Slots: Applications are limited to four per institution per receipt date including new (A0), resubmissions (A1) and renewal (T2); NCI-designated cancer center consortia are considered one institution. NCI seeks a broad representation of institutions for this award mechanism and may take this into account when making funding decisions.
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Friday, September 13th, 2024, 5pm PT TBA
LOI: N/A
External Deadline: November 4, 2025
Award Information
Award Type: Grant
Estimated Number of Awards: The number of awards is contingent upon NIH appropriations and the submission of a sufficient number of meritorious applications.
Anticipated Award Amount: Application budgets may request the following two expenses in direct costs per year:
- salary support for the Research Specialist commensurate with their level of effort on NCI funded clinical trials with a minimum of 2.4 and a maximum of 4.8 person-months funded by this award;
- travel costs to attend research meetings/conferences: not to exceed $2,500 per year; and
- $2,000 per year for travel costs for the Principal Investigator to attend an annual meeting for Research Specialist (Clinician Scientist) Award recipients
Who May Serve as PI:
- Eligible applicants will be clinician scientists who have a clinical degree (M.D., D.O., D.D.S., D.M.D., O.D., D.C., PharmD., N.D., D.V.M.), possess active licensure, and are actively practicing in an oncology clinical setting. Individuals with a Ph.D. or other doctoral degree that have direct contact with patients or healthy subjects in clinical disciplines such as clinical psychology, nursing, clinical genetics, speech-language pathology, audiology, or rehabilitation are also eligible.
- At the time of application, the applicant cannot hold as a Principal Investigator current R01, P01, or other significant NIH funding (past funding does not affect eligibility). Support from P50 Career Development awards, R03, R21, P30 funding, or national network funding will be allowed, as long as the total NCI support does not exceed 6 person-months. Future substantial independent NIH funding will require the awardee to forfeit the R50.
- The applicant must have a record of involvement in NCI-funded cancer clinical trial-related activities and be engaged in the conduct of NCI-funded cancer clinical trials research at an academic medical center or at a community center that holds an NCORP award (primary site).
- At the time of submission, the Research Specialist must have been at the institution for at least the previous two years.
- The Research Specialist must have a full-time position at the institution and be more than six years from initial faculty appointment at the time of the application submission deadline (including appointments held at other institutes). The Research Specialist must commit 2.4 to 4.8 person-months to NCI-funded clinical activities described in the Research Plan of the R50 application during the life of the award. The Research Specialist may engage in other duties as part of the remaining 9.6 to 7.2 person-month effort not covered by this award. The maximum funded effort allowed on all NCI grants, including the R50, will be capped at 6 person-months.
- The Research Specialist must have demonstrated professional accomplishments consonant with their career status and should have demonstrated cancer clinical research experience relevant to the NCI mission.
Link to Award: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-24-274.html
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template
Materials to submit include:
- (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
- (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
Through this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) invites applications for the Research Specialist Award in any area of NCI-funded clinical cancer research. This NOFO is specifically for clinician scientists to continue to participate in the NCI clinical trials networks through leadership in the 1) development of national clinical trials, 2) implementation of NCI clinical trials in their institutions, and 3) national service to the NCI clinical trials networks through participation in the scientific review committees, monitoring committees, and other activities, but not serve as principal investigators of research project grants. These clinician scientists are vital to sustaining the NCI-funded clinical trials enterprise. The Research Specialist Award is intended to provide stable support for clinician scientists at their institutions for significant leadership and exceptional participation in the NCI-sponsored clinical trials networks that conduct cancer treatment, prevention and control, and care delivery clinical trials. NCI-sponsored clinical trials networks include but are not limited to the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN), the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP), the Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN), and the Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network (CP-CTNet).
The Research Specialist Award is designed to encourage the development of a career path for cancer clinical trial investigators who provide leadership, participation, and scientific support for the NCI clinical trials networks at their institutions and within those networks. This leadership includes the development of concepts and protocols for clinical trials, participation in scientific steering committees and network committees, and accrual to NCI-sponsored clinical trials. The institutional activities may include the implementation of cancer clinical trials including participation in the review of safety data, monitoring the conduct and progress of open clinical trials, and serving on institutional review committees. These activities are necessary for the successful conduct of NCI-sponsored cancer clinical trials. The Research Specialist Award is intended to provide salary support and sufficient autonomy so that individuals are not solely dependent on NCI grants held by others or other sources of funding for cancer research career continuity.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.