About the NCI Funded Research Portfolio
The NCI Funded Research Portfolio Web site contains information about research grants, contract awards, and intramural research projects funded by the National Cancer Institute. The site provides access to various NCI budget reports that contain information about research funding according to specific research categories. It also provides the ability to search the database in various ways, including text searching of project abstracts and the ability to search the NIH research categories that are assigned to projects carried out by extramural and intramural groups.
How does NCI collect funding data?
At the close of each fiscal year, NCI's Office of Budget and Finance (OBF) asks each scientific organization at NCI to report its research funding according to specific research categories. OBF takes the intramural and extramural research category funding submissions and combines them to get the Institute's funding totals for individual research areas. OBF reviews the total research category funding and, taking into account input from staff and the general budgetary outlook, makes out-year estimates for categories. After the collection and funding category totals are finalized, OBF reports to the NIH Office of Budget on those categories for which NIH annually request information.
What is scientific coding?
Scientific coding refers to the categorization of research projects according to scientific focus. In this process, research projects are analyzed and classified according to scientific topic and content. Scientific coding allows the development of science-based budget information, which can be used in portfolio analysis to examine the distribution of funds across research areas. Scientific coding is also necessary to answer inquiries about the scientific and budgetary aspects of Institute-funded research.
NCI employs a sophisticated system of scientific coding in which trained professionals and/or scientific staff analyze grant applications, contracts, and intramural projects to classify each project for its degree of relevance to Special Interest Category (SIC) and Organ Site (SITE) codes. This coding structure is meant to describe in a consistent way the major scientific disciplines requested by NIH, DHHS, Congress, and the public. A critical characteristic of coded data is comparability from one fiscal year to the next. This process allows the Institute to respond quickly to requests for information from NCI staff and the broader community. The coding definitions used by the NCI intramural program are consistent with those used for extramural grants and research and development (R&D) contracts to maintain accuracy across the Institute's portfolio.
