Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology (K12)

Frequently Asked Questions

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The purpose of the Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology (PCACO) K12 is to increase the number of clinicians (M.D.s, D.O.s, Pharm.D.s, nurses with Ph.D.s or equivalent) trained in clinical and translational cancer research, and to promote their career development as cancer researchers.

The NCI K12 allows appointment of Scholars proposing to serve as the lead investigator of an independent clinical trial; or proposing a separate ancillary clinical trial to an existing trial; or proposing to gain research experience in a clinical trial led by another investigator, as part of their research and career development. The PCACO is not intended to train scientists for laboratory-based research. The PCACO provides up to 5 years of support and is renewable.

The NCI is offering an opportunity for current NCI K12 awardees to submit an application for an administrative supplement to support an additional scholar who is establishing a career in improving the health outcomes of people with HIV and cancer. Applications must be submitted by October 30, 2024. For details, refer to the Notice of Special Interest NOT-CA-24-081.

Note: The details on this page are for informational purposes only. Please read and follow all requirements and instructions in the notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) and the Table of IC-Specific Information linked therein before applying for an award. Application review information is described in the funding opportunity. If you have any questions before submitting your application, please contact the relevant NCI program staff listed at the end of this page.

For more complete information, reference the Program Announcement PAR-22-136 (K12 Clinical Trial Optional) and/or contact the program staff.

Applicant Eligibility

PI Criteria

Citizenship	At the time of the award, the PI must be: a citizen of the United States or a non-citizen national or must have been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence (i.e., in possession of a currently valid Alien Registration Receipt Card (1-151 or 1-551), or other legal verification of such status).
Career Stage	Established Investigators (Associate and Full Professors) Expected to have ongoing R01 and/or R01-like cancer- focused grant support (for the K12 Program, R01 and/or R01-like awards are grants or contracts of at least 3 years and $150,000 a year in direct costs, including those supporting clinical trials)

Citizenship

At the time of the award, the PI must be:

a citizen of the United States
or a non-citizen national
or must have been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence (i.e., in possession of a currently valid Alien Registration Receipt Card (1-151 or 1-551), or other legal verification of such status).

Career Stage

Established Investigators (Associate and Full Professors)

Expected to have ongoing R01 and/or R01-like cancer- focused grant support (for the K12 Program, R01 and/or R01-like awards are grants or contracts of at least 3 years and $150,000 a year in direct costs, including those supporting clinical trials)

Mentor Criteria

Career Stage	Researchers from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to participate as mentors. Expected to have independent R01 and/or R01-like cancer-related research support (for the K12 Program, R01 and/or R01-like awards are grants or contracts of at least 3 years and $150,000 a year in direct costs, including those supporting clinical trials)

Career Stage

Researchers from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to participate as mentors.

Expected to have independent R01 and/or R01-like cancer-related research support (for the K12 Program, R01 and/or R01-like awards are grants or contracts of at least 3 years and $150,000 a year in direct costs, including those supporting clinical trials)

Scholar Criteria

Citizenship	At the time of the award, the scholar must be: a citizen of the United States or a noncitizen national or must have been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence (i.e., in possession of a currently valid Alien Registration Receipt Card (1-151 or 1-551), or other legal verification of such status).
Career Stage	Clinician-scientist Scholars must be: Physicians holding M.D. or D.O. degrees Pharm.D. recipients Nurses with a Ph.D. or equivalent degree Scholars still in residency training are not eligible.
Commitment	Scholars must commit a minimum of 9 calendar months (75% of full-time professional effort) to research and career development. NCI will allow surgeon-scientists with active surgical duties to request less than 9 person-months (75%) Full-time professional effort under a K12 career development award for the specific purpose of maintaining specialty clinical competency. Scholars may not request less than 6 person-months (50%) full-time professional effort devoted to research and career development activities. Scholars must provide a justification clearly stating the reason(s) for the reduced amount of effort. Scholars who have U.S. Veterans' Administration (VA) appointments may not consider part of the VA effort toward satisfying the "full-time" requirement at the applicant institution.
Duration of Support for each Scholar	2 to 4 years of support

Budget

K12 Program Allowable Costs

Direct Cost Limits	All applications must not exceed $750,000 for direct costs per year. The first year's direct costs budget is capped at $50,000. This first year is for advertising and recruitment of Scholars, Advisory Board(s) recruitment and meeting, curriculum planning and development, and development of individual Scholar's curricula.
Personnel Support	Up to 1.2 person months total effort per annum may be allocated for all PDs/PIs of the K12 program to partially offset their salaries and associated fringe benefit costs, depending on commitment of effort (NOT-OD-24-057: Guidance on Salary Limitation for Grants and Cooperative Agreements FY 2024 ) Salary requests for the Program Faculty/Mentors are not allowed. In years other than year 1 of a new award, if applicable and justified, up to $26,000 per year may be requested to defray the costs of a consultant, Program Administrator, and/or program assistant with responsibilities directly associated with the institutional career development program; salaries must be commensurate with institutional policy for similar positions and specifically identified and justified. Travel for key persons and Advisory Committee members must be justified as specifically required by the proposed program and must not duplicate items generally available for similar programs at the applicant institution. Travel funds at the rate of $1,500 per person will be provided to defray the travel costs to attend a K-12 community conference (a regular conference voluntarily organized by an institute(s) with an NCI K12 award for the purpose of gathering K12 Scholars and Mentors for exchange of knowledge, career development and networking). https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-CA-20-088.html
F&A Costs/Indirect Costs	8%

Direct Cost Limits

All applications must not exceed $750,000 for direct costs per year.

The first year's direct costs budget is capped at $50,000. This first year is for advertising and recruitment of Scholars, Advisory Board(s) recruitment and meeting, curriculum planning and development, and development of individual Scholar's curricula.

Personnel Support

Up to 1.2 person months total effort per annum may be allocated for all PDs/PIs of the K12 program to partially offset their salaries and associated fringe benefit costs, depending on commitment of effort (NOT-OD-24-057: Guidance on Salary Limitation for Grants and Cooperative Agreements FY 2024 )

Salary requests for the Program Faculty/Mentors are not allowed.

In years other than year 1 of a new award, if applicable and justified, up to $26,000 per year may be requested to defray the costs of a consultant, Program Administrator, and/or program assistant with responsibilities directly associated with the institutional career development program; salaries must be commensurate with institutional policy for similar positions and specifically identified and justified.

Travel for key persons and Advisory Committee members must be justified as specifically required by the proposed program and must not duplicate items generally available for similar programs at the applicant institution.

Travel funds at the rate of $1,500 per person will be provided to defray the travel costs to attend a K-12 community conference (a regular conference voluntarily organized by an institute(s) with an NCI K12 award for the purpose of gathering K12 Scholars and Mentors for exchange of knowledge, career development and networking). https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-CA-20-088.html

F&A Costs/Indirect Costs

Financial Support for Each K12 Fellow

Salary	Up to $100K/year + fringe benefits
Research Development Support	Up to $30K/year

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted electronically.
Applicants must follow the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, as well as any program-specific instructions noted in Section IV. of the Program Announcement.
When the program-specific instructions deviate from those in the Application Guide, follow the program-specific instructions in Program Announcement.
Applications that do not comply with these instructions may be delayed or not be accepted for review.

For assistance with application submission, please see the Frequently Asked Questions and/or contact eRA Commons Help Desk/Grant.gov contact Center.

Application Receipt Dates and Review Schedule

Please refer to the Program Announcement for application due dates.

Applications are due by 5 pm local time.

When a standard submission date falls on a weekend or Federal holiday, the application deadline is automatically extended to the next business day.

Note: Start dates are determined by the availability of NCI funds and may not occur until well after the earliest possible start date.

Review and Selection Process

Subcommittee F convened by the Division of Extramural Activities of the NCI will determine if meets the broad needs of the program and priorities of NCI and the National Cancer Program.

For review criteria for the K12 grant mechanism, see the Section V. Application Review Criteria section of the Program Announcement.

K12 Special Notes

This is an NCI-specific Program Announcement. For all of the policies governing this award mechanism, refer to the Program Announcement.

Recommended Tables

For required Tables for New and Competing Renewal applications, please see Data tables for use with Institutional Research Training grant applications using the SF424 (R&R).

Special Institutional Statement Regarding Human Subjects Research Under K12 Support

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology (K12) must be in compliance with all NIH/NCI policies pertaining to the use of human subjects. These policies apply to all research involving human subjects, not just clinical trials.

The K12 is a training and career development grant in which candidate positions are filled at the discretion of the institution, and assignment of candidate positions is generally not known at the time of application or at the time of an award. Due to this uncertainty, the word "Indefinite" should be placed in the box for IRB review date on the face page of the application, and the applicant institution must provide in the submitted grant application a Special Statement on Human Subjects Research.

Resources

NCI Staff Contacts

For additional information regarding policies and/or guidance in preparing an application for the K12 Award, contact:

Dr. Mark Damico
Program Director
Email: damicomw@mail.nih.gov

For assistance with xTrain, contact:

Teresa Quinones-Saadipour
Program Specialist
Email: Teresa.Quinones-Saadipour@nih.gov
Phone: 240-276-5644

For technical issues with xTrain, contact the eRA Service Desk

For information regarding fiscal and/or budget issues, contact:

Grant Management Contact
Amy Bartosch
Email: Amy.Bartosch@nih.gov

For information regarding review issues, contact:

Referral Officer
Division of Extramural Activities
Phone: 240-276-6390
Fax: 240-276-7682