The R01 payline for fiscal year (FY) 2007 will be higher than expected, NCI Director Dr. John Niederhuber has announced.

Speaking to NCI's Board of Scientific Advisors (BSA) on June 28, Dr. Niederhuber explained that the end-of-year payline for R01 grants would be the 15th percentile. At the beginning of the year, the payline estimate was the 12th percentile, the same level at which NCI finished in 2006.

The payline for the R01 program for first-time investigators will be the 21st percentile, Dr. Niederhuber reported, which also is higher than what was anticipated at the beginning of the fiscal year.  Read more  

The recent release of the final report of the Translational Research Working Group (TRWG) and its approval by the National Cancer Advisory Board, marks an important milestone for NCI. After 2 years of work, we're hopeful that TRWG's recommendations, along with activities already taking place as a result of recommendations made 2 years ago by the Clinical Trials Working Group (CTWG), will lead to more rapid progress in translating important research findings into new, effective interventions.

TRWG was led by co-chairs Drs. Ernest Hawk of NCI's Office of Centers, Training and Resources; Lynn Matrisian of Vanderbilt University; and William Nelson of Johns Hopkins University. It's important to stress that the TRWG report - developed by some of the most well-respected translational and clinical research experts within and outside of NCI, with additional input from literally hundreds of scientists and members of the cancer community - focuses on "early translation," that is, the work done to move basic research discoveries into phase I and II clinical trials. The recommendations are a natural complement to several CTWG-related activities, which are focused on "late translation," primarily phase III clinical trials.  Read more  

The NCI Cancer Bulletin is produced by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI, which was established in 1937, leads the national effort to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. Through basic, clinical, and population-based biomedical research and training, NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can identify the environmental and genetic causes of cancer, prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases. For more information on cancer, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit http://www.cancer.gov. NCI Cancer Bulletin staff can be reached at ncicancerbulletin@mail.nih.gov.