NCI Bottom Line: A Blog about Grants and More
This grantee-focused blog covers the latest on NCI’s fiscal landscape, funding decisions, grants policy news, processes, and more.
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Familiar Fiscal Challenges for NCIOn the heels of Congress extending the Continuing Resolution for FY 2022, the NCI Director addresses what short-term funding means for NCI’s grantee community. As in years past, Dr. Sharpless highlights the Institute’s interim payline policies for both competing and noncompeting grants.
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An Annual Plan that Celebrates the National Cancer ActWith special authorities granted in the National Cancer Act of 1971, NCI has been submitting an annual budget proposal directly to the President and Congress for 50 years. In early September, NCI released the Annual Plan & Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2023. In this edition of the NCI Bottom Line blog, Dr. Michelle Bennett discusses priorities from the annual plan that are especially relevant to current and future NCI-funded researchers, including NCI’s commitment to investigator-initiated research and raising the R01 payline to fund more highly meritorious research.
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NCI Updates Training Programs to Support Cancer Researchers of the FutureIn this edition of the NCI Bottom Line, the Center for Cancer Training Director Dr. Oliver Bogler details numerous changes to the institute’s training programs and how NCI intends to stay abreast of the needs of future generations of cancer researchers. Specifically, Dr. Bogler discusses changes to the K08 career development program, inclusivity within the T32 grant program, and details of a new developmental program for early-stage surgeon-scientists.
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Analysis Guides NCI Programs Supporting the R01-Funded WorkforceNCI’s Center for Research Strategy analyzed 26 years of data to better understand the funding trends of the NCI R01-funded workforce, focusing on the age and career stage of investigators. This data, recently published by Dr. L. Michelle Bennett et al. in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, shows how NCI is actively developing policies based on this understanding and looking into methods that sustainably fund more principal investigators.
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Funding from Congress Allows NCI to Raise Grants PaylineWith a final fiscal year 2021 budget passed by Congress, NCI Director, Dr. Norman E. Sharpless, turns to the NCI Bottom Line blog to provide the grantee community with an update on how the NCI plans to use the budget increase to expand paylines. With this continued increase in funding from Congress, NCI remains on its current trajectory to achieve the goal of reaching the 15th percentile by FY 2025.
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Cancer Grand Challenges Attracts Global AttentionAs we near the April deadline to submit Expressions of Interest, Dr. Singer takes the opportunity to provide an update to the cancer research community on the Cancer Grand Challenges program and nine scientific challenges. Cancer Grand Challenges will fund novel ideas by multidisciplinary research teams from around the world that offer the potential to advance bold cancer research and improve outcomes for people affected by cancer. Additionally, Dr. Singer expands on the joint January 12th preapplication webinar which served to answer the research community’s questions about the program and application processes.
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NCI’s New Fiscal Year Brings Old Fiscal ChallengesFor this edition of the NCI Bottom Line blog, the NCI Director addresses what short-term funding from a continuing resolution means for NCI’s FY 2021 interim paylines. Specifically, Dr. Sharpless highlights the Institute’s interim policies for both competing and noncompeting grants.
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Accelerating Progress: NCI Annual Plan and Budget Proposal for FY 2022In this blog, Dr. Michelle Bennett, director of NCI’s Center for Research Strategy, provides an overview of the FY 2022 Annual Plan and Budget Proposal. This blog post highlights NCI’s proposal to increase paylines and showcases patient stories that inform our scientific strategy and planning.
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Global Leaders in Cancer Research Partner on Cancer Grand ChallengesFor this edition of the NCI Bottom Line, Dr. Singer highlights what NCI and CRUK’s new partnership, Cancer Grand Challenges, means for cancer research. Cancer Grand Challenges will fund novel ideas by multidisciplinary research teams from around the world that offer the potential to advance bold cancer research and improve outcomes for people affected by cancer.
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NCI Initiatives on the Human Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2Following up to her most recent NCI Bottom Line post, Dr. Dinah Singer, along with Dr. Doug Lowy, provides readers an update on SeroNet, and expands on three additional components of the network. In addition to the Centers of Excellence and serological sciences projects, Drs. Lowy and Singer provide in-depth details about the SeroNet Serology Lab, Serological Sciences Capacity Building Centers, and a SeroNet Coordinating Center.
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NCI Seeks Applications for SeroNet COVID-19 ResearchIn light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this edition of the NCI Bottom Line by Dr. Dinah Singer highlights and expands upon NCI’s recently launched Serological Sciences Network (SeroNet). Specifically, Dr. Singer describes the five components included in this initiative, as well as elaborates on the subsequent funding opportunities.
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NCI Presents 13 Research Concepts to Board of Scientific AdvisorsIn this edition of the NCI Bottom Line, the Director of the Division of Extramural Activities, Dr. Paulette Gray, discusses the concepts presented at the recent virtual Board of Scientific Advisors meeting. While this blog links to and recaps all 13 concepts presented, Dr. Gray highlights the Glioblastoma Therapeutics Network, CISNET Incubator Program for New Cancer Sites, and the Pediatric Preclinical Testing Public Private Partnership (PPTP3).
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Cancer Research in the Era of COVID-19In response to Dr. Singer’s presentation at the virtual 2020 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), this edition of the NCI Bottom Line highlights examples of how NCI continues to make progress in cancer research during the era of COVID-19. Dr. Singer also provides details on how NCI, working with NIH, has implemented new flexibilities for the cancer research community during this crisis.
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Cancer Research Training in the Era of COVID-19Following Dr. Sharpless’s most recent NCI Bottom Line post about NCI’s grant operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Center for Cancer Training’s (CCT) director, Dr. Oliver Bogler, addresses grantees about cancer research training during this unprecedented time. He also advises the cancer research community to continue to follow NIH/NCI grants guidance and suggests some ideas for how grantees and trainees can use their time.
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NCI Funding during the COVID-19 Public Health EmergencyIn this edition of the NCI Bottom Line, NCI Director Dr. Norman E. Sharpless addresses the grantee community about NCI funding and operations during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Dr. Sharpless highlights NCI’s peer review schedule, our program staff, as well as general NCI grants administration processes during this time.
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NCI Plans Policy Changes on Percent of Effort Required on GrantsFor this edition of the NCI Bottom Line, NCI Deputy Director, Dr. Dinah Singer elaborates on her February 11th presentation to the National Cancer Advisory Board. In this blog, Dr. Singer highlights a potential new policy from the NCI regarding a plan to implement minimum level of effort requirements for the following type of grants: U01, R01, R21, and P01.
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FY 2020 Budget Boost for NCI Increases Research Awards, Improves PaylinesFor this edition of the NCI Bottom Line, NCI Director, Dr. Norman E. Sharpless provides an update to the fiscal year (FY) 2020 budget and what exactly that means for NCI, research awards and paylines. Dr. Sharpless further discusses the grant policies that surround both competing and noncompeting grants from NCI.
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Living in Budget Limbo Under a Continuing ResolutionFor this edition of the NCI Bottom Line, Patrick McGarey, NCI’s Associate Director of Finance and Legislation provides an overview of NCI’s interim funding policy for Fiscal Year 2020. Furthermore, this blog post highlights the historical nature of functioning under a continuing resolution, and what a continuing resolution means for the NCI, as well as NCI’s grantee community.
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Envisioning NCI’s Future: Annual Plan and Budget Proposal for FY 2021For this edition of the NCI Bottom Line, Dr. Michelle Bennett, director of NCI’s Center for Research Strategy, provides an overview of NCI’s FY2021 Annual Plan and Budget Proposal. In the blog, Dr. Bennett highlights priorities from the Plan that are especially relevant to current and future NCI-funded researchers, including supporting more investigator-initiated research and maximizing opportunities in emerging areas of science.
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Welcome to NCI Bottom Line: A Blog about Grants and More!For this inaugural blog post, NCI Bottom Line editors spoke with NCI Acting Director, Dr. Douglas R. Lowy, about why NCI is launching a new blog on everything you ever wanted to know about grants and how NCI funds its grants portfolio. In this Q&A, Dr. Lowy shares his vision for keeping the extramural community informed and engaged on NCI grants and funding policies.