NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS

FY2009 Guidelines and Information for Applicants

Revised 3/31/09

PURPOSE

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“Recovery Act” or “ARRA”), Public Law 111-5, was signed into law on February 17, 2009 with the purpose of stimulating the American economy through job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, and other means. The Recovery Act provides NIH with up to $10.4 billion to be obligated over two years for a variety of biomedical research and research support activities. Some funds directed to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have been designated for an initiative known as the NCI-Activities to Promote Research Collaboration (NCI-APRC).

Through the NCI-APRC program, the NCI encourages requests for supplemental funding in FY2009 for existing NCI-funded research projects to support and encourage new multidisciplinary scientific collaborations among NCI grantees, as well as with other members of the scientific community. The NCI-APRC Program can support novel collaborative activities in cancer biology, cancer control and population sciences, cancer surveillance, cancer prevention, health services and outcomes research, and cancer treatment and diagnosis that bring together new ideas and approaches from disparate scientific disciplines. The proposed NCI-APRC activities must be within the overall scope of the active parent award and the collaborative activity must be new.

The NCI-APRC program is anticipated to be highly competitive; 12-15 supplements will be funded for up to 2 years each. Before submission, all grantees must contact their designated NCI Program Director to discuss the planned collaboration and application. If applicants do not first contact their Program Director, the application will not be considered.

This is a one-time announcement with a single receipt date of May 1, 2009. Late applications will not be accepted. Requests must be submitted as described in these APRC Program guidelines. Some eligibility restrictions apply. The NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR) is not involved in receipt and processing of these requests.

This document describes the: (1) purpose; (2) background; (3) administrative mechanism to promote research collaborations; (4) eligibility requirements; (5) review considerations and criteria; (6) preparing an administrative supplement request; (7) post-award requirement; (8) terms of award, (9) administrative and national policy requirements, (10) reporting, (11) application deadline; (12) electronic submission, (13) mailing address for paper submission; and (14) contact information for inquiries.

BACKGROUND

The NCI’s extramural research funding programs support the activities of scientists in universities, teaching hospitals, and other organizations outside the NCI. Many of the most novel and exciting advances in cancer research derive from the synthesis of previously disparate fields of research. For such advances to be made, it is necessary for researchers with varying interests (possibly in differing fields) to initiate collaborative research interactions. Through the NCI-APRC Program, NCI can provide administrative supplements to NCI grantees for such interactions.

Examples:

Collaborations that allow the participants to move into new and important areas of cancer research;
Collaborations that include expertise from other fields, and thereby have the potential to expand the pool of talented scientists working in cancer research areas; and
Collaborations that bring a novel approach to an important area of cancer research.

The following NCI Divisions are participating in the NCI-APRC Program, though any NCI grantee who meets the eligibility described later in this document may apply.

The Division of Cancer Biology (DCB) supports research that enhances our understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying the onset and progression of cancers. DCB supports and funds grants in basic cancer cell biology, tumor biology and metastasis, cancer immunology and hematology, cancer etiology (including chemical & physical carcinogenesis, and viral carcinogenesis), mechanisms underlying DNA and chromosome aberrations, and structural biology and technology development.

The Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) supports epidemiological, behavioral, applied, survivorship, dissemination and implementation and surveillance research. DCCPS-funded research aims to understand the causes and distribution of cancer in populations, monitor and explain cancer trends in all segments of the population, and support the development and delivery of effective cancer control interventions.

The Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) focuses on prevention of disease, and spans the disease process: early interventions to prevent, stop, or slow the development of cancer; symptom management during treatment; and supportive care at the end-of-life. DCP supports research in basic science, biometry, cancer biomarkers, chemopreventive agent development, community oncology and prevention trials, early detection, nutritional science, and four major organ systems, including breast and gynecological, gastrointestinal, lung, head and neck, and prostate and urological.

The Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD) coordinates activities of national and international scope in cancer treatment and diagnosis using grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. Six major research areas include cancer diagnosis, cancer imaging, cancer therapy evaluation, developmental therapeutics, radiation research, and biometrics research. Each of the first two research areas involves the detection, diagnosis, and staging of cancer by various molecular, biochemical, immunological and physical methods. The latter four research areas involve the development and identification of new agents and methods for the treatment of cancer to the evaluation of combined modalities of therapy. This includes the development and evaluation of new and improved treatments for the control and cure of cancer utilizing all modes of therapy as well as the development of statistical methodologies to address issues in clinical trials design and data analyses.

ADMINISTRATIVE MECHANISM FOR PROMOTING RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS

Typically, NCI-APRC consortia will be composed of two to five investigators (often from complementary fields) focused on achieving specific research objectives by pooling their respective expertise and efforts. The NCI-APRC consortium will carry out joint research that would not be possible to conduct expeditiously, if at all, in the absence of these collaborators and this additional funding support.

The collaborative research project must be within the general scope of the PI’s active NCI-funded grant and cannot be duplicative of any active or previously funded research topic for any of the consortium members.

Important: The collaboration within the research project proposed must be new. Collaborators with prior history of collaboration (including publications) in the past 5 years are not eligible as individual (separate) collaborating units. If collaboration has occurred within 5 years, these particular collaborators will be considered a single (combined) collaborating unit. In this instance, another collaborator or collaborating unit is required for NCI-APRC eligibility.

The maximum budget allowed for a collaborating unit is $100,000 direct costs per year.
The maximum combined consortium budget is $300,000 direct costs per year, regardless of the number of collaborators or collaborating units.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

1) Only researchers with active NCI funding through one of the grant mechanisms identified below may submit and be the PI of an NCI-APRC application. Not all NCI grantees are eligible. Before submitting an application, grantees must call their NCI Program Director to discuss their eligibility and planned application.

2) The applicant PI must have an active P01, P20, P50, R01, R37, R33, U01, U10, U19, or U54/U56 grant within NCI. No other grant mechanisms are eligible.

3) For 1-year supplement requests, at least one full year must remain on the parent grant at the time of anticipated funding (July 1, 2009); for 2-year supplement requests, at least two full years must remain on the parent grant at the anticipated time of funding. Extensions to the parent grant to accommodate the NCI-APRC supplement are not permitted.

4) All other members of the consortium must have active research funding support at the time of NCI-APRC funding, but it may be from other peer-reviewed sources.

5) Investigators may come from the same or different departments within an institution, or from different institutions.

6) Racial/ethnic minority individuals, women, and persons with disabilities are encouraged to participate in this opportunity for NCI-APRC supplemental support.

REVIEW CONSIDERATIONS AND CRITERIA

NCI-APRC administrative supplement requests will be reviewed scientifically by NCI Program staff and administratively & financially by NCI Grants Management staff, with expertise relevant to the supplement request. The NIH Center for Scientific Review will not conduct these reviews.

Awards will be determined on a variety of factors and priorities including the scientific merit of the supplement request, its applicability to the goals of the Recovery Act, and the availability of funds. Applicants will be notified regarding the review outcome.

Selection factors and priorities include, but are not limited to, the following:

The importance of the specific questions to be asked and the potential benefit to cancer research;
The novelty or uniqueness of the opportunity presented by the proposed activity;
The novelty or uniqueness of the collaboration, and the extent to which disparate scientific disciplines are represented within the collaboration;
The expertise of the research/scientific teams proposed to conduct and achieve the goals of the supplemental study or accelerate the tempo of scientific research; and
The appropriateness of the request to achieve Recovery Act goals in promoting job creation, economic development, and accelerating the pace and achievement of scientific research.

Proposed activities should also:

Provide additional value to the underlying funded research (parent grant) of the PI and the collaborating investigators;
Demonstrate sound study/experimental design;
Provide a realistic scope of work, given the time and budget requested; and
Document the contributions of each of the participating collaborative units.

While geographic variation will be considered in awarding Recovery Act funding, a proposal’s scientific merit will always be the prevailing criterion.

PREPARING AN ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPLEMENT REQUEST

Note: Prior to submitting an NCI-APRC application, investigators interested in developing novel collaborations must first contact their NCI Program Director to discuss their ideas.

Requests under this notice should use the PHS 398 forms (rev. 11/2007; available at: http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html) and include the following elements in the request packet. Font size restrictions apply as designated within the PHS398 instructions.

1) Cover Letter - Specify that this is a request for a Recovery Act Administrative Supplement under the NCI-APRC program and include the following information:

Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) name;
Parent grant number and title;
Amount of the requested supplement;
Name and title of the authorized institutional official; and
Phone, email, and address information for both the PD/PI and the Authorized Organization Representative (AOR).

The cover letter must be signed by the AOR.

2) PHS 398 Form Page 1 (Face page) MS Word PDF

The title of the project (Box 1) should be the title of the parent award.
This Notice (number and title, “Availability of Recovery Act Funds for Administrative Supplements for Activities to Promote Research Collaborations”) should be cited in Box 2, and the “yes” box should be checked.
The Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) must be the same as the PD/PI on the parent award. For Multiple PD/PI parent awards, the Contact PD/PI must be the PD/PI listed on the supplement request. Administrative supplements cannot change the Multiple PD/PI team or convert a grant from a single PD/PI to a multiple PD/PI grant.
The remaining items on the face page should be filled out in accordance with the PHS 398 application instructions.

3) PHS 398 Form page 2 MS Word PDF

Note: The project “summary” is that of the administrative supplement, not the parent grant. All other information requested on Form Page 2 should be provided.

4) A brief proposal describing the project, including:

a) Scope of the overall project and the anticipated contribution of the requested supplement (not to exceed five pages). Summarize the activities that were included in the parent grant that encompass those proposed in the supplemental request. This section should include a description of the supplement's purpose including research design/proposed scientific activities and methods and data analysis. Describe the relationship of the supplement request to the parent grant. For the proposed collaborative research project, include the following:

Specific aims, background, and significance;
Preliminary studies; and
Experimental design presented in adequate detail to allow scientific evaluation of the feasibility

b) The research project plan should discuss how the supplement will accelerate the tempo of scientific research and/or allow for job creation and retention. In order to ensure that all expenditures in support of an administrative supplement advance the objectives of the Recovery Act, all applications must address Recovery Act justifications, including how the supplement is expected to stimulate the economy by:

Enabling hiring of additional staff to perform collaborative activities;
Enabling increased hours of current part-time staff;
Procuring additional needed equipment (costing under $100,000); and/or
Recruiting for additional needed skills.

c) Budget for the supplement with a justification that details the items requested, including facilities and administrative (F&A) costs and a justification for all personnel and their role(s) in this project. Note the budget should be appropriate for the work proposed in the supplement request. Applicants are encouraged to discuss budgets with their NCI Program Director. To meet the various transparency, accountability, and reporting requirements of Recovery Act, all applications under this notice must include detailed budgets on the PHS 398 Form Pages 4 (MS Word PDF) and 5 (MS Word PDF). Modular budget pages will not be accepted even when the parent grant was funded as a modular grant.

Budget Specifications

(1) All NCI-APRC funding will be in the form of administrative supplements to existing active NCI funded research grants.

(2) Supplements will be funded with a start date of July 1, 2009, and awarded for up to two 12-month periods. Requests for shorter times will be considered; budgets must be appropriately prorated. Requests must not exceed 24 months; longer periods will not be considered.

(3) Funding is limited to the life of the PI’s active grant. At least one full year must remain on the parent grant at the time of NCI-APRC funding; two full years for 2-year requests.

(4) Requests for no-cost extensions on the parent grant to accommodate an NCI-APRC supplement will not be permitted.

(5) The applicant institution may subcontract to the outside collaborators.

(6) A detailed budget explanation and justification must be included in the application with each year’s budget clearly detailed. Include justified budgets for each collaborating unit.

(7) PI and collaborator salaries support is not permitted.

d) Biographical Sketch for all new Senior/Key Personnel. There is no need to repeat information previously provided for other Senior/Key Personnel. Any Senior/Key personnel added to the project as part of any new collaboration should provide a biosketch as described in the following documents: MS Word PDF

e) Human Subjects/Vertebrate Animal documentation (if applicable). Include a current Human Subjects/IRB or Vertebrate Animals/IACUC approval letter, if available. Otherwise, this letter will be required at the time of funding. All appropriate IRB and IACUC approvals must be in place prior to a supplement award being made.

Any differences in the involvement or use of human subjects or specimens, or use of vertebrate animals, between the administrative supplement activity and the parent grant should be noted. When appropriate, details should be provided on the protection of human subjects and inclusion of women, children, and minorities. Additional guidance on Human Subjects Research and Vertebrate Animals is provided under Part II of the PHS 398 instructions (http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html).

f) PHS 398 Checklist Form MS Word PDF

g) In addition, please provide the following:

Summary of Each Collaborator’s Specific Contributions – 1 page total for all collaborators combined. Specify the intellectual contribution to the research project.
PHS Other Support Format Page – Documentation of active research funding (i.e., NIH, other federal, private sources, etc.) for all collaborating investigators.
Letters of Intent to Collaborate – Provide a letter for each collaborating investigator located at an institution different from that of the PI, cosigned by the AOR from that institution.

Note: Appendices and supplemental material will not be accepted or forwarded to reviewers.

POSTAWARD REQUIREMENT

PIs may be required to attend an NCI-sponsored APRC Grantee Workshop near the end, or soon after, the APRC project has been completed. Collaborators would also be encouraged to attend (limited to one collaborator per project). NCI would assume these costs and would notify the PI of the scheduled dates of the workshop.

TERMS OF AWARD

A formal notification in the form of a Notice of Award (NoA) will be provided to the grantee organization. The NoA signed by the grants management officer is the authorizing document. Once all administrative and programmatic issues have been resolved, the NoA will be generated via email notification from the awarding component to the grantee business official.

The terms of the NoA will reference the requirements of the Recovery Act.

In addition to the standard NIH terms of award, all funding provided under the Recovery Act will be subject to the HHS Standard Terms and Conditions for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act or ARRA). The full text of these terms approved for NIH awards can be found in the following document: Standard Terms and Conditions for ARRA Awards.

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.

ADMINSTRATIVE and NATIONAL POLICY REQUIREMENTS

An NCI Program Director will be assigned to each funded application. He/she will assume responsibility for programmatic stewardship of the award.

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: General and Part II: Terms and Conditions of NIH Grant Awards, Subpart B: Terms and Conditions for Specific Types of Grants, Grantees, and Activities.

In addition, recipients of Recovery Act funds are reminded that such funds must be separately tracked and monitored independently of any non-Recovery Act funding.

REPORTING

Awarded administrative supplements that include a commitment for funding in FY2010 will be required to submit a separate Non-Competing Continuation Grant Progress Report (PHS 2590) and financial statement as required in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. This will be in addition to any annual progress report required for the parent grant. The funded Recovery Act administrative supplement will also require separate closeout reports.

In addition, grantees must comply with the requirements set forth in the Recovery Act, including, but not limited to, the quarterly reporting requirements of Section 1512 of the Recovery Act as specified in HHS Standard Terms and Conditions for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The full text of these terms approved for NIH awards can be found at the following document: Standard Terms and Conditions for AARA Awards.

Recovery Act-related reporting requirements will be incorporated as a special term of award.

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Requests for the NCI-APRC administrative supplements must be submitted to NCI as described in these NCI-APRC Program Guidelines. This is a one-time announcement and requests must be received on or before, or postmarked by, May 1, 2009. Late applications will not be accepted.

Applications must be signed by the AOR.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit electronically as an e-mail attachment (.PDF or MS-Word); however, applications may also be submitted in paper form to the NCI-APRC Program Manager listed below.

The NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR) is not involved in receipt and processing of these requests. Do not submit via Grant.gov or to CSR.

ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION

Send electronic copy as attachment to Stephen White at whitest@mail.nih.gov. In this case, no paper form is required.

MAILING ADDRESS FOR PAPER SUBMISSION

If sending paper form by U.S. mail or express delivery, the original and 1 copy are requested. Mail to:

NCI-Activities to Promote Research Collaborations Program

C/o Stephen White, NCI-APRC Program Manager

National Cancer Institute, NIH, HHS

6130 Executive Boulevard, EPN Room 5048

Bethesda, MD 20892-7150 (for U.S. Postal Service regular or express mail)

Rockville, MD 20852 (for non-U.S.P.S. delivery)

Telephone: 301-496-5307

E-mail: whitest@mail.nih.gov

INQUIRIES

Direct all program/scientific related questions/inquiries to your NCI Program Director or to the following Division point-of-contact persons:

Division of Cancer Biology (DCB)

Daniel Gallahan, Ph.D.

Deputy Director, DCB

National Cancer Institute, NIH, HHS

Telephone: (301) 496-8636

FAX: (301) 496-8656

E-mail: gallahad@mail.nih.gov

Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS)

Deborah Greenberg, M.S.

Program Analyst, DCCPS

National Cancer Institute, NIH, HHS

Telephone: (301) 594-6644

FAX: (301) 435-7547

E-mail: Greenbergd@mail.nih.gov

Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP)

Sharon Ross, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Program Director, DCCPS

Nutritional Science Research Group

National Cancer Institute, NIH, HHS

Telephone: (301) 594-7547

FAX: (301) 480-3925

E-mail: rosssha@mail.nih.gov

Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD)

Toby Hecht, Ph.D.

Acting Associate Director, Translational Research Program, DCTD

National Cancer Institute, NIH, HHS

Telephone: (301) 846-5692
FAX: (301) 480-5046

E-mail: hechtt@mail.nih.gov

Direct all financial and grants management-related questions or inquiries to:

Office of Grants Administration (OGA)

Crystal Wolfrey, Grants Branch Chief

Grants Management Specialist, OGA

National Cancer Institute, NIH, HHS

Telephone: 301-496-8634

FAX: 301-846-5720

E-mail: wolfreyc@mail.nih.gov