Research Answers to NCI’s Provocative Questions - Group E (R01 and R21)

Additional Information:
R01- http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-13-024.html
R21- http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-13-025.html

Description:

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support innovative research projects designed to solve specific problems and paradoxes in cancer research identified by the NCI Provocative Questions initiative. These problems and paradoxes phrased as questions are not intended to represent the full range of NCI's priorities in cancer research. Rather, they are meant to challenge cancer researchers to think about and elucidate specific problems in key areas of cancer research that are deemed important but have not received sufficient attention.

Some of these "Provocative Questions" (PQs) stem from intriguing but older, neglected observations that have never been adequately explored. Other PQs are built on more recent findings that are perplexing or paradoxical, revealing important gaps in current knowledge. Finally, some PQs reflect problems that traditionally have been thought to be intractable but that now may be open to investigations using new strategies and recent technical advances.

In the second issuance in 2012, there were eight PQs FOAs, each covering a subset of identified PQs and utilizing the R01 and R21 funding mechanisms. The current reissuance of the PQ Initiative involves an updated set of 20 PQs. In order to facilitate the peer review process, the new/updated PQs have been divided into five groups related by themes resulting in five R01 FOAs and five R21 FOAs.

PQs in each Group are thematically related. However, the order of the groups and numbering of questions within a group are essentially arbitrary and should not be construed to indicate any order of priority.

This FOA (RFA-CA-13-024), using the R01 funding mechanism, solicits applications for PQs in Group E. The companion FOA for PQs in Group E, using the R21 exploratory/developmental funding mechanism, is RFA-CA-13-025. PQs in this group challenge investigators to seek answers to specific unsolved problems generally related to the development of methods to optimize the application of cancer treatments or interventions for enhanced clinical effectiveness.

Each research project proposed in response to this FOA must be focused on solving one particular research problem defined by one specific PQ selected from the list in Group E. Projects proposed to address specific PQs may use strategies that incorporate ideas and approaches from multiple disciplines, as appropriate. Transdisciplinary projects are encouraged as long as they serve the scientific focus of the specific PQ chosen.