Cancer Centers Program Update and
Future Directions
Linda K. Weiss, PhD
Director, Office of Cancer Centers
Cancer Center Administrators Forum
April 5, 2011
http://cancercenters.cancer.gov
weissl@mail.nih.gov
Overview
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Portfolio
FY 2010 Funding, Parent Grant and Special Initiatives
FY 2011 Budget
Organizational Changes
Database, Website, and Centers Report
Miscellaneous Items
Program Announcement 11-005
Cancer Center Support Grant Guidelines: Where Next?
Portfolio
• Geographic Distribution of Cancer Centers
– 66 Centers in 33/50 states and DC
– 40 Comprehensive: 23 states and DC
– 26 Cancer Centers: 17 states: 17 states
CCSG Funding By Application Type, FY2010,
$271,490,840 Total Costs, Parent Grant
New
1%, $1.5 M
NonCompeting
$177.0 M, 65%
Competing
$43.2 M, 16%
Extensions
$50.0 M, 18%
FY 10 Funding for Special Initiatives
• Supplemental Initiatives through OCC: $7.4 M
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Ca BIG: 0.8 M
AMC: 1.0 M
CFAR: 1.5 M
NCCCP: 0.8 M
RaPID: 3.0 M
Miscellaneous: 0.6 M
• Additional Supplements
– CTRP (NCI CCCT): 5.2 M
– Core Consolidation (NCRR): 8.0 M
FY 2011 Budget
• Centers Baseline
Budget
– Continuing Resolution
now in effect until 4/8
– Centers budget has not
been finalized
– T3/5 funded under NIH
policy at 90%
– T1/2 budget pending
• Anticipated
Supplements
– Clinical Investigator
Team Leadership
Award
– Clinical Trials Reporting
Program
– CFAR – CC Pilot
Project Awards
– AMC – CC Pilot Project
Awards
Organizational Changes
• New NCI Leadership
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Dr. Harold Varmus, Director
Dr. Douglas Lowy, Deputy Director
Dr. Peter Greenwald, Associate Director for Prevention and Control
John Czajkowski, Deputy Director for Management
Searches underway
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Associate Director for Clinical Research
Director Center for Center for Cancer Genomics
Director for Center for Global Health
Director for Division of Cancer Prevention
• Office of Cancer Centers New Staff
– Nga Nguyen, Program Analyst
– Searches underway
• Program Director
• IT Database Specialist
Database, Website and Centers Report
• Summaries
– Send as before to ccsgdata@mail.nih.gov
– Send content questions to your program director
• Website Updates
– Send center name, address, directorship changes to your
program director
– More complex changes will be deferred
• Centers Report
– Nearing completion
– Some information will be web-based (e.g., publications,
clinical trials)
Miscellaneous Items
• Include PMCID numbers with publications list
• Large carryover balances are discouraged, particularly
as a repeated pattern; there is no guaranteed approval
• Fewer administrative supplements (extensions with
funds) than in previous years, no ‘recycling’
• New programs and shared resources can’t be
established with CCSG funds during non-competing
years; realigned programs must be approved by staff
Program Announcement 11-005
• Overview Opportunity Announcement
– Effective September 25, 2010, NIH required that all
mechanisms have a Funding Opportunity
Announcement in the NIH Guide for Grants and
Contracts
– All applications will have to respond to the PAR
– The PAR, new Guidelines, and a comparison of 2008
and 2010 Guidelines are on our website.
Program Announcement 11-005
• Face page of the application must indicate the PAR #
• Resubmission applications (A1) now allowed within 37
months
• New page limits for components are in effect
• Appendices must be included in the application and
can’t exceed 50 pages
• Late materials must follow NIH policy – much more
stringent limitations
• Submission procedures for letter of approval and
request for preliminary information have changed
Program Announcement 11-005
• Applicants will no longer receive and respond to an
administrative review letter
• Applicants will no longer submit posters and updated
summaries prior to the site visit; information not provided
in the original application can be provided at the site
visit.
• The SRO can no longer selectively accept parts of the
application
• The application can be returned without review if it
doesn’t meet guidelines requirements
Program Announcement 11-005
– The 5 review criteria mandated by NIH (significance,
investigator, innovation, approach and environment) are
now incorporated into the Guidelines.
– The 5 criteria will be incorporated into the evaluation of
overall center impact but not individual components
– Prior to the site visit assigned reviewers will submit
criterion scores for the overall application on the 5 NIH
mandated criteria. These scores will be in the summary
statement, but won’t be discussed at the review.
– The 6th year of funding for centers scoring in the
outstanding range has been eliminated.
– NIH policy and document citations have been updated.
The CCSG Guidelines: Where Next?
• Major Objectives
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Foster collaboration and integration
Facilitate clinical and translational research
Reduce the burden of the application process
Provide new guidance on eligibility and budget requests
The CCSG Guidelines: Where Next?
• Foster Collaboration and Integration
– Recognize research collaborations that extend beyond
the walls of the center, including ‘hand-offs’ to other
mechanisms or entities that move scientific findings
forward
– Encourage productive interactions with other NCI and
NIH programs
– Allow sharing of core services across centers
– Eliminate the benchmark ratio
The CCSG Guidelines: Where Next?
• Facilitate Clinical and Translational Research
– Make Clinical Trial and Data Management (the CTO) a
separate component and broaden options for support
– Harmonize guidelines to recognize leadership and
participation in the cooperative groups
– Recognize variety and quality in clinical and translational
research
– Promote team contributions in clinical research
The CCSG Guidelines: Where Next?
• Reduce the Burden of the Application Process
– Eliminate
• multiple redundancies across components
• detailed capacity and usage tables in shared resource
components
• data on non-aligned members
• requirements for program meeting agendas
– Streamline
• clinical and other data requirements
• requirements for the administrative component
The CCSG Guidelines: Where Next?
• Provide New Guidance on Eligibility and Budget
– Raise eligibility minimum, e.g., from $4 to $10 M
– Budget Requests
• Base request on percent over prior award or a minimum level or
‘floor’ whichever is greater, e.g.,
– 20% over last T5 award or $2 M DC
• Allow for exceptions, e.g.,
– First T2
– First application after no-cost extension
– Major expansion of research
• Funding level would still be dependent on merit and NCI budget
The CCSG Guidelines: Where Next?
• Other Potential Changes
– More specificity in language for consortium centers
– Expansion/redefinition of staff investigator category
– Modification in criteria for Protocol specific resaerch
support
– Elimination of the limited site visit
The CCSG Guidelines: Where Next?
• Process
– Collaborators/Consultants
• NCI
– Review
– Grants Administration
– Senior leadership
• Cancer Centers
– Approvals
• NCI senior leadership
• NCAB Subcommittee on Cancer Centers
• NIH (to include a new PAR)
• Tentative timeline for implementation: 2012
QUESTIONS?Questions?