Part 1. Overview Information

Key Dates

All applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization.

Applicants are encouraged to apply early to allow adequate time to make any corrections to errors found in the application during the submission process by the due date.

No late applications will be accepted for this Funding Opportunity Announcement.

It is critical that applicants follow the instructions in the Research (R) Instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, except where instructed to do otherwise (in this FOA or in a Notice from NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts).

Conformance to all requirements (both in the Application Guide and the FOA) is required and strictly enforced. Applicants must read and follow all application instructions in the Application Guide as well as any program-specific instructions noted in Section IV. When the program-specific instructions deviate from those in the Application Guide, follow the program-specific instructions.

Applications that do not comply with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review.

Part 2. Full Text of Announcement

Section I. Funding Opportunity Description

Purpose

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to solicit applications for Liquid Biopsy Research Laboratories (LBRLs), one of the two components of the Precompetitive Collaboration on Liquid Biopsy for Early-Cancer Assessment Consortium (LBC). LBC is an Academic-Industrial Partnership program to develop and validate liquid biopsy technologies, methods, or assays (collectively termed technologies ), for early-cancer detection and risk assessment. LBRLs will conduct research on the development of liquid biopsy technologies for the capture and multi-dimensional quantitative analysis of tumor associated cells, DNA, RNA, exosomes and/or other cancer-associated analytes in body fluids of individuals with early-stage cancer or at high risk of developing the disease; and/or for distinguishing cancer from benign disease or aggressive from indolent cancers. A required component of LBRLs are well-integrated precompetitive alliances between academic and industry research and development teams that ensure the successful analytical and/or diagnostic validation of the developed liquid biopsy technologies.

In addition to the Liquid Biopsy Research Laboratories (LBRLs), LBC will include the Data Management and Coordination Unit (DMCU) supported by a companion FOA (RFA-CA-23-019). The DMCU will be responsible for: (1) data management, monitoring, and communications among all LBC sites; (2) providing oversight of cross-consortium validation studies and for blinding and unblinding of samples; and (3) for developing computational and Machine Learning (ML)/Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, and common data elements (CDEs) for the analysis of complex data originating from multiple technology platforms.

Key Definitions for the context of this FOA

Liquid Biopsy: denotes a clinical test performed on a sample of blood or another type of body fluid aimed at the detection of characteristics that may reveal the presence of a cancer or risk for cancer in an individual. For the purpose of this FOA, the definition encompasses detection/monitoring of all tumor-associated circulating cells, nucleic acids, and extracellular vesicles in blood and/or other biofluids.

Technologies for early-cancer assessment: refers collectively to tools, methods, assays, and other technical aspects relevant to the early detection and characterization of human pre-cancers and early-stage cancers.

Pre-competitive collaboration: refers to the situation when entities (that might ultimately become commercial competitors) share information and collaborate on early stages of research and development and/or specific, defined aspects/domains (e.g., establishing standards, best practices), where joint efforts may be beneficial to all stakeholders. It is a means of efficient utilization and sharing of resources that allows effective movement to market competition.

Partnership team: each application must involve a team with complementary expertise representing investigators from academia and biomedical industry; thus, for the purpose of this FOA, such teams are referred to as "Partnership Teams" and the entire endeavor proposed for the U01 cooperative agreement award - as "Partnerships".

Background

Cancer is the second leading cause of death both globally and in the United States. Recent studies suggest that the detection of cancer at early, pre-clinical stages has the potential to reduce cancer-specific morbidity and mortality. Yet, at present, more than 70% of cancer deaths occur in organ sites without approved early detection modalities, mainly due to cost-ineffectiveness caused by low disease prevalence in most organ sites, combined with the low sensitivity of detection at early stages, and the relatively high false positive rates that can lead to significant morbidities or mortality from unwarranted invasive diagnostic procedures, or to unnecessary financial toxicity. Currently, screening programs for early-cancer detection in the general population in the United States are recommended only for a few organ sites with relatively high incidence, including colon, breast, and cervix, as well as for lung cancer in individuals with increased, smoking history-based risk, or for prostate cancer at an individualized basis. Existing screening programs, such as colonoscopy for colorectal cancers, mammography for breast cancer or low-dose computed tomography for lung cancer, require expensive infrastructure and highly trained technical and medical personnel. Hence, compliance with recommended screenings has remained poor, especially among socioeconomically vulnerable populations, such as ethnic/racial minorities, under-insured or uninsured individuals or those residing in rural areas with limited access to health care services.

In the era of personalized medicine, it is desirable to have noninvasive or minimally invasive methods to determine the presence of a cancer at its earliest possible stage of progression when curative treatment is most effective and likely to have an impact on mortality. One such approach is through liquid biopsy that could enable clinicians to screen for disease in asymptomatic individuals at normal or high-risk for cancer. Liquid biopsies can be used to detect components of a growing cancer, such as circulating tumor cells (CTC), circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) derived from tumor cells (ctDNA), circulating tumor-derived exosomes and other analytes in body fluids, including blood (serum or plasma), urine, saliva, sputum, etc. Liquid biopsies have the potential of changing the way early cancer diagnosis is made in routine medical care. They can help characterize the tumor molecularly, monitor genetic changes over time using repeat sampling of biofluids and by gaining a better understanding of the disease dynamics to identify patients that would require immediate treatment intervention versus those that would benefit from active surveillance. Liquid biopsy can also offer an opportunity to detect early lesions in cases where biopsy is difficult, such as brain cancer, as it has been shown that tumor DNA can be found in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). These assays can aid in the differential early diagnosis of brain cancers in combination with imaging. Due to both analytical and biological challenges, the implementation of liquid biopsy approaches for early-cancer detection has been lagging behind relative to their implementation for use in cancer diagnosis, predicting response to therapy and monitoring relapse. This is related to the relatively low levels of CTCs, ctDNA or other cancer-related analytes released into the bloodstream by early-stage cancers and the lack of technologies with appropriately high levels of analytical and diagnostic sensitivity and specificity.

Despite recent advances in the liquid biopsy research and development space, many challenges remain in adapting and utilizing new technologies in routine cancer screening either for a single cancer type or in the context of multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests. MCED tests are liquid biopsy assays designed to screen for multiple types of cancers simultaneously by interrogating multiple circulating analytes and signatures in a single sample and offer an opportunity for streamlining the cancer screening process with the potential of improving both adherence to and cost-effectiveness of screening. The Precompetitive Collaboration on Liquid Biopsy for Early-Cancer Assessment (LBC) initiative is an Academic-Industrial Partnership program whose goal is to address some of the existing challenges and to accelerate progress in the implementation of liquid biopsy technologies in the early-cancer detection space. Some of the remaining challenges that could be addressed by the LBC program are:

• Lack of standardization in technical aspects for circulating biomarker detection resulting in false positivity/negativity and difficulties in obtaining reproducible results;
• Difficulty with the multiplicity of potential biomarkers to be evaluated in one sample;
• Insufficient data identifying the clinical impact of genomic variants of uncertain significance;
• Challenges with the Limit of Detection (LOD) - i.e., what is the lowest level of the biomarkers that must be present in the biofluid to be detected in early-stage disease or in asymptomatic individuals.

Main areas of research to be supported by the LBC program may include, but are not limited to:

• Validation of assays that can detect/screen for multiple types of cancer from a single blood sample (e.g., colon, lung, pancreas, breast, prostate). The assays would need to distinguish the cancer type or have viable imaging or biopsies for a definitive diagnosis.
• Validation of existing technologies, methods, assays for the detection and quantification of tumor associated circulating DNA, RNA, or exosomes in blood or body fluids of patients with early-stage disease or those at high risk.
• Detection of low allelic variance (<0.5%) suitable for the detection of early-stage disease.
• Sharing of data through collaboration with BloodPAC and other organizations. The LBC program has developed a letter of interest with BloodPAC, a non-profit institution, and actively participates in their committees on data standardization, harmonization and uptake using Common Data platforms.
• Development and/or characterization of computational tools to integrate data arising from a variety of circulating molecular signatures in the blood or body fluids of patients with early-stage disease or those at high risk and developing algorithms for tissue-of-origin prediction.

LBC Administrative and Governance Structure (For Information Only)

LBC will be structured around the two main units - the LBRs and the DMCU. Although individual teams of LBC recipients (LBRs and the DMCU) will operate independently, they will be required to interact closely with other LBC recipients and engage in collaborative activities with them.

Steering Committee: The LBC administrative structure and all activities will be governed by its Steering Committee, which will include representatives of the LBC recipients and the NCI. The Steering Committee will be the governing body of LBC that will integrate the efforts of all recipients and will provide oversight of collaborative activities. The Chair and co-Chair of the Steering Committee will be PDs/PIs of LBC cooperative agreement awards and will be elected by the Steering Committee. Any member of the Steering Committee can offer nominations for the Chair and co-Chair.

Further details of the Steering Committee composition and responsibilities are provided in Section VI.2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements: Cooperative Agreement Terms and Conditions.

Specific Research Objectives and Requirements

Scope: This FOA encourages the submission of applications to establish the LBC LBRLs. Prior affiliation with the LBC is not required and all qualified investigators are invited to apply.

Overall Research Focus and Partnership Teams. Research activities proposed under this FOA must be focused on developing and validating technologies, methods, and assays for liquid biopsy for early detection of cancers.

Academic-Industrial Partnerships. To realize these goals, applicants from academic institutions are expected to develop partnership teams which include industrial scientists. The members of the team representing the industrial partner should already be engaged in the development of liquid biopsy-oriented technologies and/or technologies that are applicable to or can be adapted to liquid biopsies.

The teams should be capable of appropriate verification of technology platforms, assays, devices, etc. as needed to facilitate their adaptation to clinical settings, with academic investigators or clinical experts. The teams are expected to have a range of expertise in such areas as: cancer biology with emphasis on targeted cancer types, biospecimen science, bioinformatics, clinical assay development, technology engineering, and/or other areas as needed for the research proposed.

Two types of research activities are required for each proposed partnership:

I. An individual research project addressing the development and/or validation of liquid biopsy-oriented technology that could offer substantial clinical benefits. Such projects could be of the following types, depending on the stage of development and characteristics of a given technology:

• Technology Development/Refinement- with emphasis on development and/or modification of existing technologies, methods, assays and tests for analytic verification and validation using relevant liquid biopsy human biospecimens. The feasibility of the proposed goals must be supported by strong preliminary data and/or other scientific justification. The proposed platform/method/assay should have the potential to reach clinical testing within the timeframe of this initiative.
• Technology Harmonization/Verification- with emphasis on comparisons of such aspects as sensitivity, accuracy, and/or reproducibility in detecting targets by different approaches using the same set of human clinical biospecimens; such comparative studies between the various technologies of liquid biopsy must be conducted in well-annotated samples and, when necessary, data should be compared to tissue biopsy in establishing that the clinical tests can detect the established disease.

II. Collaborative efforts with other partnerships within the Liquid Biopsy Consortium. Each awardee will be required to engage in collaborations with other Partnerships in the Network. These collaborative efforts are expected to be pre-competitive in nature and benefit all stakeholders.

• Specific activities to be carried out will be determined post-award by the Liquid Biopsy Consortium Steering Committee. Nonetheless, all applicants should anticipate (and be prepared for) the following types of precompetitive activities:
• Collaborative research on aspects generally relevant across various liquid biopsy-oriented technologies--establishing standards, best practices, planning and development of resources and reagents, including the collection of biospecimens, necessary to move a technology toward clinical utility etc.; Sharing biospecimens with other Partnerships (required for biospecimens to be collected under the Partnership award); and
• Validation and clinical application of sufficiently advanced technologies- technologies that have successfully completed the "Harmonization/Verification" phase may be selected for trans-Consortium studies using appropriate cohorts of longitudinally collected samples (that would include pre-clinical samples) as well as samples representing diverse/minority populations. In the context of this FOA, pre-clinical samples are those that are obtained from subjects prior to the onset of clinical symptoms.

Neoplasms/Organ Types. Research proposed should be focused on those neoplasms/organ types for which liquid biopsy is likely to offer substantial clinical benefits. For example, an organ type(s) may be selected for which:

• There is a high prevalence of detection of non-lethal cancers associated with current screening methodologies;
• No tools exist for noninvasive monitoring of disease progression from indolent to malignant cancer;
• No noninvasive tools exist for early cancer detection in high-risk populations (genetic and/or familial predispositions); and/or
• Tumors that are inaccessible to tissue biopsy.

Specific Directions of Interest. Research proposed is expected to be relevant to the challenges identified in the Background described above, that is, to improve the level of detection, sensitivity and specificity for a proposed clinical application and/or technology for capturing, isolating, purifying and characterizing circulating analytes, CTCs, ctDNA, EVs, etc. for early-stage disease.

Possible focus areas include (but are not limited to) the following examples:

• Development of new and/or validation of existing technologies, methods, assays for the detection and quantification of tumor-associated circulating cells including tumor associated macrophages, platelets and tumor regulating stroma cells from blood and/or other body fluids.
• Development of assays that can detect/screen for multiple types of cancer from a single plasma sample (e.g. colon, lung, pancreas, breast, prostate). The assays would need to distinguish the cancer type and be compared to imaging or tissue biopsies for a definitive diagnosis.
• Development of biosensors for real-time monitoring of circulating tumor DNA, cells, exosomes and other analytes.

Non-Responsive Applications

The following types of activities remain outside of the scope of this FOA and will be considered as non-responsive to this FOA. Applications proposing such activities will not be reviewed.

• Approaches that are not focused primarily on human liquid biopsies;
• Development of new technologies for which there is lack of evidence (preliminary results and/or cancer biology literature data) that the targeted analyte(s) is(are) present in liquid biopsies;
• Commercialization of assays or technologies;
• Primary focus on software/informatics solutions, database development, data mining, statistical tools, and computational/mathematical modeling.

Note: NCI will hold a pre-application informational webinar for this FOA. When published, the related Notice will be linked with the FOA.

See Section VIII. Other Information for award authorities and regulations.

Section II. Award Information

NIH grants policies as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement will apply to the applications submitted and awards made from this FOA.

Section III. Eligibility Information

1. Eligible Applicants

Higher Education Institutions

• Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
• Private Institutions of Higher Education

The following types of Higher Education Institutions are always encouraged to apply for NIH support as Public or Private Institutions of Higher Education:

• Hispanic-serving Institutions
• Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
• Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs)
• Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
• Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)

Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education

• Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
• Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)

For-Profit Organizations

• Small Businesses
• For-Profit Organizations (Other than Small Businesses)

Federal Governments

• Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government
• U.S. Territory or Possession

Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are not eligible to apply.

Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are not eligible to apply.

Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed.

Applicant Organizations

Applicant organizations must complete and maintain the following registrations as described in the SF 424 (R&R) Application Guide to be eligible to apply for or receive an award. All registrations must be completed prior to the application being submitted. Registration can take 6 weeks or more, so applicants should begin the registration process as soon as possible. The NIH Policy on Late Submission of Grant Applications states that failure to complete registrations in advance of a due date is not a valid reason for a late submission.

• System for Award Management (SAM) Applicants must complete and maintain an active registration, which requires renewal at least annually. The renewal process may require as much time as the initial registration. SAM registration includes the assignment of a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code for domestic organizations which have not already been assigned a CAGE Code.
  • NATO Commercial and Government Entity (NCAGE) Code Foreign organizations must obtain an NCAGE code (in lieu of a CAGE code) in order to register in SAM.
  • Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)- A UEI is issued as part of the SAM.gov registration process. The same UEI must be used for all registrations, as well as on the grant application.
• eRA Commons - Once the unique organization identifier is established, organizations can register with eRA Commons in tandem with completing their Grants.gov registrations; all registrations must be in place by time of submission. eRA Commons requires organizations to identify at least one Signing Official (SO) and at least one Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) account in order to submit an application.
• Grants.gov Applicants must have an active SAM registration in order to complete the Grants.gov registration.

Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PD(s)/PI(s))

All PD(s)/PI(s) must have an eRA Commons account. PD(s)/PI(s) should work with their organizational officials to either create a new account or to affiliate their existing account with the applicant organization in eRA Commons. If the PD/PI is also the organizational Signing Official, they must have two distinct eRA Commons accounts, one for each role. Obtaining an eRA Commons account can take up to 2 weeks.

Any individual(s) with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research as the Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) (PD(s)/PI(s)) is invited to work with his/her organization to develop an application for support. Individuals from diverse backgrounds, including underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, and women are always encouraged to apply for NIH support. See, Reminder: Notice of NIH's Encouragement of Applications Supporting Individuals from Underrepresented Ethnic and Racial Groups as well as Individuals with Disabilities, NOT-OD-22-019.

For institutions/organizations proposing multiple PDs/PIs, visit the Multiple Program Director/Principal Investigator Policy and submission details in the Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Component of the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.

The Contact PD/PI can be a Multi-Principal Investigator (MPI) or Co-I on another application for this FOA. An MPI on this application may be an MPI or a Co-I on another application in response to this FOA.

2. Cost Sharing

This FOA does not require cost sharing as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

3. Additional Information on Eligibility

Number of Applications

Applicant organizations may submit more than one application, provided that each application is scientifically distinct.

The NIH will not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications under review at the same time, per 2.3.7.4 Submission of Resubmission Application. This means that the NIH will not accept:

• A new (A0) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of an overlapping new (A0) or resubmission (A1) application.
• A resubmission (A1) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of the previous new (A0) application.
• An application that has substantial overlap with another application pending appeal of initial peer review (see 2.3.9.4 Similar, Essentially Identical, or Identical Applications).

Section IV. Application and Submission Information

1. Requesting an Application Package

The application forms package specific to this opportunity must be accessed through ASSIST, Grants.gov Workspace or an institutional system-to-system solution. Links to apply using ASSIST or Grants.gov Workspace are available in Part 1 of this FOA. See your administrative office for instructions if you plan to use an institutional system-to-system solution.

2. Content and Form of Application Submission

It is critical that applicants follow the instructions in the Research (R) Instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide except where instructed in this funding opportunity announcement to do otherwise. Conformance to the requirements in the Application Guide is required and strictly enforced. Applications that are out of compliance with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review.

Letter of Intent

Although a letter of intent is not required, is not binding, and does not enter into the review of a subsequent application, the information that it contains allows IC staff to estimate the potential review workload and plan the review.

By the date listed in Part 1. Overview Information, prospective applicants are asked to submit a letter of intent that includes the following information:

• Descriptive title of proposed activity
• Name(s), address(es), and telephone number(s) of the PD(s)/PI(s)
• Names of other key personnel
• Participating institution(s)
• Number and title of this funding opportunity

The letter of intent should be sent to:

Lynn Sorbara, Ph.D.
Telephone: 240-276-7135
Fax: 240-276-7845
Email: [email protected]

Page Limitations

All page limitations described in the SF424 Application Guide and the Table of Page Limits must be followed.

• Research Strategy Section is limited to 30 pages.

The following section supplements the instructions found in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and should be used for preparing an application to this FOA.

SF424(R&R) Cover

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

SF424(R&R) Project/Performance Site Locations

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

SF424(R&R) Other Project Information

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

Other Attachments: Applicants must provide the following additional materials specified below in support of their application. Each attachment should be uploaded as a separate PDF using the indicated filenames (which will serve as application bookmarks).

Attachment 1: Biospecimen Procurement (use filename Biospecimens).

In this attachment, a detailed description of the proposed prospective and/or retrospective collection of human biospecimens should be discussed and the following documentation included:

• Information on the types of patients and control subjects, clinical information the applicants plan to obtain, and types of specimens by organ site to be collected.
• If the applicants have existing repositories, then a list of types and number of available specimens by organ site should be described.

Attachment 2. Quality Control and Quality Assurance (use filename QC-QA).

Provide documentation reflecting your previous efforts relevant to quality control and quality assurance issues and related considerations that may arise in multi-institutional studies. For example, include documentation of confirmation of pathology and radiology reports and inter-laboratory comparisons of test results and procedures.

SF424(R&R) Senior/Key Person Profile

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

R&R or Modular Budget

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed. The following additional instructions apply for this FOA:

a) PD/PI Effort Commitment. The minimal effort commitment for the contact PD/PI must be 1.8 person-months per year. The effort commitment for other PDs/PIs (if multiple) must be a minimum of 1.2 person-months. These effort commitments cannot be reduced in later years of the award.

b) Travel Expenses. Applicants must budget travel funds for two persons (two PDs/PIs or the PD/PI and an additional senior investigator) to attend one Steering Committee meeting per year.

c) Consortium Collaborative Fund. Applicants must set aside $100,000 of their annual direct budgets for a Consortium Collaborative Fund. This fund will support acquiring PRoBE study design compliant (or similar design) samples for validation; testing and incorporation of technology/methods/assays developed by the Liquid Biopsy Consortium members; establishing a collaboration to evaluate technology/methods/assays developed in more than one laboratory for independent cross-laboratory validation. The use of these set-aside funds will be restricted to the collaborative activities reviewed and approved by the Liquid Biopsy Consortium Steering Committee. This set-aside amount should be listed in the Other Expenses category under the heading Consortium Collaborative Funds.

R&R Subaward Budget

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

PHS 398 Cover Page Supplement

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

PHS 398 Research Plan

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed, with the following additional instructions:

Specific Aims: Outline the scope of the proposed research and its relevance to specific unmet clinical needs in the early detection of cancer by use of liquid biopsy. The specific aims to be pursued must be also described.

Research Strategy: Research Strategy must consist of the Sub-sections A-E outlined below:

Sub-section A. Overview

Outline the overall research theme of the proposed work. Identify the gap(s) or challenge(s) for clinical application of liquid biopsy for early detection of cancer that your partnership team intends to overcome. Address the overall translational potential and relevance of the studies to clinical management of early cancer detection. Summarize the main collective strengths of the partnership/team members in the context of these goals.

Sub-section B. Significance and Background

Applicants must provide a description of the proposed project, its Significance, Background, and Innovation in the context of a specific unmet clinical need in early detection of cancer by use of liquid biopsy. Applicants must address the current state-of-the-science of the fields of use of liquid biopsy in early cancer detection, diagnosis, and prognosis and include preliminary findings as they relate to their proposed projects.

Sub-section C. Partnership Teams

Outline the complementary multidisciplinary scientific expertise required for the integration and comprehensive approaches to the key research problems proposed and how the partnership team provides that expertise. Explain how the diverse expertise of the team members increases the capability for innovation, the ability to anticipate new directions, and the flexibility to redirect research when needed. The specific roles and responsibilities of each of the members of the partnership teams should be delineated. Whereas prior collaborations between the academic and industrial partners are not required, sufficient information about partnership organization and functioning must be provided so the reviewers can assess whether the proposed partnership is likely to interact efficiently.

Sub-section D. Approach.

Describe the overall strategy, methodology, and statistical methods and analysis of the specific aims of the project. Potential problems, alternate strategies, and benchmarks for success should be detailed. In addition, the following specific items need to be included (applications lacking these items will be deemed incomplete and will not be reviewed):

Technology Development Plan. The Plan should detail the following:

• A clear description of the goal(s) of the project, including one or more intermediate or final products, or stage(s) of product development to be completed during the award period. The scientific rationale must be established by prior discovery, translational and/or clinical research that provides the scientific basis for the proposed strategy. A specific final product profile that is intended for licensing indication is not requested;
• A statement of the intended use/indication of the proposed product and the public health gap the product is intended to fill;
• Descriptions of preclinical product development activities pertaining to the product proposed.
• The performance specifications of the product (diagnostic assay, method, technology, etc.), should have to demonstrate that it is equivalent or superior to the current gold standard for identifying the proposed agent(s), including analytical sensitivity (limit of detection), specificity, and analytical reproducibility (test replicates at different agent concentrations, at different sites, etc.), as well as clinical sensitivity and specificity in appropriate human samples. If no FDA-cleared test is available for the agent(s), the specifications should be equivalent to or exceed performance specifications of FDA-cleared tests for similar types of agent(s);
• Data that support the selection of the candidate technology for further development, including an assessment of the present capacity of the diagnostic method, technology or assay to meet the performance specifications;
• Discussions with FDA, if any, that are relevant to development activities for the candidate product.

Project Management Plan. The Project Management Plan should cover the following requirements:

• A tentative timeline for conducting the proposed studies (with brief descriptions of how the goals of each of the proposed specific aims will be achieved on a year-by-year basis by providing tentative, interim milestones).
• Overall Project Milestones must be well described, quantitative, and scientifically justified. Discuss the milestones as a means of judging the success of the proposed studies during the initial 3 years of support by the award. Specific aims may not be regarded as milestones (unless they include quantitative endpoints). The specific aims describe the goals and intended path of the proposed research. Quantitative milestones are a way of determining whether an applicant has successfully reached the specified goals. In most cases, applicants should provide a milestone for each specific aim. Milestones should be clearly stated and presented in a quantitative manner, such as numerical specifications of sensitivity and specificity or a count of some newly discovered molecules or molecular pattern(s) that can be used as biomarkers for early cancer detection, risk assessment, diagnosis or prognosis of cancer.
• Applicants should elaborate on a decision-tree scheme to be used during technology development to determine the stages at which a specific technology should be pursued for the harmonization and application stages of the Liquid Biopsy Consortium's effort. The criteria that will be used to make these decisions should be specified, as appropriate, as well as the alternative steps that will be taken should certain biomarkers be dropped at any stage (i.e., will only the best performing biomarkers from a large set be retained [ go or no go decision] or will a new approach to technology development for liquid biopsy be taken to identify new analytes/biomarkers?).

Sub-section E. Anticipated/Potential Contributions to Precompetitive Collaborations.

Outline how the proposed partnership team can participate in collaborative efforts with other partnership teams in the planning and development of resources and reagents, including biospecimens, necessary to move a technology toward clinical testing. Consider addressing, as appropriate, such aspects as:

• Identify the domain(s) suitable for precompetitive research in liquid biopsy technology(-ies) to leverage the capabilities of many organizations, including government and academia.
• List areas your partnership team may be able to collaborate with other partnership teams, e.g., sharing the details of internal quality systems for liquid biopsy, enhancing standards, discussing experience on corrective actions and best and less-than-best practices in developing liquid biopsy technologies. Identify technology(-ies) that may be ready for cross-comparison, harmonization, and application.
• Describe plans for sharing standard operating procedures, the formatting and standards for comparing various liquid biopsy technologies and developing internal standards.
• Outline collaborative strategies that allow individual scientific collaborations to advance more rapidly by identifying potential collaborators throughout the Liquid Biopsy Consortium. In doing so, this would support breakthrough technologies by understanding the capabilities of the technologies in cancer and beyond and identifying appropriate patient cohorts as a source of biological specimens.

Sub-section F. Human Biospecimen Procurement.

Applicants should describe their ability to procure specimens prospectively, collect epidemiological and clinical data using the NIH Common Data Element (CDE) Resource Portal" (http://cde.nih.gov/); and to process, track, and store specimens. Details for any proposed retrospective and/or prospective specimen collections, either new or ongoing, that will be used for liquid biopsy consortium activities should be delineated. The description should include information on the types of patients and control subjects to be accrued, clinical information to be collected, and types of specimens to be collected. Active prospective collections can be proposed only for studies proposed in this application and in collaboration with NCTN Clinical Trials Groups or any ongoing trials that provide a unique opportunity for prospective longitudinal collection for major epithelial cancers to ensure the success of the cross-Consortium collaborative research projects.

If the applicants already have specimen repositories that they are willing to make available to Consortium collaborative studies, they should describe the purpose of the study(s) from which samples are being made available and the extent of the clinical information collected. Applicants with adequate existing repositories that will be available to Consortium investigators should furnish a list of types and number of specimens by organ site and provide information on histopathological stage and clinical grade, mode of detection, and the availability and length of follow-up data. (For information on potential sources of biospecimens applicants may also see http://epi.grants.cancer.gov/biospecimens.html.)

Applicants should describe procedures for quality control and quality assurance. The procedures and the documentation should include confirmation of pathology and radiology reports and inter-laboratory comparisons of test results and procedures. The applicants must discuss their experience with quality control issues and other considerations that may arise in multi-institutional studies. Human subject biospecimen characterization data (i.e., clinical data ) are expected to conform to cancer Common Data Elements registered in the cancer Data Standards Repository; for examples see (https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/caDSR/caDSR+Database+and+Tools.

Note: While completing this sub-section, applicants should note that appropriate supporting documentation regarding Biospecimen Procurements and Quality Control/Quality Assurance must be provided under Other Attachments.

Letters of Support: In addition to letters from collaborators and consultants, applicants must include letters provided by biospecimen repositories or cohorts on specimens and associated information available for the purposes of the proposed studies. Letters of collaborations from investigators directly involved in relevant cohort studies should clearly indicate their commitment to the Liquid Biopsy Consortium.

Resource Sharing Plan: Individuals are required to comply with the instructions for the Resource Sharing Plans as provided in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.

Appendix:

Only limited Appendix materials are allowed. Follow all instructions for the Appendix as described in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.

• No publications or other material, with the exception of blank questionnaires or blank surveys, may be included in the Appendix.

PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information

When involving human subjects research, clinical research, and/or NIH-defined clinical trials (and when applicable, clinical trials research experience) follow all instructions for the PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, with the following additional instructions:

If you answered Yes to the question Are Human Subjects Involved? on the R&R Other Project Information form, you must include at least one human subjects study record using the Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form or Delayed Onset Study record.

Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

Delayed Onset Study

Note: Delayed onset does NOT apply to a study that can be described but will not start immediately (i.e., delayed start).All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

PHS Assignment Request Form

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.

3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM)

See Part 1. Section III.1 for information regarding the requirement for obtaining a unique entity identifier and for completing and maintaining active registrations in System for Award Management (SAM), NATO Commercial and Government Entity (NCAGE) Code (if applicable), eRA Commons, and Grants.gov

4. Submission Dates and Times

Part I. Overview Information contains information about Key Dates and times. Applicants are encouraged to submit applications before the due date to ensure they have time to make any application corrections that might be necessary for successful submission. When a submission date falls on a weekend or Federal holiday, the application deadline is automatically extended to the next business day.

Organizations must submit applications to Grants.gov (the online portal to find and apply for grants across all Federal agencies). Applicants must then complete the submission process by tracking the status of the application in the eRA Commons, NIH’s electronic system for grants administration. NIH and Grants.gov systems check the application against many of the application instructions upon submission. Errors must be corrected and a changed/corrected application must be submitted to Grants.gov on or before the application due date and time. If a Changed/Corrected application is submitted after the deadline, the application will be considered late. Applications that miss the due date and time are subjected to the NIH Policy on Late Application Submission.

Applicants are responsible for viewing their application before the due date in the eRA Commons to ensure accurate and successful submission.

Information on the submission process and a definition of on-time submission are provided in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.

5. Intergovernmental Review (E.O. 12372)

This initiative is not subject to intergovernmental review.

6. Funding Restrictions

All NIH awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Pre-award costs are allowable only as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

7. Other Submission Requirements and Information

Applications must be submitted electronically following the instructions described in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide. Paper applications will not be accepted.

Applicants must complete all required registrations before the application due date. Section III. Eligibility Information contains information about registration.

For assistance with your electronic application or for more information on the electronic submission process, visit How to Apply Application Guide. If you encounter a system issue beyond your control that threatens your ability to complete the submission process on-time, you must follow the Dealing with System Issues guidance. For assistance with application submission, contact the Application Submission Contacts in Section VII.

Important reminders:

All PD(s)/PI(s) must include their eRA Commons ID in the Credential field of the Senior/Key Person Profile form. Failure to register in the Commons and to include a valid PD/PI Commons ID in the credential field will prevent the successful submission of an electronic application to NIH. See Section III of this FOA for information on registration requirements.

The applicant organization must ensure that the unique entity identifier provided on the application is the same identifier used in the organization’s profile in the eRA Commons and for the System for Award Management. Additional information may be found in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.

See more tips for avoiding common errors.

Upon receipt, applications will be evaluated for completeness and compliance with application instructions by the Center for Scientific Review and responsiveness by NCI, NIH. Applications that are incomplete, non-compliant and/or nonresponsive will not be reviewed.

Post Submission Materials

Applicants are required to follow the instructions for post-submission materials, as described in the policy

Section V. Application Review Information

1. Criteria

Only the review criteria described below will be considered in the review process. Applications submitted to the NIH in support of the NIH mission are evaluated for scientific and technical merit through the NIH peer review system.

Note: Effective for due dates on or after January 25, 2023, the Data Sharing Plan and Genomic Data Sharing Plan (GDS) will not be evaluated at time of review.

Reviewers will provide an overall impact score to reflect their assessment of the likelihood for the project to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the research field(s) involved, in consideration of the following review criteria and additional review criteria (as applicable for the project proposed).

Reviewers will consider each of the review criteria below in the determination of scientific merit and give a separate score for each. An application does not need to be strong in all categories to be judged likely to have major scientific impact. For example, a project that by its nature is not innovative may be essential to advance a field.

As applicable for the project proposed, reviewers will evaluate the following additional items while determining scientific and technical merit, and in providing an overall impact score, but will not give separate scores for these items.

As applicable for the project proposed, reviewers will consider each of the following items, but will not give scores for these items, and should not consider them in providing an overall impact score.

2. Review and Selection Process

Applications will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit by (an) appropriate Scientific Review Group(s) convened by NCI, NIH in accordance with NIH peer review policy and procedures, using the stated review criteria. Assignment to a Scientific Review Group will be shown in the eRA Commons.

As part of the scientific peer review, all applications will receive a written critique.

Applications may undergo a selection process in which only those applications deemed to have the highest scientific and technical merit (generally the top half of applications under review) will be discussed and assigned an overall impact score.

Appeals of initial peer review will not be accepted for applications submitted in response to this FOA.

Applications will be assigned to NCI. Applications will compete for available funds with all other recommended applications submitted in response to this FOA. Following initial peer review, recommended applications will receive a second level of review by the National Cancer Advisory Board. The following will be considered in making funding decisions:

• Scientific and technical merit of the proposed project as determined by scientific peer review.
• Availability of funds.
• Relevance of the proposed project to program priorities.

3. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates

After the peer review of the application is completed, the PD/PI will be able to access his or her Summary Statement (written critique) via the eRA Commons. Refer to Part 1 for dates for peer review, advisory council review, and earliest start date.

Information regarding the disposition of applications is available in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Section VI. Award Administration Information

1. Award Notices

If the application is under consideration for funding, NIH will request "just-in-time" information from the applicant as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

A formal notification in the form of a Notice of Award (NoA) will be provided to the applicant organization for successful applications. The NoA signed by the grants management officer is the authorizing document and will be sent via email to the recipient's business official.

Recipients must comply with any funding restrictions described in Section IV.6. Funding Restrictions. Selection of an application for award is not an authorization to begin performance. Any costs incurred before receipt of the NoA are at the recipient's risk. These costs may be reimbursed only to the extent considered allowable pre-award costs.

Any application awarded in response to this FOA will be subject to terms and conditions found on the Award Conditions and Information for NIH Grants website. This includes any recent legislation and policy applicable to awards that is highlighted on this website.

Institutional Review Board or Independent Ethics Committee Approval: Recipient institutions must ensure that protocols are reviewed by their IRB or IEC. To help ensure the safety of participants enrolled in NIH-funded studies, the recipient must provide NIH copies of documents related to all major changes in the status of ongoing protocols.

2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements

All NIH grant and cooperative agreement awards include the NIH Grants Policy Statement as part of the NoA. For these terms of award, see the NIH Grants Policy Statement Part II: Terms and Conditions of NIH Grant Awards, Subpart A: Generaland Part II: Terms and Conditions of NIH Grant Awards, Subpart B: Terms and Conditions for Specific Types of Grants, Recipients, and Activities, including of note, but not limited to:

• Federalwide Research Terms and Conditions
• Prohibition on Certain Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Services or Equipment
• Acknowledgment of Federal Funding

If a recipient is successful and receives a Notice of Award, in accepting the award, the recipient agrees that any activities under the award are subject to all provisions currently in effect or implemented during the period of the award, other Department regulations and policies in effect at the time of the award, and applicable statutory provisions.

Should the applicant organization successfully compete for an award, recipients of federal financial assistance (FFA) from HHS must administer their programs in compliance with federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age and, in some circumstances, religion, conscience, and sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy). This includes ensuring programs are accessible to persons with limited English proficiency and persons with disabilities. The HHS Office for Civil Rights provides guidance on complying with civil rights laws enforced by HHS. Please see https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-providers/provider-obligations/index.html and https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/nondiscrimination/index.html

HHS recognizes that research projects are often limited in scope for many reasons that are nondiscriminatory, such as the principal investigator’s scientific interest, funding limitations, recruitment requirements, and other considerations. Thus, criteria in research protocols that target or exclude certain populations are warranted where nondiscriminatory justifications establish that such criteria are appropriate with respect to the health or safety of the subjects, the scientific study design, or the purpose of the research. For additional guidance regarding how the provisions apply to NIH grant programs, please contact the Scientific/Research Contact that is identified in Section VII under Agency Contacts of this FOA.

• Recipients of FFA must ensure that their programs are accessible to persons with limited English proficiency. For guidance on meeting the legal obligation to take reasonable steps to ensure meaningful access to programs or activities by limited English proficient individuals see https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/special-topics/limited-english-proficiency/fact-sheet-guidance/index.htmlandhttps://www.lep.gov.

• For information on an institution’s specific legal obligations for serving qualified individuals with disabilities, including reasonable accommodations and making services accessible to them, see http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/understanding/disability/index.html.

• HHS funded health and education programs must be administered in an environment free of sexual harassment, see https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/sex-discrimination/index.html. For information about NIH's commitment to supporting a safe and respectful work environment, who to contact with questions or concerns, and what NIH's expectations are for institutions and the individuals supported on NIH-funded awards, please see https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/harassment.htm.
  
• For guidance on administering programs in compliance with applicable federal conscience protection and associated anti-discrimination laws, see https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/conscience-protections/index.html and https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/religious-freedom/index.html.

Please contact the HHS Office for Civil Rights for more information about obligations and prohibitions under federal civil rights laws at https://www.hhs.gov/ocr/about-us/contact-us/index.html or call 1-800-368-1019 or TDD 1-800-537-7697.

In accordance with the statutory provisions contained in Section 872 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2009 (Public Law 110-417), NIH awards will be subject to the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) requirements. FAPIIS requires Federal award making officials to review and consider information about an applicant in the designated integrity and performance system (currently FAPIIS) prior to making an award. An applicant, at its option, may review information in the designated integrity and performance systems accessible through FAPIIS and comment on any information about itself that a Federal agency previously entered and is currently in FAPIIS. The Federal awarding agency will consider any comments by the applicant, in addition to other information in FAPIIS, in making a judgement about the applicant’s integrity, business ethics, and record of performance under Federal awards when completing the review of risk posed by applicants as described in 45 CFR Part 75.205 and 2 CFR Part 200.206 Federal awarding agency review of risk posed by applicants. This provision will apply to all NIH grants and cooperative agreements except fellowships.

The following special terms of the award are in addition to, and not in lieu of, otherwise applicable U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 2 CFR Part 200 Administrative Regulations, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) grant administration regulations at 45 CFR Part 75, NIH Grants Policy Statement (which implements the aforementioned HHS Regulations (45 CFR Part 75), and other HHS, PHS, and NIH grant administration policies.

The administrative and funding instrument used for this program will be the cooperative agreement, an "assistance" mechanism (rather than an "acquisition" mechanism), in which substantial NIH programmatic involvement with the recipients is anticipated during the performance of the activities. Under the cooperative agreement, the NIH purpose is to support and stimulate the recipients' activities by involvement in and otherwise working jointly with the award recipients in a partnership role; it is not to assume direction, prime responsibility, or a dominant role in the activities. Consistent with this concept, the dominant role and prime responsibility for the project as a whole resides with the recipients , although specific tasks and activities may be shared among the recipients and the NIH as defined below.

The PD(s)/PI(s) will have the primary responsibilities for:

• Defining objectives and approaches, overseeing planning and conducting experiments, analyzing and interpreting results, and publishing reports of studies conducted under this award.
• Assuming responsibility and accountability to the applicant organization and to the NCI for the performance and proper conduct of the research in accordance with the terms and conditions of the award.
• Serving as voting members of the Liquid Biopsy Consortium Steering Committee (the PD/PI and another senior investigator from each Consortium award (U01) will be required to attend Steering Committee meetings once a year).
• Accepting and implementing the goals, priorities, procedures, and policies agreed upon by the Steering Committee to the extent consistent with applicable grant regulations;
• Coordinating efforts and cooperating with the other components of the Liquid Biopsy Consortium and with NCI staff members;
• Overseeing the implementation of the approved data sharing plan;
• Ensuring that experimental data and their format, analytical algorithms, computational modeling and visualizations, and other bioinformatics tools resulting from this FOA are compatible with the NIH-approved bioinformatics platforms, such as those designed and implemented by the NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (http://cbiit.nci.nih.gov).
• The PDs/PIs and their awardee institutions will be accountable for implementing the approved research resource sharing plan.
• All institutions/organizations participating in the Liquid Biopsy Consortium will be expected to share with each other knowledge, data, research materials, and any other resources necessary and relevant to the Liquid Biopsy Consortium.
• Each Consortium awardee and the entire Liquid Biopsy Consortium programmatic initiative will be subject to external evaluation (coordinated by the NIH). Consortium Awardees will be expected to participate in such evaluations.
• Awardees will retain custody of and have primary rights to the data and software developed under these awards, subject to Government rights of access consistent with current HHS, PHS, and NIH policies.
• Awardees will be required to collaborate with other Consortium awardees on such aspects as developing and conducting trans-Consortium collaborative projects, sharing resources (as applicable: biospecimens, standards, and/or procedures), and other activities of pre-competitive nature that may benefit all participants, as appropriate and consistent with achieving the goals of this program.

NIH staff have substantial programmatic involvement that is above and beyond the normal stewardship role in awards, as described below:

Designated NCI Program Directors serving as a Project Scientist(s) and a Project Coordinator(s) will be involved in assisting and coordinating interactions and collaborations among the various investigators and industrial partners and will ensure access to other NIH relevant programs.

Additionally, an NCI program director acting as Program Official will be responsible for the normal scientific and programmatic stewardship of the award and will be named in the award notice.

Specific activities of substantially involved NCI staff members will include:

• Advising the awardees on specific scientific and/or analytic issues as well as programmatic priorities;
• Facilitating access to NCI resources, biospecimens, epidemiological expertise, etc.;
• Facilitating various activities of the Liquid Biopsy Consortium programs;
• Participating in the activities of the Liquid Biopsy Consortium Steering Committee;
• Serving as a liaison between the Steering Committee, the Liquid Biopsy Consortium awardees, and the NIH;
• Ensure common access to Consortium-generated resources and reagents for the broader cancer research community and facilitating access to NCI resources, biospecimens, epidemiological expertise, etc.
• Ensuring, in cooperation with the NCI CBIIT, that there are effective mechanisms to enable electronic communication among the Liquid Biopsy Consortium awardees, and between the Liquid Biopsy Consortium and the NCI;
• Assisting the Steering Committee in developing and drafting operating policies and policies for dealing with recurring situations that require coordinated action;
• Assisting the investigators in avoiding unwarranted duplications of effort across the Liquid Biopsy Consortium;
• Co-organizing and participating in the Liquid Biopsy Consortium Steering Committee meetings;
• Monitoring the scientific progress of individual Consortium awards and the entire program;
• Reviewing the compliance of Consortium awardees with the recommendations developed by the Steering Committee; and coordinating external evaluation of the Liquid Biopsy Consortium.

Areas of Joint Responsibility

Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will be the main governing body for the Liquid Biopsy Consortium, as defined below.

The Liquid Biopsy Consortium Steering Committee will consist of the following voting members:

• Two representatives from each Consortium award (the PD(s)/PI(s) or a PD/PI and a designated senior investigator) who will have one vote each; and
• The NCI Project Coordinator (who will have one vote for the NCI).

The chair of the Steering Committee will be selected from the representatives of all awardees.

Additional NIH staff members may participate in Steering Committee meetings as non-voting members as needed (for example to provide additional expertise). The non-voting members may include representatives from NCI extramural divisions and a representative from the National Cancer Institute Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (NCI CBIIT).

Additional non-voting members to serve in an advisory capacity may be added to the Steering Committee as needed by a decision of the existing voting committee members.

The Steering Committee may decide to establish sub-committees for specific purposes. The NCI Project Scientists/Coordinators will serve on such sub-committees, as they deem appropriate.

The Steering Committee will meet once every year, at locations selected by the Steering Committee in consultation with the NCI. The first meeting will focus on defining the process and procedures for the coordination of the Liquid Biopsy Consortium activities.

Steering Committee responsibilities will include the following aspects:

• Recommendation for proceeding through the three stages of progress (development, harmonization, and application);
• Identifying areas of opportunity that can best be exploited with a group effort via the Liquid Biopsy Consortium; coordinate the acquisition and distribution of biospecimens;
• Encouraging the development of new methodologies and approaches to be shared among the Liquid Biopsy Consortium members;
• Optimizing the information flow among the teams and the NCI; and
• Establishing procedures guiding how collaborative activities (to be supported by the restricted set-aside funds of each LBRL U01 award) will be initiated, formulated, and presented to the Steering Committee for recommendation regarding collaborative execution;
• Reviewing (with the help of external reviewers if needed), prioritizing, and recommending for activation trans-Network collaborative activities to be supported by these restricted set-aside funds.

Dispute Resolution

Any disagreements that may arise in scientific or programmatic matters (within the scope of the award) between award recipients and the NIH may be brought to Dispute Resolution. A Dispute Resolution Panel composed of three members will be convened. It will have three members: a designee of the Steering Committee chosen without NIH staff voting; one NIH designee; and a third designee with expertise in the relevant area who is chosen by the other two. In the case of individual disagreement, the first member may be chosen by the individual awardee. This special dispute resolution procedure does not alter the awardee's right to appeal an adverse action that is otherwise appealable in accordance with PHS regulations 42 CFR Part 50, Subpart D and HHS regulations 45 CFR Part 50, Subpart D and HHS regulations 45 CFR Part 16.

3. Data Management and Sharing

Note: The NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing is effective for due dates on or after January 25, 2023.

Consistent with the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing, when data management and sharing is applicable to the award, recipients will be required to adhere to the Data Management and Sharing requirements as outlined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. Upon the approval of a Data Management and Sharing Plan, it is required for recipients to implement the plan as described.

4. Reporting

When multiple years are involved, recipients will be required to submit the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) annually and financial statements as required in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

A final RPPR, invention statement, and the expenditure data portion of the Federal Financial Report are required for closeout of an award, as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. NIH FOAs outline intended research goals and objectives. Post award, NIH will review and measure performance based on the details and outcomes that are shared within the RPPR, as described at 45 CFR Part 75.301 and 2 CFR Part 200.301.

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Transparency Act), includes a requirement for recipients of Federal grants to report information about first-tier subawards and executive compensation under Federal assistance awards issued in FY2011 or later. All recipients of applicable NIH grants and cooperative agreements are required to report to the Federal Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) available at www.fsrs.gov on all subawards over the threshold. See the NIH Grants Policy Statement for additional information on this reporting requirement.

In accordance with the regulatory requirements provided at 45 CFR 75.113 and 2 CFR Part 200.113 and Appendix XII to 45 CFR Part 75 and 2 CFR Part 200, recipients that have currently active Federal grants, cooperative agreements, and procurement contracts from all Federal awarding agencies with a cumulative total value greater than $10,000,000 for any period of time during the period of performance of a Federal award, must report and maintain the currency of information reported in the System for Award Management (SAM) about civil, criminal, and administrative proceedings in connection with the award or performance of a Federal award that reached final disposition within the most recent five-year period. The recipient must also make semiannual disclosures regarding such proceedings. Proceedings information will be made publicly available in the designated integrity and performance system (currently FAPIIS). This is a statutory requirement under section 872 of Public Law 110-417, as amended (41 U.S.C. 2313). As required by section 3010 of Public Law 111-212, all information posted in the designated integrity and performance system on or after April 15, 2011, except past performance reviews required for Federal procurement contracts, will be publicly available. Full reporting requirements and procedures are found in Appendix XII to 45 CFR Part 75 and 2 CFR Part 200 Award Term and Condition for Recipient Integrity and Performance Matters.

Section VII. Agency Contacts

We encourage inquiries concerning this funding opportunity and welcome the opportunity to answer questions from potential applicants.

eRA Service Desk (Questions regarding ASSIST, eRA Commons, application errors and warnings, documenting system problems that threaten submission by the due date, and post-submission issues)

Finding Help Online: https://www.era.nih.gov/need-help (preferred method of contact)
Telephone: 301-402-7469 or 866-504-9552 (Toll Free)

General Grants Information (Questions regarding application instructions, application processes, and NIH grant resources)
Email: [email protected] (preferred method of contact)
Telephone: 301-480-7075

Grants.gov Customer Support (Questions regarding Grants.gov registration and Workspace)
Contact Center Telephone: 800-518-4726
Email: [email protected]

For inquiries specifically related to this FOA, contact:

Lynn Sorbara, PhD
National Cancer Institute
Telephone: 240-276-7135
Email: [email protected]

For general inquiries regarding early cancer detection and liquid biopsy, contact:

Sudhir Srivastava, MPH, PhD
National Cancer Institute
Telephone: 240-276-7028
Email: [email protected]

Christos Patriotis, PhD
National Cancer Institute
Telephone: 240-276-7134
Email: [email protected]

Referral Officer
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-6390
Email: [email protected]

Sean Hine
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-6291
E-mail: [email protected]

Section VIII. Other Information

Recently issued trans-NIH policy notices may affect your application submission. A full list of policy notices published by NIH is provided in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. All awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Awards are made under the authorization of Sections 301 and 405 of the Public Health Service Act as amended (42 USC 241 and 284) and under Federal Regulations 42 CFR Part 52 and 45 CFR Part 75 and 2 CFR Part 200.