Building the Nation's Cancer Research Capacity

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Enhancing Investigator Initiated Research

Goal

Accelerate discoveries and their application by expanding and facilitating researcher access to resources and new technologies. 		On this page:


The Challenge

Investigator-initiated research - research independently conceived and developed by scientists - has always been the primary means by which biomedical research is funded and conducted. Driven by the synergism at medical schools, hospitals, universities, and research centers, these investigators ask the critical questions, explore the options, develop and test innovative technology, and make the discoveries that lead to better cancer science and its application. Investigator-initiated research is also the principal means by which NCI supports efforts to address high-priority goals, such as those identified by the Progress Review Groups.

Recent advances, highlighted by the completed sequencing of the human genome, new technologies for identifying molecular targets within cancer cells, and methods for discovering and analyzing promising drugs aimed at each cancer-causing pathway, have outfitted scientists with a wider arsenal of approaches and technologies for research than ever before. The exploration of what we can learn from analyzing all of the genes altered in a cancer cell is expanding rapidly. Even as this is happening, investigators are developing powerful methods to analyze the vastly more complex array of proteins made in the cell. This offers a more direct route to identify targets for new drugs. However, to take advantage of these advances, researchers often require additional resources, in the form of:

  • new research tools and equipment,
  • collaborators from different disciplines,
  • or special support for translational research.

Providing these resources is part of NCI's challenge in the area of investigator-initiated research.

NCI has seen an enormous increase in the need for funding to allow scientists to fully exploit new technologies and approaches to conducting research. In Fiscal Year 2002, for example, the number of applications submitted to NCI increased by 6 percent, and the cost of research projects supported by NCI was nearly 14 percent higher than the year before. This cost increase reflects a larger number of total active awards as well as modest growth in average cost. While we expect this trend to moderate, we must balance the growing number of research opportunities with the rising costs of research. Though reviewer assessments of research applications consistently identify the top 35 to 40 percent of grants as highly meritorious, the proportion actually funded (the success rate) has averaged 29 percent in recent years. NCI has maintained this success rate by carefully reviewing individually approved grant applications for programmatic changes, the effect of which is, on average, a reduction of 10 percent to the cost of a grant. As research opportunities increase, we must, in addition to leveraging our Federal dollars, ask researchers to complement this funding from other sources as much as possible.

The next generation must choose to enter cancer research because of opportunities for discovery with the potential to change our world. A sufficient infusion of resources and funding into investigator-initiated research will help to ensure that students considering a career in science, as well as current researchers, will perceive cancer research as an appealing and rewarding profession.

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Progress Toward Meeting the Challenge

Identifying and Supporting High Priority Research
Maximizing the Ability to Start New Projects and Collaborations

The NCI has sought to support and foster investigator-initiated research through a variety of policy decisions and flexible funding options.

Identifying and Supporting High Priority Research

NCI takes extra steps to identify and support high priority research by:

  • Seeking out and supporting compelling research proposals as exceptions, particularly those suggesting dramatically new or unconventional approaches to understanding cancer.
  • Giving special consideration to proposals responsive to high-priority research areas identified by NCI advisory groups, to NCI Program Announcements of priority research areas, and to recommendations from Progress Review Groups for research related to specific cancers.

We are also exploring better ways to define and promote the exploration of uncharted areas and to give them heightened consideration in reviewing grant applications.

Maximizing the Ability to Start New Projects and Collaborations

NCI maximizes the pace of discovery by providing a broad range of flexible funding options and promoting collaborations and resource sharing wherever possible by:

  • Providing opportunities for collaborative study through awards such as program project grants (P01s) and cooperative agreements, in addition to the traditional research project grants (R01s) that make up the bulk of NCI's research portfolio.
  • Expanding the use of award mechanisms that provide seed funds for promising research.
  • In Fiscal Year 2001, the number of small (R03) and exploratory/developmental (R21, R33) grants awarded increased more than 15 percent over the previous year.
  • Making "administrative supplement" funds available to investigators to allow them to take advantage of unanticipated opportunities or to pursue interdisciplinary collaborations. For example, through NCI's Activities to Promote Research Collaborations Program, grantees can apply for funding to support collaborations to initiate novel research that pursues unforeseen opportunities and to share resources, develop new technologies, or organize cross-disciplinary meetings or workshops.
  • Promoting collaborative studies and sharing of resources through innovative networks and consortia.

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The Plan - Enhancing Investigator-Initiated Research

Goal
Accelerate discoveries and their application by expanding and facilitating researchers' access to resources and new technologies.

Objectives, Milestones, and Funding Increases Required for Fiscal Year 2004

Enhancing Investigator-Initiated Research Objectives
1. Accelerate discovery through increased funding and numbers of research grants.
2. Encourage careers in cancer research and more innovative and higher reward projects.
3. Facilitate movement from discovery to application by encouraging collaborative research.
4. Encourage investigation in priority areas.
Management and Support $2.00 M
TOTAL $69.89 M


Objective 1: Accelerate the pace of discovery through increased funding for and greater numbers of competing research grants.
  • Support research projects at the full levels recommended by peer reviewers.
  • Fund, at a minimum, 35 percent of competing applications with
    1. The highest scientific merit,
    2. A less certain probability of success but potential to yield greater reward if they do succeed,
    3. Unconventional approaches but unique promise,
    4. A focus on areas of extraordinary need in specific fields of investigation or model systems, and/or
    5. The involvement of new investigators.


    • Objective 2: Encourage investigators to commit to careers in cancer research and to propose more innovative and higher reward projects.
  • Continue to allocate the first 80 to 90 percent of available funds for research project grants through the well-established peer review selection process while ensuring that proposals from new investigators are also funded at a rate comparable to those of more established investigators, utilizing exceptions as necessary.
  • Through a special administrative evaluation process, fund particularly innovative and potentially high reward projects.


    • Objective 3: Facilitate rapid movement from discovery to application by using established mechanisms and creating novel special awards to encourage transdisciplinary and collaborative research.
  • Expand supplemental funding for grants that promote new interdisciplinary collaborations that bring together basic, clinical, and population scientists, such as those fostered by NCI's Activities to Promote Research Collaborations Program.
  • Expand researchers access to central resources such as databases, tissue banks, and animal models using funding supplements; centers, networks, and consortia; and cooperative resource programs.
  • Expand researchers access to technologies that promote interdisciplinary research and collaborations and to the expertise needed to move discoveries to application.
  • Develop and make available information technology tools to foster and enhance interdisciplinary communication and collaboration.
  • Expand the funding for collaborative research awards such as program project grants and cooperative agreements for consortia that facilitate translational research.
  • Expand the use of exploratory grants to encourage more patient- and population-based research.


    • Objective 4: Use regular and special award mechanisms to encourage investigation in priority areas identified by advisory committees, NCI staff, Progress Review Groups, and other groups. Leverage resources for these efforts through collaborative initiatives.
  • Monitor investigator initiated research to assess whether these projects alone are meeting programmatic objectives, such as those identified in specific disease areas.
  • Set aside 10 to 15 percent of funds for Requests for Applications in specifically targeted areas of need.
  • Support Program Announcements and investigator-initiated projects that target identified gaps and/or emerging opportunities (e.g., as identified by the Progress Review Groups and other priority setting and strategic planning activities).
  • Enhance coordination within and among initiatives, and increase management and support commensurate with the growth of the portfolio.
  • Use supplemental awards to encourage outreach to establish public-private partnerships and to leverage current NCI funded activities with new, complementary non-NCI sources of support.

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    Balancing Investigator-initiated Research Projects and Large Initiatives

    There's no substitute for individual insight and creativity. That's why the traditional research project grant (R01) remains the heart of the NCI portfolio of investigator-initiated research and remains our number one priority. The Human Genome Project exists at the other end of the spectrum - a large consortium of investigators and initiative that produced massive amounts of uniquely valuable data, generated using expensive, high technology instrumentation. We now appreciate how much other types of science are necessary, but the difference in scale threatens to create the scientific equivalent of the "digital divide." The challenge is to balance the flow of resources to ensure that the individuals with the best ideas continue to have access to the resources they need.

    In recent years, NCI has expanded funding for a variety of large-scale initiatives to capitalize on the insights and tools derived from genetics research, proteomics, functional imaging, nanoscience, laboratory and clinical models, and targeted drug discovery and development.

    The success of such large-scale approaches, however, increasingly will require individual investigators to prosper by working in conjunction with others to have access to specialized facilities needed to compete. Therefore if individual grants are to continue to lead the way in innovation, NCI infrastructure models must have the capability of marrying individual expertise and imagination to state-of-the-art resources.

    To assure such balance is maintained, NCI staff work to provide broad access to NCI-funded resources, where possible, and to ensure that individual researchers are aware of all the resources available to them. But other related initiatives that provide infrastructure assets such as large-scale instrumentation and bioinformatics support are also integral to maintaining investigator-initiated research. Reasonable growth in average costs, flexible funding options, and full funding for R01s are essential to maintaining access to such technologies to ensure that the next generation of creative investigators working on cancer can continue to flourish in independent settings.