Notice Number: NOT-CA-13-001

Key Dates
Release Date: November 7, 2012  

Estimated Publication Date of Announcement:  December 2012 
First Estimated Application Due Date:  March 2013 
Earliest Estimated Award Date:   September 2013
Earliest Estimated Start Date:  September 2013

Issued by
National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Purpose

The National Cancer Institute announces an intent to publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to invite applications for research projects which bridge biological mechanisms to population level scales. Specifically, this FOA is designed to support collaborative, interdisciplinary projects spanning these scales. The goal is to mutually inform and cross-validate these two ends of the cancer research spectrum with insights, data, and/or models generated by approaches from the other end.  These projects should explore links between basic cancer biology, population science and may additionally explore potential health applications in the treatment, prevention, diagnosis, or screening of cancer. To be appropriate for this FOA, projects proposed are expected to pose a challenging cancer research question that can be addressed by connecting these two ends of the research spectrum that is difficult to address or explain through biological or epidemiological investigation alone.

This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and appropriate projects. 

The FOA is expected to be published as a Program Announcement with special review arrangements (PAR) in Winter 2012, with a first expected application due date in Spring 2013.

This FOA will utilize the cooperative agreement (U01) funding mechanism. Details on the scientific scope of the planned FOA are provided below.

Research Initiative Details

This FOA will encourage research projects based on collaborative investigations combining expertise in cancer biology, epidemiology, computational modeling, population modeling, decision science, and biostatistics. Accordingly, prospective applicants are encouraged to consider in advance forming appropriate collaborative teams with expertise in respective areas. It is anticipated that some form of model will be included in these projects, i.e. appropriate projects may involve either models connecting biological mechanism and population models or efforts informing population models with mechanistic insights or informing mechanistic models with population science insights. Projects to be proposed may address any of the numerous technical challenges involved in linking models and data across these scales.  Among the areas of research encouraged in this initiative are basic biology and population science research examining the mechanisms that underlie the effects of cancer, as well as research designed to improve the translation of existing knowledge of strategies for the prevention, early detection, and treatment of cancer. The scope of the FOA will include any project that addresses a challenging cancer question that can only be addressed by linking these two ends of the cancer spectrum:  biological mechanism and population approaches.   

APPLICATIONS ARE NOT BEING SOLICITED AT THIS TIME.

Inquiries

For issues related primarily to biological mechanisms, please direct inquiries to:

Jennifer Couch, Ph.D.
Division of Cancer Biology
National Cancer Institute
Executive Plaza North, Room 5000
6130 Executive Blvd.
Rockville, MD 20892
Phone:  (301) 435-5226
Email:  couchj@mail.nih.gov

For issues related primarily to population science, please direct inquiries to:

Eric J. (Rocky) Feuer, Ph.D.
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences
National Cancer Institute
6116 Executive Blvd. Room 5041 MSC 8317
Bethesda, MD 20892-8317
Phone: (301) 496-5029
Email: rf41u@nih.gov

Weekly TOC for this Announcement
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices

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