NCI Bottom Line: A Blog about Grants and More
This grantee-focused blog covers the latest on NCI’s fiscal landscape, funding decisions, grants policy news, processes, and more.
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In this edition of the Bottom Line blog, NCI Director Dr. Letai gives straight answers about the current status of grantmaking in fiscal year 2026 and what NCI is doing to fund the best science as quickly as possible.
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NCI is strengthening its commitment to cancer research training to support a strong, skilled workforce. NCI programs provide training, mentorship, and career development opportunities to everyone from school-aged students with an interest in science to established researchers. These efforts help prepare the next generation of leaders in cancer research.
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In this edition of the Bottom Line blog, NCI Director Dr. Kimryn Rathmell shares the interim grant funding policies that will be in place until FY25 funding is finalized.
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NCI’s Fiscal Year 2026 Annual Plan and Budget Proposal highlights how increasing the funding for the cancer research enterprise will allow us to tackle the opportunities before us and help all people live longer, healthier lives. In this blog, Dr. Diane Palmieri highlights NCI’s commitment to early-stage investigators and the importance of engaging every person to end cancer as we know it.
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In this edition of the Bottom Line blog, NCI Center for Cancer Training Director Dr. Oliver Bogler discusses recent trends in funding for NCI's training portfolio, highlights enhancements to the Pathway to Independence Award, and introduces a new career development award for clinical scientists.
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In this edition of the Bottom Line blog, NCI Director Dr. W. Kimryn Rathmell discusses NCI’s fiscal year 2024 appropriation from Congress, which increases the base budget, but also reflects the end of dedicated funding for the Cancer Moonshot. The budget allows NCI to prioritize funding for new grants—particularly to early-stage investigators, training mechanisms, and Cancer Centers—while limiting the impact on continuing grants.
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In this edition of the Bottom Line blog, NCI Director Dr. W. Kimryn Rathmell describes her commitment to fostering open communication with the cancer community and shares information about a live social media event on February 22, 2024, at 11:30 a.m. ET.
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NCI faces significant challenges while operating under a continuing resolution for fiscal year 2024. In this edition of the Bottom Line, NCI Acting Director Dr. Lowy highlights the impact of this “flat” budget on NCI’s ability to support cancer research and shares fiscal year 2024 interim paylines for competing grants.
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The National Cancer Institute Fiscal Year 2025 Professional Judgment Budget Proposal highlights how, with optimal funding, NCI will support cancer research, train future cancer researchers, and expand and maintain research infrastructure to achieve the goal of ending cancer as we know it for all. In this edition, Dr. Diane Palmieri discusses NCI’s proposal to increase funding to support more meritorious cancer research and spotlights one of the five scientific opportunities, the Cancer Research Data Ecosystem, where increased funding will spur advances.
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In this edition of the NCI Bottom Line blog, Dr. Bertagnolli highlights resources available to researchers from the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR). From cryo-electron microscopy to the RAS Initiative, FNLCR offers a variety of tools for the scientific community to propel research progress and enable breakthroughs.
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NCI remains strongly committed to developing the cancer research workforce. In this edition of the NCI Bottom Line blog, Dr. Bogler discusses trends in funding for cancer training and highlights two new resources from the Center for Cancer Training to help the research community stay informed and engaged.
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In this edition of the NCI Bottom Line blog, NCI leaders encourage diverse teams of researchers collaborating around a unifying scientific goal to consider applying for a program project grant (P01). P01 grants involve the type of broad, multidisciplinary collaboration likely to yield meaningful results for cancer science and patients.
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In this edition of the NCI Bottom Line blog, NCI Deputy Directors Drs. Lowy and Singer discuss the new round of nine research challenges from the Cancer Grand Challenges program. Cancer Grand Challenges aims to inspire bold new ideas that offer the greatest potential to advance cancer research and improve outcomes for people affected by cancer. In 2024, up to four interdisciplinary teams will each receive about $25 million across five years to conduct their research.
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In this edition of the Bottom Line blog, NCI Director Dr. Monica Bertagnolli explains how generous support from Congress will allow NCI to award more compelling cancer research and to increase paylines for R01s and early-stage investigator (ESI) grants. In fiscal year 2023, NCI expects to issue more than 100 additional R01 and ESI awards than last year.
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NCI’s Associate Director for Finance and Legislation, Patrick McGarey, highlights what the Continuing Resolution for FY 2023 means for NCI’s interim paylines. This blog post describes NCI’s provisional funding policies for both competing and noncompeting grants.
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The cancer research community has made amazing strides to help people live longer, healthier lives. NCI’s Annual Plan and Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2024 highlights how we will make further progress and achieve the goal of ending cancer as we know it today, for all. In this edition of the Bottom Line blog, Dr. Diane Palmieri, acting director of NCI’s Center for Research Strategy, spotlights one of the four scientific opportunities in the annual plan and discusses NCI’s goal to increase the R01 payline to support more meritorious cancer research.
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While NCI has long been committed to workforce diversity, there remains a disproportionate gap in R01 grants received by individuals from underrepresented groups. The new Cancer Moonshot Scholars program aims to help close this gap. In this edition of the NCI Bottom Line blog, Drs. Lowy and Springfield provide details on this innovative program and encourage eligible Early-Stage Investigators to apply to become a scholar.
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In this edition of the NCI Bottom Line, NCI Acting Director Dr. Lowy and NCI Associate Director for Finance and Legislation Patrick McGarey explain why raising the R01 payline to the 15th percentile by fiscal year 2025 and supporting more R01 grant awards is a top priority for NCI. They also explain why allocating funds for this priority must be balanced with maintaining other critical NCI programs extramural scientists rely on to support their research.
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With a final budget for fiscal year 2022, NCI is no longer operating under an interim budget and has updated its grants paylines accordingly. While the appropriation bill contained a generous $353 million budget increase for NCI, this blog from the NCI Director expands on why raising paylines in recent years poses difficult financial challenges.
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Securing and maintaining a grant from NCI requires cancer researchers to prepare the initial application and comply with additional requirements during the life of the grant, which is demanding and time-consuming. In this edition of the NCI Bottom Line blog, NCI Director Dr. Ned Sharpless describes several NCI efforts to reduce administrative burdens on grantees and shares helpful resources for the community.