Key Dates

Related Announcements

RFA-CA-24-019 - Sustained Support for Informatics Technologies for Cancer Research and Management (U24 Clinical Trial Optional)

RFA-CA-24-018 - Advanced Development of Informatics Technologies for Cancer Research and Management (U24 Clinical Trial Optional)

RFA-CA-24-017 - Early-Stage Development of Informatics Technologies for Cancer Research and Management (U01 Clinical Trial Optional)

RFA-CA-24-016 - Development of Innovative Informatics Methods and Algorithms for Cancer Research and Management (R21 Clinical Trial Optional).

RFA-CA-23-002 Innovative Molecular and Cellular Analysis Technologies for Basic and Clinical Cancer Research (R61 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

RFA-CA-23-003 Advanced Development and Validation of Emerging Molecular and Cellular Analysis Technologies for Basic and Clinical Cancer Research (R33 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

RFA-CA-23-004 Innovative Biospecimen Science Technologies for Basic and Clinical Cancer Research (R61 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

RFA-CA-23-005 Advanced Development and Validation of Emerging Biospecimen Science Technologies for Basic and Clinical Cancer Research (R33 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

RFA-CA-23-014 Development of Innovative Informatics Methods and Algorithms for Cancer Research and Management (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)

RFA-CA-23-015 Early-Stage Development of Informatics Technologies for Cancer Research and Management (U01 Clinical Trial Optional)

RFA-CA-23-016 Advanced Development of Informatics Technologies for Cancer Research and Management (U24 Clinical Trial Optional)

RFA-CA-23-017 Sustained Support for Informatics Technologies for Cancer Research and Management (U24 Clinical Trial Optional)

Issued by

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Purpose

The purpose of this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is to encourage grant applications for the development of novel technologies to support the needs of cancer control and population sciences research including healthcare delivery research, surveillance research, behavioral research, cancer epidemiology, and population scale -omics research with the goal of driving innovation in this field.

Background

NCI administers two unique programs focused on the development of technologies that offer transformative potential for advancing cancer research. The Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) program supports highly innovative, data-generating platforms and methodologies. The program solicits grant applications for early-stage development of novel tools and methods that enable cancer researchers across the entire spectrum of cancer research. The Informatics Technologies for Cancer Research (ITCR) program supports powerful data analysis, management, and visualization technologies. The program supports research-driven informatics technology development spanning all aspects of cancer research and across the tool development lifecycle.

While NCI has been successful in soliciting novel technology development proposals that focus on advancing basic biological research and clinical cancer research, there have been fewer applications received that are specifically aimed at addressing technology gaps that might accelerate research for investigators focused on cancer control and population sciences, including cancer healthcare delivery, surveillance, behavior, epidemiology, and population-scale -omics research.

Research Objectives

The goal of this NOSI is to encourage applications proposing development of novel technologies relevant to cancer control and/or appropriate for population studies. Applications in response to this NOSI should address topics within the scientific scope of the referenced IMAT or ITCR RFAs. Research areas of interest for this NOSI include but are not limited to:

• At-home sample collection techniques and preservation methods to overcome bottlenecks in shipping;
• Remote methods to support assessment of cancer-related behavioral risk factors (e.g., monitoring of physical performance and anthropometric testing, dietary intake, exercise; capturing of physical and social environment, cancer screening, etc.);
• Resources to support patients, caregivers, and survivors (e.g. novel communication tools and testing platforms for underserved populations or for use in rural and remote areas);
• Tools to address health inequities (e.g. infrastructure for medical image storage and processing in low resource settings to improve precision risk management and communication of findings);
• Technologies to reduce barriers in enrolling participants from underrepresented groups in population-based cancer studies;
• Tools to augment the utilization of newly developed or updated genomic resources in population-scale -omics cancer research (e.g. the human genome reference or other genetic and molecular annotations);
• Technologies to improve data collection, consolidation, quality, sharing, and standardized analysis strategies for cancer surveillance;
• Technologies for advancing image analysis and extraction of behavioral and environmental information (e.g. street-level digital images, aerial images, medical images, etc.);
• Methods for accelerating and automating geospatial data cleaning, processing, and analysis;
• Tools for supporting and accelerating population-scale genomics research (e.g., sample acquisition and processing as well as data management, harmonization, and analysis);
• Technologies to advance research in healthcare delivery;
• Resources to monitor and analyze environmental variables including air pollution and other exposures;
• Technologies for prediction of patients trajectory and diagnosis; and
• Methods to ameliorate treatment toxicities or to facilitate symptom management.

Interested parties should thoroughly review all requirements and responsive criteria in the IMAT and ITCR RFAs. The IMAT program requires the inclusion of quantitative performance measures to accompany the aims of any proposed research. Applications that fail to include adequate performance measures or are otherwise determined to not be responsive to the RFA requirements will not be reviewed.

Applications should clearly describe the relevance of the proposed technology to cancer control and population-scale research.

Application and Submission Information

This notice applies to due dates on or after March 01, 2023 and subsequent receipt dates through the expiration date of this notice.

Submit applications for this initiative using one of the following funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) or any reissues of these announcement through the expiration date of this notice.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the funding opportunity announcement used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:

• For funding consideration, applicants must include NOT-CA-23-037 (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.

Investigators planning to submit an application in response to this NOSI are strongly encouraged to contact and discuss their proposed research/aims with Program staff/Scientific Contacts listed on this NOSI well in advance of the application receipt date to better determine appropriateness.

Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will not be considered for the NOSI initiative.

Inquiries

Scientific/Research Contact(s)

Kelly Crotty, PhD
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-255-0917
Email: kelly.crotty@nih.gov

Peer Review Contact(s)

Referral Officer
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-6390
Email: ncirefof@dea.nci.nih.gov

Financial/Grants Management Contact(s)

Sean Hine
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-6291
E-mail: hines@mail.nih.gov