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Infrastructure Needed for Cancer Research: NCI's Challenge

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Enhancing Investigator-Initiated Research


Goal
The Challenge
Progress Toward Meeting the Challenge
Today's Research Investments Shape the Number of Researchers Tomorrow
2003 Plan and Budget Increase Request

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Goal

Accelerate discoveries and their application by expanding and facilitating researcher access to resources and new technologies.

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The Challenge

Investigator-initiated research - research independently conceived and developed by scientists - has always been the primary means by which biomedical research is conducted. Driven by the synergism present at the medical schools, hospitals, universities, research centers, and corporations they represent, these investigators:

  • Ask the critical questions.
  • Explore the options.
  • Develop and test innovative technology.
  • Make the discoveries that lead to better cancer care and prevention.

Recent advances, such as the sequence 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 provided scientists with a wider arsenal of approaches and technologies for research than ever before.

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 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 exploit fully new technologies and approaches to conducting research. In Fiscal Year 2001, for example, the cost of research projects supported by NCI was nearly 15 percent higher than the year before.

In response to this trend, we inevitably are forced to make some compromises in order to balance the growing number of research opportunities with the rising costs of research. These compromises result in NCI awarding fewer research grants than are endorsed by peer review and supporting each at a lower level than recommended.

Though reviewer assessments of research applications consistently identify the top 35 to 40 percent as particularly worthy of support, the proportion actually funded (the success rate) has averaged only 28 percent in recent years. Moreover, NCI has been able to maintain this success rate only by reducing individual grant budgets an average of 15 percent. A lack of funds - rather than a lack of exceptional ideas - remains a significant bottleneck in our fight against cancer.

Low success rates and less than optimal funding may prevent some of the brightest minds of the next generation from choosing to enter cancer research. But 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

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
Maximizing the Ability to Start New Projects and Collaborations
Reviewing Research Proposals Better and Faster

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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 that may have been overlooked in peer review, particularly those suggesting dramatically new or unconventional approaches to understanding cancer.


  • Giving special consideration to proposals from clinical researchers and those who respond to NCI announcements of priority research areas, such as recommendations from Progress Review Groups for research related to specific cancers.

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Maximizing the Ability to Start New Projects and Collaborations

NCI seeks to maximize 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 2000, the number of small (R03) and exploratory/developmental (R21, R33) grants awarded increased more than 25 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, share resources, develop new technologies, or organize cross-disciplinary meetings or workshops.


  • Promoting collaborative studies and sharing of resources through various networks and consortia. (See Centers, Networks, and Consortia Challenge.)


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Reviewing Research Proposals Better and Faster

We review grant applications more effectively and make awards more rapidly than in the past. This is possible in large part because of changes such as:

  • The establishment of a clinical oncology study section in April 2000 by NIH's Center for Scientific Review to ensure that applications for clinical research funding are reviewed by those familiar with the special issues related to such research.


  • Electronic approval of grant applications by National Cancer Advisory Board members between their regularly scheduled meetings, permitting Institute staff to notify recipients earlier and, in many cases, allowing research projects to begin sooner than anticipated. This new procedure reduces the standard nine-month funding cycle by more than a month for most applications.


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Today's Research Investments Shape the Number of Researchers Tomorrow

When, as in recent years, the percentage of research proposals that NCI funds (the success rate) averages less than 30 percent, and grants routinely are less than fully funded, young people may be discouraged from pursuing careers in cancer research and opt for professions in more stable or well-paying fields. Faced with such odds, many clinicians in particular may choose a career in private practice over clinical research. Basic cancer biology scientists may choose another career altogether.

Thus, it is not just funds for training per se that influence the number of future researchers. The success rate of the Research Project Grant (RPG) pool also makes its mark.

First, many trainees depend on RPGs awarded to their mentors, rather than formal training awards, for financial support of their training. If their mentors' grants are not funded, trainees often have no immediate means to continue.

Second, upon completion of their training, new investigators today generally cannot expect much financial support from the university or medical school where they work, but instead must depend on RPG awards for their salaries as well as for research support. Without such grants, these investigators are unable to pursue their chosen career in an academic setting.

Clearly, then, reductions in the numbers of awards and the percent of recommended dollars actually awarded have profound effects on the next generation of cancer researchers.

To continue to address the many questions remaining in cancer research, NCI must assure a steady supply of future researchers in the training pipeline. This requires two things:

  • More than support for the training itself


  • Maintenance of the light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of reasonable odds for obtaining grants to sustain the careers of future cancer researchers.


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The Plan - Enhancing Investigator-Initiated Research

Goal
Speed the rate of cancer research discovery and accelerate the application of discoveries by expanding and facilitating access to resources and new technologies.

Fiscal Year 2003 Objectives, Milestones, and Funding Increases Needed

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.
TOTAL $121.5 M


Objective 1: Accelerate the pace of discovery through increased funding for and larger numbers of competing research grants.
  • Support research projects at the full levels recommended by peer reviewers.
  • Fund, at a minimum, the top 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 conventional selection processes while ensuring that proposals from new investigators are also funded at a rate comparable to those of more established investigators.
  • Through a special 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 to grants to promote new interdisciplinary collaborations that bring together basic and clinical scientists, such as those fostered by NCI's Activities to Promote Research Collaborations Program.
  • Expand researcher access to central resources such as databases, tissue banks, and animal models using funding supplements; centers, networks, and consortia; and cooperative resource programs.
  • Expand researcher access to technologies that promote interdisciplinary research and collaborations and to the expertise needed to move discoveries to application.
  • Encourage the development of information technology tools to foster and enhance interdisciplinary communication and collaboration.
  • Double the funding for collaborative research awards such as program project grants and cooperative agreements for networks in cancer genetics, imaging, early detection, and other areas.
  • Expand the use of exploratory grants to encourage more patient- and population-based research.
  • Allow peer review to be the primary determinant of appropriate funding levels for individual awards.


  • Objective 4: Use regular and special award mechanisms to encourage investigation in priority areas identified by advisory committees, NCI staff, Progress Review Groups, and extraordinary opportunity working groups.
  • 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.
  • Enhance coordination within and among initiatives, and increase direct contact with applicants and grantees by increasing levels of extramural staff commensurate with the growth of the portfolio.
  • Learn more about current NCI research at the New Cancer Research Portfolio Web Site, the most comprehensive, easy to use source of information about NCI-supported research.

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