This Notice of Special Interest describes an opportunity for supplementary funding addressing combined use of alcohol and tobacco as a target for cancer prevention and control.

Tobacco and alcohol are estimated to cause approximately 29% and 5.5% of cancer deaths in the United States (U.S.), respectively, and the two behaviors can synergistically impact the risk of cancers in the aero-digestive tract. Tobacco and alcohol use are related in several ways; for example, current and former tobacco use is a significant predictor of binge drinking, cigarette smoking risk increases in a dose-dependent fashion as alcohol use increases, and alcohol can serve as a contextual and/or disinhibitory trigger for daily or occasional smoking, leading to lower quit rates and higher rates of relapse.

Efforts to encourage research on co-use of alcohol and tobacco are timely given the recent increased attention to alcohol use (including light and moderate consumption) as a cancer risk factor, by leveraging NCI’s existing large grant portfolio which provides a platform to address many important research questions at the interface of tobacco and alcohol use as cancer risk factors. Moreover, insights gained from tobacco control research could help advance research on alcohol use as a target for cancer prevention and control.

Supplemental funding could help set the stage for future work on a number of research topics concerning co-use of alcohol and tobacco as targets for cancer control.

Specific topics that could be addressed through existing NCI grants that fit within the scope of this supplement include, but are not limited to:

• Understanding prevalence and trajectories of multiple tobacco product and alcohol co-use, including electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), in populations not adequately covered by existing surveillance systems;
• Understanding how to effectively communicate the cancer-related risks of tobacco and alcohol co-use, particularly to populations at high risk for the two behaviors (e.g., youth, young adults, military, LGBT, racial and ethnic minorities, adults with depression);
• Addressing alcohol use in tobacco prevention and control interventions, especially among vulnerable groups such as homeless, socioeconomically disadvantaged, some racial or ethnic minority and veteran populations, cancer survivors, as well as persons living with HIV, as a path towards more effective interventions;
• Assessing and addressing the role of mental health and alcohol use disorders as mediators/moderators of tobacco prevention and control interventions;
• Examination of environmental, media, advertising, marketing, and policy influences on initiation and co-use of alcohol and tobacco in youth and young adults;
• Understanding potential interactions between alcohol- and tobacco-related economic and policy factors and tobacco prevention and control; and
• Addition of alcohol-related biomarker analyses to studies of tobacco-related biomarkers of exposure and health effects to improve understanding of behavior and outcomes.

Eligibility

• Administrative supplement applications are limited to currently funded projects supported by NCI
• Individual(s) must hold an active eligible grant (R01, R37, U01, P01, U19, and UM1).
• For supplements to parent awards that include multiple PDs/PIs, the supplement may be requested by any or all of the PDs/PIs (in accordance with the existing leadership plan) and submitted by the awardee institution of the parent award.

Description of circumstances for which administrative supplements are available.

Application and Submission Information

Applications for this initiative must be submitted using the following opportunity or its subsequent reissued equivalent.

• PA-18-591 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional)

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and PA-18-591 must be followed, with the following additions:

• Application Due Date: Submissions must be received by May 15, 2020, at 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization for FY 2020 funding.
• For funding consideration, applicants must include NOT-CA-20-039 (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.
• Applicants should begin the supplement application abstract by stating This application is being submitted in response to the Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) identified as NOT-CA-20-039.
• Budget and Period of Support:
  • The budget should not exceed $100,000 in total costs.
  • At least one full year on the parent grant must remain at the time of funding. The application budget is limited to 1 year only. Funds from this supplement must be expended within 12 months of the supplement award issue date.
  • Requests for no-cost extensions on the parent grant to accommodate a supplement will not be permitted.
• The Research Strategy must not exceed two (2) pages and summarize the activities of the parent grant that encompass those proposed in the supplemental request and describe how those activities are proposed for augmentation and/or enhancement in the supplemental request by describing:
  • The supplement's purpose;
  • The relationship of the supplement request to the parent grant; and
  • The additional value provided to the underlying funded research (parent grant) of the PI and any collaborating investigators.
• NCI requires applicants to submit electronically through Grants.gov. All applications (including those for multi-project activity codes) must be submitted electronically using a single-project application form package with the Competition ID of FORMS-E-ADMINSUPP-RESEARCH
• The process for Streamlined Submissions using the eRA Commons cannot be used for this initiative.

Administrative Review Process:

NCI will conduct administrative reviews of applications submitted and received (complete and on time) and it will support the most meritorious applications submitted for consideration, based upon availability of funds.

Criteria:

1. Is the work proposed within the scope of the active award?
2. Does the administrative supplement reasonably allow for the proposed project to be completed, given the time and budget requested?
1. Does the work in the administrative supplement fill a gap in the scientific literature?
4. Does the proposed work address one of the topics listed under the NCI research interests, or a topic that reasonably fits the purpose of this funding opportunity?
5. Does the proposed work address a significant scientific problem concerning efforts to address alcohol and tobacco for cancer control?

Applicants are strongly encouraged to notify the program contact at the Institute supporting the parent award that a request has been submitted in response to this NOSI to facilitate efficient processing of the application.

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