The Division of Cancer Biology (DCB) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announces the opportunity for current Physical Sciences-Oncology Network (PS-ON), Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative (TEC), Cancer Systems Biology Consortium (CSBC), and Patient-Derived Models of Cancer (PDMC) awardees to apply for supplemental funding to support collaborative research projects. Collaborations can include investigators within one consortium, across consortia, or may include investigators who are not currently supported by the DCB research programs listed above. Collaborative projects must include at least one investigator not named as key personnel on the parent award. The proposed research plan must be within the overall scope of the active parent U54, U01, R37 and/or R01 award. All potential applicants are highly encouraged to contact their NCI Program Director to discuss the planned collaboration and application.
Application and Submission Information
Applications for this initiative must be submitted using the following opportunity or its subsequent reissued equivalent:
PA-20-272 - 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 the funding opportunity announcement used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:
Requests for support of clinical trials will not be accepted and/or considered in response to this funding opportunity announcement.
All supplement requests must be submitted electronically through eRA Commons, see NOT-OD-20-128 for more information.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to notify the NCI Program Director assigned to the parent award that a request has been submitted in response to this NOSI in order to facilitate efficient processing of the request.
Eligibility and Eligible Individuals (Program Director/Principal Investigator):
- Awardees/Applicant(s) must hold an active grant or cooperative agreement in the PS-ON, TEC, CSBC, or PDMC programs, as awarded under the funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) listed below:
PAR-13-184; RFA-CA-15-014; PAR-15-021; PAR-16-105; PAR-16-131; PAR-16-344; PAR-17-171; PAR-19-101; PAR-19-113; PAR-19-287
- To be eligible, the parent award must be able to receive funds in FY21 and be active throughout the 1-year project period. The parent award must not be in an extension period (e.g., cost or no-cost extension).
- For supplements to parent awards that include multiple program directors/principal investigators (PD/PIs), the supplement may be requested by any or all of the PD/PIs (in accordance with the existing leadership plan) and submitted by the awardee institution of the parent award.
- Up to two administrative supplement applications may be submitted by each parent award. If more than two applications are submitted from a given parent award all applications will be administratively withdrawn from consideration.
- Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) are encouraged to apply.
- Collaborations with foreign institutions are allowed, but investigators must provide a justification for the collaboration. Please note that some foreign collaborations will require U.S. State Department approval by the NCI, and that may delay receipt of funding.
Application Due Date:
- All requests, regardless of parent award funding mechanism, must be received by 5:00 PM local time on April 16, 2021.
- This is a one-time announcement. Late applications will not be accepted.
Budget:
- Supplement budget request must reflect the actual needs of the proposed one-year project.
- At least one full year on the parent grant must remain at the time of funding. The application budget is limited to one year only.
- The earliest anticipated start date is August 1, 2021.
- Requests for no-cost extensions on the parent grant to accommodate a supplement will not be permitted.
- If the budget includes a request for salary support, it is required to include a justification and clear details on what each person will be responsible for.
- If supporting students and/or postdoctoral fellows, please indicate if they are already working in the lab or when they will be recruited. A description of how the student/postdoctoral fellow will be supported after the conclusion of the one-year supplement must be included.
- It is not appropriate to have to be named (TBN) personnel listed as part of the budget request.
- Including support for a patient advocate to partner on a supplemental project is acceptable.
- The administrative supplement awards pursuant to this opportunity are contingent upon the availability of funds from NCI and the receipt of a sufficient number of meritorious requests.
Submitting Applications:
- 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-21-030.”
- For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-CA-21-030” (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.
- Page limits: The Research Strategy section of the application is limited to 3 pages (excluding references). If previous PS-ON, TEC, CSBC, or PDMC collaborative administrative supplements were obtained by the applicant, an additional 1-page is allowed to outline the results of previous awards.
Review and Selection Process:
NCI will conduct administrative reviews of applications and will support the most meritorious applications submitted for consideration, based upon the availability of funds.
Specific Review Criteria
NIH staff will consider the ability of the proposed supplement activities to increase the parent award’s overall impact within the original scope of the award. Other criteria that will be considered during the review include:
- The significance of the specific question being pursued;
- The requirement for collaborative research to accomplish the goals of the project;
- A rigorous study or experimental design with adequate plans to address relevant biological variables, such as sex, for studies in vertebrate animals or human subjects;
- The applicability of the approach to requirements from the FOA to which the parent application was submitted (e.g., Does the approach include physical sciences and engineering, iterative systems biology, or patient-derived or tissue-engineered model systems?);
- A realistic scope of work, given the time and budget requested;
- The successful completion of previous administrative supplement projects, if applicable.
Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will be not be considered for the NOSI initiative.
Applicants are encouraged to discuss their application with the scientific/research contact listed in this NOSI prior to submission.
Scientific/Research Contact(s):
Please direct inquiries related to PS-ON and TEC to:
Nastaran Zahir, Ph.D.
Division of Cancer Biology
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-6333
Email: [email protected]
Please direct inquiries related to CSBC to:
Shannon Hughes, Ph.D.
Division of Cancer Biology
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-6224
Email: [email protected]
Please direct inquiries related to PDMC to:
Konstantin Salnikow, Ph.D.
Division of Cancer Biology
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-6230
Email: [email protected]
