NCI Budget and Appropriations

NCI receives its budget from the United States Congress as part of the federal budget process through appropriations for the Department of Health and Human Services and NIH. The Office of Budget and Finance supports the NCI Director and senior NCI staff on budget-related activities.

Current Fiscal Year (FY 2017) Budget

NCI, like other federal agencies, is operating under a continuing resolution that funds the government through April 28, 2017, at FY 2016 levels with an across-the-board spending reduction of 0.2%.

The FY 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act included $5.21 billion for NCI, an increase of $260.5 million over FY 2015.

Budget Allocation and Spending

To achieve its research goals, each year NCI issues grants to support investigator-initiated research, to conduct clinical trials, and to support initiatives that address health care disparities. NCI also funds cross-cutting initiatives such as cancer centers and funds programs to develop a strong workforce of cancer researchers. NCI conducts intramural research, operates research facilities at the NCI-Frederick campus, and provides essential management and support for its cancer research activities.

In the grant-making process, NCI does not use predetermined targets for a specific disease area or research category. Rather, the institute relies heavily on scientific peer review, in which highly trained outside scientists review research proposals and judge them on factors such as scientific merit, potential impact, and likelihood of success.

Research proposals are also further evaluated by NCI leadership to consider additional factors, such as public health significance, scientific novelty, and overall representation of the research topic within the NCI portfolio. In some cases, the National Cancer Advisory Board also reviews the NCI research funding recommendations.

This intensive approach ensures that NCI supports the best science aligned with its mission.

Details about NCI’s research portfolio and grants that NCI is funding in the current fiscal year are available through several sources:

• NIH RePORT Expenditures and Results (RePORTER) website provides data about specific intramural and extramural research projects supported by NCI and other NIH Institutes and Centers in the current fiscal year as well as previous years. The website is updated weekly.
• NCI’s Funded Research Portfolio (NFRP) website contains information about research grants, contract awards, and intramural research projects funded by the National Cancer Institute. This database is updated after the close of each fiscal year. NCI’s scientific organizations are asked to report their research funding according to specific research categories. The reports are combined to calculate the NCI funding totals for individual research areas and are published after review and verification.

NCI Budget Fact Book is an annual report that provides a range of information and data from the previous fiscal year, from NCI program structure to research project grant numbers to extramural programs and historical trends.

Recent Trends in NCI Budgets

Since 2003, with the exception of the funding received through ARRA, there has been a decade-long hiatus in financial growth in the nation’s investment in cancer research. Coupled with the increased expense of research and the loss of nearly 25% of the NCI budget in constant dollars since 2003 due to inflation, the institute’s ability to exploit promising opportunities and to sustain rapid momentum in preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer is being compromised.

NCI Budget Process

The federal budget process involves the preparation of a number of separate reports and requests that relate to each other in varying degrees. As part of this process, NCI prepares several documents each year as required by law.

NCI prepares two budget requests for the coming fiscal year – the President’s Budget and the Professional Judgment Budget. These documents are available to Congress as it drafts the annual appropriation legislation for NCI.

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If you have questions or comments about the NCI budget, contact the Office of Budget and Finance.