2004 Budget Request

Planning and Priority Setting for Cancer Research

NCI Planning Framework

NCI plans and sets priorities to ensure that we are responsive to new discoveries and opportunities, while making the best use of our resources. NCI staff work together and with public and private partners from the scientific, medical, and advocacy communities to determine what is needed and how best to move the science forward. We plan for research that can address critical unanswered questions covering the many types of cancer and the various populations that experience them. We strive to integrate basic, behavioral, population, and applied research through translational activities and strive to identify new opportunities, as well as gaps and barriers to progress, that help us create new programs and improve existing ones. We keep our research portfolio balanced and our support structure strong through program assessment.

Over the past several years, the National Cancer Institute has identified and fostered the development of several broad priority areas that serve as the framework for our annual strategic planning and budget development. NCI Challenges are areas of emphasis that focus investment on improving the resources and mechanisms available to support research, furthering the preparation of the people needed to conduct research, enhancing access to research information and technology, and maximizing the sharing of discovery and collaboration among researchers and clinicians.

Extraordinary Opportunities for Investment are areas of discovery that build upon the most important recent developments in knowledge and technology and hold promise for making significant progress against all cancers. They are developed with formal input from members of the research community, advisory groups, and advocacy organizations. These priority areas are the "breaking news," the emergent fields of cancer research.

Some of these Challenge and Extraordinary Opportunity areas also address major public health needs or concerns that have potential to affect large numbers of people at risk for or affected by cancer. Pursuing these priorities will enhance our understanding of the clinical outcomes resulting from cancer interventions; improve our ability to apply the best available cancer-related knowledge, technology, and interventions in clinical practice and public health; and ensure that we do all that we can to reduce health disparities in cancer incidence and outcomes.

Thus, the framework for our Fiscal Year 2004 Plan and Budget has the following three major components. Each of these includes cross-cutting research initiatives for many types of cancer that are responsive to the National Agendas for Disease-Specific Research developed in consultation with Progress Review Groups.

• Building the Nation's Cancer Research Capacity through increased support to four NCI Challenge areas:
  • Enhancing Investigator Initiated Research
  • Expanding the Capacity of Centers, Networks, and Consortia
  • National Clinical Trials Program in Treatment and Prevention
  • Developing Bioinformatics for Cancer Research.
• Advancing Discovery and Its Application by pursuing "Extraordinary Opportunities for Investment" in:
  • Genes and the Environment
  • Signatures of the Cancer Cell and Its Microenvironment
  • Molecular Targets for Prevention and Treatment
  • Cancer Imaging and Molecular Sensing
  • Cancer Communications
• Addressing Areas of Public Health Emphasis requires increased support for:
  • The Challenge for Improving the Quality of Cancer Care
  • The Challenge for Reducing Cancer-Related Health Disparities
  • A new Extraordinary Opportunity area for Cancer Survivorship
  • An Extraordinary Opportunity for Research on Tobacco and Tobacco-Related Cancers

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NCI Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2004

You may click the funding mechanisms listed below for a description.

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Requested Increases for Fiscal Year 2004

You may click the funding mechanisms listed below for a description.

(Increases over the 2003 President's Budget; dollars in thousands)	Core Increase	Capacity Building Increase	Discovery & Application Increase	Public Health Emphasis Increase	Total Increases
Research Project Grants (RPGs)
Ongoing	$89,160	-	-	-	$89,160
New and Renewal	35,988	99,737	169,100	129,800	434,625
Subtotal - RPGs	125,148	99,737	169,100	129,800	523,785
Small Business Innovation Research	20,995	-	6,000	-	26,995
Total - RPGs	146,142	99,737	175,100	129,800	550,779
Intramural Research	26,132	27,000	5,000	-	58,132
Cancer Centers	24,907	72,830	8,200	2,000	107,937
Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs)	32,725	30,500	4,500	-	67,725
Clinical Trials Infrastructure
Cooperative Clinical Research	7,328	132,900	7,500	9,900	157,628
Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOPs)	4,558	71,550	-	-	76,108
Subtotal - Clinical Trials Infrastructure	11,886	204,450	7,500	9,900	233,736
Training and Education Grants
National Research Service Awards	4,926	-	-	-	4,926
Research Career Program	2,500	-	-	3,000	5,500
Cancer Education Program	942	-	1,000	2,000	3,942
Minority Biomedical Research Support	1,167	-	-	-	1,167
Subtotal - Training and Education Grants	9,535	-	1,000	5,000	15,535
Cancer Control Operations	6,972	-	-	750	7,722
Research Support Contracts	16,944	103,850	44,450	47,400	212,644
Research and Management Support	6,408	39,150	16,700	4,500	66,758
Other Grants	12,363	-	3,800	11,000	27,163
Total Requested Increase	294,014	577,517	266,250	210,350	1,348,131

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Distribution of FY 2004 Budget Request ($5,986,000,000)

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Distribution of FY 2004 Requested Increases ($1,348,131,000)

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Descriptions of Funding Mechanisms

Research Project Grants

Funding for extramural research, primarily through investigator-initiated Research Project Grants (RPGs), comprises the largest part of the NCI core budget. Increases through the NCI Challenge and Extraordinary Opportunity initiatives contribute to the expansion of research supported through RPGs. NCI funds about 4,500 RPGs each year to over 620 institutions across the United States at an average cost of approximately $400,000 per grant. If fully supported, our budget request for Fiscal Year 2003 would add $638 million to the funds available to support investigator-initiated research.

Intramural Research

NCI intramural research focuses on projects conducted by the some 400 researchers located on the NIH campus. These researchers build upon the proximity between their research laboratories and the NIH Clinical Center and the synergism among NIH Institutes to support the rapid translation of basic laboratory research to the clinic and to maintain a special focus on long-term epidemiologic and genetics studies.

Cancer Centers and Special Programs of Research Excellence

Sixty NCI-supported Cancer Centers serve as hubs for cutting-edge research, high quality cancer care, and outreach and education for healthcare providers and patients. Centers of excellence, like the Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs), use flexible funding to pursue questions related to specific forms of cancer and to move disease-specific research quickly from the laboratory to the patient. Funding increases will allow NCI to broaden the number and range of activities at Cancer Centers and SPOREs.

Clinical Trials Infrastructure

NCI supports clinical trials carried out by approximately 10,000 investigators at some 1,700 U.S. hospitals and cancer centers each year. Over 1,300 trials will be conducted in 2001 involving some 200,000 patients. Many of these trials are allowing for the testing of targeted agents like STI571 that hold promise for more effective, less invasive, cancer prevention and treatment. About three-quarters of this funding is for treatment trials and the other quarter supports prevention trials. The largest portion of additional funding will be used to provide for greater reimbursement for patient participation in trials.

Training and Education Grants

NCI funds approximately 170 institutions and 2,000 individuals each year through extramural cancer research training programs to prepare the next generation of scientists and clinicians to use new technologies and work effectively in interdisciplinary, collaborative research environments. Increased funding will be used to enhance these programs and to support the participation and growth of scientists within underserved populations.

Cancer Control

NCI's Cancer Control grants, contracts, and operational funds are used to support research, communication, and other activities focused on ways to reduce cancer risk, incidence, morbidity, and mortality and improve the quality of life for all cancer patients. Increases will be used to support tobacco and tobacco-related research, research to reduce cancer-related health disparities and improve the quality of cancer care, information dissemination, and a host of other similar activities.

Research Support Contracts

Research support contracts are used to support program efforts across the Institute. Areas that utilize contracts are diverse and include such areas as drug development, cancer control research, information dissemination, and support to epidemiological research.

Research Management and Support

Research management and support budgets are used for the critical technical and administrative services required for NCI to carry out its work. They include central administrative functions, overall program direction, grant and contract review and administration, personnel, program coordination, and financial management.

Other Grants

Other grants go to support partnerships and shared resources, scientific evaluation, and workshop and conference support.

How does this budget request compare with previous budgets?

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