Notice Number: NOT-CA-09-027

Key Dates
Release Date:  May 15, 2009

Issued by
National Cancer Institute (NCI) (http://www.cancer.gov)

Purpose

The purpose of this Notice is to clarify the NCI use of the NIH R25 Cancer Education Grant Funding Opportunity Announcement PAR-08-120.

The NCI uses the NIH R25 funding mechanism to support the NCI Cancer Education Grant Program (CEGP). The CEGP is a highly flexible program capable of supporting education research and research dissemination activities in all aspects of cancer science as well as cancer health care delivery. However, education and research dissemination activities in integrative science, i.e., science integrating diverse research disciplines, have historically been absent from the CEGP grant portfolio.

Notable advances in technology have occurred in the past decade that will translate into future significant reductions in human suffering due to cancer. Preparing the future generation of cancer scientists who can take full advantage of and build on these advances will require new educational approaches, including the development of new curricula emphasizing cross-training of biological and quantitative scientists in integrative science. Additionally, improvements in cancer health care delivery based on these new technologies will require the development of new approaches to the education of health care providers and the dissemination of relevant evidence-based information to the lay community. These activities are within the current scope of the CEGP. This notice is therefore being issued to clarify that the CEGP can also be used to support education research and research dissemination activities in integrative science.  

Examples of appropriate activities include:

• Development and evaluation of new curricula in viz. computational biology or systems biology that will foster the cross-training of the future leaders of research in integrative cancer science; 
• Development of short-term courses and workshops to improve the knowledge and skills of cancer biologists in quantitative sciences, such as mathematics, statistics, computer sciences, and bioinformatics, and of quantitative scientists in cancer biology; and to foster the cross-integration of the quantitative sciences and traditional biological sciences to promote innovation in all aspects of cancer research;
  
• Short-term courses to educate community health care providers in evidence-based cancer prevention and control techniques, including cancer screening programs, tobacco cessation techniques, nutrition education, and clinical cancer genetics, incorporating technologies developed through integrative science;
• Development of new educational approaches to encourage community health care providers and community-based organizations to adopt evidence-based prevention and screening interventions based on technologies developed through integrative science; or
• New research dissemination approaches to increase the adaptation of evidence-based preventive interventions incorporating technologies developed through integrative science to ethnically and linguistically diverse communities.

Inquiries

Direct questions regarding this Notice to:

Lester S. Gorelic, Ph.D.
Acting Deputy Branch Chief
Cancer Training Branch
Center for Cancer Training
Office of the Director
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 7026
Bethesda, MD 20892-8346 (for U.S. Postal Service express or regular mail)
Rockville, MD 20852 (for non-USPS express or courier delivery)
Telephone: 301-496-8580
Fax: 301-402-4472