatics technology across the development lifecycle to address priority needs in cancer research. The program supports the development of critical tools and resources to improve the acquisition, analysis, visualization, and interpretation of data across the cancer research continuum including cancer biology, cancer treatment and diagnosis, early cancer detection, risk assessment and prevention, cancer control and epidemiology, and cancer heath disparities through a series of funding opportunities.
Scope of the ITCR Program
The scope of the ITCR program includes projects that serve informatics needs spanning the cancer research continuum. Moreover, ITCR provides support for informatics resources across the development lifecycle, including the development of innovative methods and algorithms, early stage software development advanced stage software development, and sustainment of high-value resources on which the community has come to depend. Examples of relevant topics include but are not limited to:
- Data acquisition software, such as wearable devices, and questionnaires
- Data management, storage, organization, and data sharing resources
- Data mining, visualization, and analytics tools and platforms
- Statistical and machine learning methods
- Natural language processing and text mining approaches
- Clinical decision support and treatment planning tools
- Environments for interactive modeling and simulation
The ITCR program has contributed to the development and sustained support of some of the most widely use informatics tools and resources across the cancer research and clinical communities. The Informatics Tools page contains a catalog of cutting-edge open-source informatics tools supported by the ITCR program, which are all free for use by academic and non-profit researchers.
Goals of the ITCR Program
The ITCR program has the following goals:
- Promote integration of informatics technology development with hypothesis-driven cancer research and translational/clinical investigations.
- Provide flexible, scalable, and sustainable support using multiple mechanisms matched to various needs and different stages of informatics technology development throughout the development lifecycle.
- Promote interdisciplinary collaboration in technology development and distribution.
- Promote technology dissemination and software reuse.
- Promote communication and interaction among development teams.
- Leverage NCI program expertise and resources across the Institute and bridge gaps of existing NCI grant portfolios in informatics.
In view of these goals, U01 and U24 ITCR awardees are expected to participate in collaborative research activities to enhance the utility and/or interoperability of the informatics technology being supported through the award using set aside funds corresponding to 10% of their annual budget. All ITCR awardees are also expected to participate in the ITCR annual meeting to present progress in their project.
The ITCR program is regularly evaluated by panels of external experts and subsequently evolves to meet the needs of the cancer research community. A summary of the findings from these evaluations can be found in CSSI’s Program Evaluation Reports page.
Informatics Courses
The ITCR Training Network launched in 2020 to provide courses and resources for two main audiences:
- Cancer researchers (trainings for end users on how to use informatics tools)
- Tool developers (trainings on how to optimize informatics tool usability and user support)
To access online courses, learn about upcoming trainings, and use their resources to develop your own informatics training content, visit the ITCR Training Network.
Contact
For questions about the ITCR Program, please contact nciitcr@mail.nih.gov.