Purpose
The Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announces this notice to encourage current grant or cooperative agreement awardees to apply for 1-year administrative supplements to address gaps in the understanding of cancer and cancer treatment-related adverse effects and needs of long-term cancer survivors.
Background
Currently, there are 18.1 million cancer survivors in the United States (US), representing a substantial and sustained increase over prior decades. Additionally, 70% of cancer survivors have lived 5 or more years after diagnosis and are considered long-term cancer survivors. Cancer survivors often face a variety of physical, emotional, psychological, and socioeconomic challenges that may develop years or decades later in life due to their cancer and its treatments. However, most cancer survivorship research focuses on individuals who are fewer than 5 years from diagnosis.
The long-term cancer survivorship research landscape suggests a need for studies to identify and address: long-term cancer survivorship care; physical, emotional, and psychological late effects or the exacerbation of chronic conditions; care delivery and coordination of comprehensive cancer survivorship care; the health communication and technological ecosystem; socioeconomic challenges; health promotion (e.g., tobacco or alcohol use); social, functional, and emotional well-being, as well as other health outcomes. In addition, research is needed to address emergent survivorship needs for long-term survivors diagnosed with early-onset or rare cancers, treated with newer treatments and protocols, and older adults.
Cancer survivorship definitions for the purpose of this announcement can be found here: https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/ocs/definitions
Research Objectives
The objective of this supplement notice is to support research that fills gaps in knowledge pertaining to long-term or late-occurring adverse effects or unmet needs of long-term cancer survivors. The goal is to expand the existing knowledge and evidence base in long-term cancer survivorship.
For this announcement, long-term cancer survivors include those at least 5 years from cancer diagnosis, diagnosed at any age or cancer stage, and those living with cancer or free of cancer. Supplements may support quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods research. Applicants may leverage NCI-supported data resources (e.g., National Childhood Cancer Registry, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER), and its various linkages).
Specific research priorities may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Expand recruitment and data collection of long-term survivors to address long-term or late-occurring adverse effects or unmet needs.
- Address the challenge of identifying long-term cancer survivors who may no longer be affiliated with a cancer center or oncologist and/or test strategies to engage long-term cancer survivors who are disconnected from cancer survivorship care to appropriate survivorship clinical care, resources, and expertise.
- Add qualitative data collection with the aim of contextualizing parent study findings among long-term cancer survivors or in preparation for developing a new intervention.
- Add measures to ongoing studies or test the feasibility of collecting the measure as it relates to identifying new or understudied late and long-term effects.
- Identify emergent long-term survivorship issues or needs to inform long-term survivorship care and/or care coordination and health communication strategies.
- Assess the prevalence and patterns of cancer survivorship care for long-term survivors, including the physical, emotional, and psychological effects, surveillance for recurrence and new cancers, care planning, and the provision of supportive health and social services.
- Assess the prevalence and patterns of multilevel social and economic challenges faced by long-term cancer survivors, their family, and/or caregivers, and its interaction with cancer survivorship care.
Administrative supplement applications focusing on under-resourced settings and medically underserved populations served by the parent award are of particular interest.
Applications not responsive to this announcement include those that
- Propose work that is included in the original application;
- Include a plan that is not reasonable for the proposed project to be completed, given the time and budget requested;
- Propose work to test cancer-directed therapy for long-term cancer survivors.
All applicants are encouraged to discuss their applications with the scientific/research contacts listed below prior to submission.
Application and Submission Information
Applications for this initiative must be submitted using the following opportunity or its subsequent reissued equivalent.
- PA-20-272 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional)
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and PA-20-272 must be followed, with the following additions:
Eligibility
- Only current awardees of an active NCI-funded R01, R37, R00, P01, P30, U01, UM1, UH3, or U19 are eligible to apply.
- PDs/PIs must hold an active award supported through NCI with sufficient time (minimum 1 year) left to complete the proposed project after the supplement has been awarded within the existing project period.
- The proposed project must be within the scope of the parent award.
- Requests for no-cost extensions on the parent grant to accommodate a supplement will not be permitted.
- If an applicant anticipates a balance of 25% or more of the current total costs for the parent grant, please contact the scientific research contact prior to submitting an application.
- Only one supplement application per parent award will be accepted for consideration. For supplements to parent awards that include multiple PDs/PIs, the supplement may be requested by any or all of the PDs/PIs (in accordance with the existing leadership plan) and submitted by the awardee institution of the parent award.
Budget
- The budget should not exceed $100,000 in total costs for the entire allowable 1-year project period of the application/award.
- The administrative supplement application budget is limited to 1 year only.
- Administrative supplements may only be used to meet increased costs that are within the scope of the approved award but were unforeseen when the new or renewal application or grant progress report for non-competing continuation support was submitted; supplements designed to meet cost increases for unanticipated expenses within the original scope of the project will not be considered.
- Publication costs and costs for travel to scientific conferences would not be supported.
Submitting Applications
- Application Due Date: Submissions must be received by June 6, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. local time of applicant organization for FY 2025 funding. The announcement will expire June 7, 2025.
- Applicants should begin the supplement application abstract by stating “Administrative Supplements on Long-term Cancer Survivorship".
- To facilitate efficient processing of the request, applicants are strongly encouraged to notify the assigned NCI program official for the parent award that a request has been submitted in response to this announcement.
Page Limits
The application must include the following sections and adhere to the following limits:
- Project Summary/Abstract: 30 lines of text
- Project Narrative: 3 sentences
- Research Strategy: 5 pages
- Biographical Sketch: for Senior/Key Personnel and Significant Contributors only
Review and Selection Process
NCI will conduct administrative reviews of applications and will support the most meritorious applications submitted for consideration, based upon availability of funds. Additionally, NCI program staff will evaluate applications using the following selection factors:
- Does the administrative supplement reasonably allow for the proposed project to be completed, given the time and budget requested?
- Are the proposed activities relevant to the parent grant and original work scope?
- Does the applicant demonstrate satisfactory progress towards achieving the aims of the parent grant, as appropriate to the current stage of the project?
- Does the proposed project for supplemental funding fill an identified gap in the scientific literature that advances long-term cancer survivorship research?
Applicants are encouraged to discuss their application with the scientific/research contacts listed below prior to submission.
The process for Streamlined Submissions using the eRA Commons cannot be used for this initiative.
Scientific/Research Contact(s)
Michelle Doose, PhD, MPH
National Cancer Institute
Telephone: 240-276-7674
Email: michelle.doose@nih.gov
Michelle Mollica, PhD, MPH, RN, OCN
National Cancer Institute
Telephone: 240-276-7621
Email: michelle.mollica@nih.gov
Financial/Grants Management Contact(s)
Crystal Wolfrey
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-6277
Email: crystal.wolfrey@nih.gov