Strategic Planning at NCI
Expert advisors on the Board of Scientific Advisors and the National Cancer Advisory Board (pictured here) ensure that NCI goals and activities are grounded in the best science.
NCI’s strategy to advance progress against cancer is based on careful planning, coordination, collaboration, and fiscal stewardship of federal resources. Through NCI’s divisions, offices, and centers, the institute sets scientific priorities to build on the progress that has been made in long-established areas of research and to seize new opportunities in emerging areas of science.
The National Cancer Act of 1971 mandated NCI to deliver an annual budget proposal, called the Professional Judgment Budget, from the NCI director to the President and Congress. This NCI budget proposal reflects annual strategic planning and the best professional judgment on the funding needed to make substantial progress against cancer.
NCI is committed to providing the resources to pursue the highest-priority scientific discoveries to prevent more cancers and improve the lives of all those who have been affected by the disease. NCI’s strategic planning aligns with both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NCI missions, as well as the National Cancer Plan.
Mission and Goals
NCI’s mission is to lead, conduct, and support cancer research across the nation to advance scientific knowledge and help all people live longer, healthier lives. To deliver on this mission, NCI has established the following goals:
- advance and disseminate knowledge across the cancer continuum by conducting and supporting basic, translational, and clinical research
- train the next generation of cancer researchers and strengthen and diversify the cancer workforce
- spark innovation and advance biomedical technology
- facilitate collaboration and create meaningful partnerships to accelerate progress against cancer
NCI’s goals—which guide the institute’s research, capacity, and operational priorities—directly support the eight goals of the National Cancer Plan.
Strategic Priorities
Research Priorities
NCI enables advances against cancer by investing in a broad portfolio of research. NCI is also committed to preventing, understanding, and mitigating cancer disparities, which is reflected across our entire research portfolio.
Every year, the Annual Plan and Professional Judgment Budget outlines promising scientific opportunities and research priorities in the following areas:
- understanding the biology of cancer
- preventing cancer
- detecting and diagnosing cancer
- treating cancer
- advancing public health in cancer
NCI’s strategic support of basic, translational, clinical, and public health research drives discoveries that improve cancer risk assessment, prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.
Research Capacity Priorities
A robust, diverse workforce and an extensive research infrastructure are the backbone of the entire cancer research enterprise.
NCI is committed to training and sustaining the cancer research workforce through a variety of programs that support individuals at every career stage, from middle and high school students to established investigators. The institute is also committed to creating a diverse workforce of individuals from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in cancer research.
NCI continues to build and maintain a robust cancer research infrastructure. This includes NCI-Designated Cancer Centers and clinical trial networks where clinical trials test new approaches to prevent and treat cancer, facilities that develop and manufacture novel technologies and medicines, and data science resources to help collect and analyze large and complex data sets.
This infrastructure provides the cancer research community with resources and materials that promote innovative thinking. It also helps coordinate research studies and clinical trials to move novel findings from the laboratory into the community, where all people can benefit from NCI’s work.
Operational Priorities
To ensure the nation's investment in cancer research has maximum impact, NCI support for the most promising science is foundational to all its endeavors. The institute’s commitment to scientific stewardship includes:
- maintaining scientific integrity through steadfast and sustained adherence to the values and practices that foster objective and high-quality research activities. NCI upholds scientific integrity in all research activities to ensure that findings from NCI-supported research merit the public’s trust.
- using a rigorous and accountable funding process to invest and distribute the funds entrusted to the institute. NCI supports the most meritorious science as determined by peer review.
- building and maintaining an inclusive and diverse workforce. NCI's Equity and Inclusion Program works to increase the diversity of the cancer research workforce, build a more inclusive and equitable NCI community, address cancer disparities, and advance health equity.
- using evidence-based decision-making to manage NCI’s resources and research portfolio.
- maintaining transparency and public accountability by disseminating cancer research findings and evidence-based cancer information to all audiences who will benefit, including patients, caregivers, health professionals, researchers, and the news media.
Priority Setting
Cancer is not one disease but hundreds of diseases, with diverse causes, and does not affect everyone in the same way. This complexity necessitates priority setting and subsequent planning on many levels to make continued progress.
Idea Generation and Program Development
Research begins with ideas. A large portion of NCI’s budget funds research to explore ideas from scientists in the form of investigator-initiated research proposals. This funding supports highly skilled scientists who have proposed research projects based on their area of expertise. Much of the progress we have made against cancer to date had its origins in investigator-initiated research.
Ideas that drive cancer research also come from NCI leadership, advisory board and committee members, staff, and the public. These ideas are generated in numerous ways and may come from identifying opportunities in emerging areas or recognizing unmet needs and research gaps.
NCI monitors and analyzes cancer research activities in the United States and around the world. NCI also responds to public health needs, requests from Congress, and special initiatives such as the Cancer Moonshot℠ to set priorities with the greatest potential impact and return on investment. These activities often culminate in targeted funding opportunities to develop new research areas and programs.
Prioritization and Vetting
All requests for research funding undergo rigorous peer review. Expert scientists outside of NCI evaluate research proposals on factors such as scientific merit, significance, and likelihood of success. Research proposals may be further evaluated by NCI senior leadership and NCI's Board of Scientific Advisors to consider additional factors, such as public health impact, scientific novelty, alignment with NCI’s scientific priorities, and overall representation of the research topic within the NCI portfolio.
NCI does not make decisions about funding based on predetermined targets for a specific cancer type or research category.
A large portion of the NCI budget supports basic research that applies to many types of cancer. Support for basic research builds the foundation of knowledge that is essential for developing new ways to prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat cancer.
Annual Plan Process
NCI prepares its Annual Plan and Professional Judgment Budget to detail the progress we have made against cancer, outline the optimum future funding needed to continue to make rapid progress against cancer, and highlight promising scientific opportunities.
This is an NCI-wide effort, engaging staff at all levels, to identify scientific research opportunities and determine the funding needed to best support these opportunities and the entire NCI portfolio. Opportunities are then prioritized by NCI senior leadership.
The plan is prepared and released two fiscal years in advance on NCI’s enterprise website, Cancer.gov. This provides NCI’s many stakeholders with a complete picture of the institute’s plans and priorities.