National Comprehensive Cancer Network

About NCCN

The NCCN Foundation

The NCCN Foundation Young Investigator Award Program

Request for Proposals

The NCCN Foundation invites proposals from young investigators with innovative ideas and an interest in the development and evaluation of the NCCN clinical practice guidelines.  Research projects may focus on guideline application in decision-making and formation of policies related to drug access and utilization, biologicals, devices, diagnostics, medical economics, new technologies, clinical trials, and cancer treatment procedures.

The NCCN Foundation
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of 23 of the world's leading cancer centers, is dedicated to improving the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided to cancer patients.  Since its inception, NCCN has accomplished this primarily through its leadership and expertise in developing the Clinical Practice Guidelines and its extensive program of professional education and training.  The NCCN Foundation, founded in 2010, seeks to extend and enhance that mission by training the next generation of clinical experts and supporting high quality research and clinical practice related to health services and policy with an emphasis on use of guidelines in quality monitoring and improvement, patient education, and influence on coverage.  
 
The Young Investigator Awards
 The NCCN Young Investigator Awards (YIA) represent a new program providing two-year grants of $75,000, per annum, for direct research expenses to promising young investigators across a broad range of oncology specialties and areas of interest.  The awards include funds of $16,000 for data collection and research support (e.g., biostatistics), $3,000 for IRB review and continuing review, and an administrative allowance of $2500 for awardees to cover the expenses of participating in the annual NCCN meeting.   Indirect costs will be covered to a maximum of 8%.  The award is open to physicians, scientists, and nurses working in an oncology laboratory, clinical research setting or cancer control program, who have a first full-time appointment as an Assistant Professor, Instructor, or an equivalent level, in one of the NCCN member cancer centers.  The award may be used to fund salary and benefits of the grant recipient, postdoctoral or clinical research fellows and/or research assistants; data collection and entry; patient costs; analysis; computer costs; necessary purchased services, e.g., surveys; and supplies. 

Suggested areas of investigation include:

1. new prevention, detection or treatment approaches for cancer and its translation into clinical care.   
   research pertaining to the NCCN Clinical Guidelines:
2. uptake of the guidelines at the host institution;
   • effects of using the guidelines on patient care
   •  use of patient versions of the guidelines in patient education efforts
   •  implementation of guidelines in the electronic health record
   •  impact of supportive care guidelines application on quality of life
   •  extension of the guidelines to survivorship services
   • Impact on access to and availability of drugs, biologics, devices, procedures and techniques
   • Applicability of guideline processes to comparative effectiveness, analysis, etc.
3. impact on public policy

Clinical Practice Guidelines Leadership Development  
From its inception, the NCCN's signature achievement has been the development of comprehensive clinical practice guidelines for cancer treatment.  These guidelines, which now cover 98% of all cancers and common supportive care issues, are recognized as the gold standard for cancer treatment nationally and internationally.  The guidelines result from a remarkable process which brings together the leading experts from the NCCN Member Institutions. Working together, site specific panels create and maintain state of the art treatment recommendations using an algorhithm that addresses every step in the diagnosis and treatment process across the continuum of care.  A primary focus of the NCCN Young Investigator Awards will be to identify and fund top clinicians, scientists and nurses in the early stages of their careers interested in participating and contributing to the development of clinical practice guidelines and elucidating how the guidelines are implemented in practice and public policy.  Successful candidates will identify and work closely with an appropriate institutional mentor conversant with the guidelines, health policy, and health quality initiatives.  Additionally, qualifying institutions will have an institutional review process in place for the guidelines and provide opportunities for candidates to be fully involved in this process.  Initial YIA grant applications should focus on high incidence, high impact disease sites, including but not limited to breast, lung, colorectal, prostate and hematologic malignancies, as well as important supportive care areas that affect patients with these diseases.  Candidates will be expected to develop a timeline for their two-year Young Investigator Awards, culminating in the presentation of data at the NCCN Annual Meeting held each March in Hollywood, Florida. 

Research Projects Focusing on Health Policy, Patient Education, and Quality of Life
The Foundation recognizes the growing need for evidence-based health services research in the areas of health policy, quality of life for cancer patients, and patient education.  These include concerns for how clinical and policy processes use and integrate data and the impact of available options for the optimal management of cancer patients.  The NCCN Young Investigator Awards provide opportunities to address critical needs in these areas, as well as to apply a basic science perspective to the use of new diagnostics and molecular markers in clinical management.  A hallmark of NCCN's programs has been strong attention to excellent data collection, analysis and outcomes measures.  Successful YIA applications will be expected to bring this same high level of rigor to their research and clinical practice programs.

Decision Date:  NCCN expects to announce the first winners of its Young Investigator Awards at the 2011 NCCN Annual Meeting.

Eligibility Requirements:
 Applicants must have:

•  Medical degree--MD, DO or international equivalent or
• Scientific degree--PhD of international equivalent or
• Nursing degree--Masters and above  or international equivalent
• Primary affiliation/work site must be in a NCCN member institution
• Candidates must be in their first full-time  appointment in an NCCN institution
• Candidates must not have other funding that duplicates the focus and purpose of this award
• Mentor in the proposed research field, fully conversant in the clinical practice guidelines
• Institutional commitment, including demonstration of an active review process for the guidelines

The NCCN Foundation and its review committee reserve the right to evaluate and determine applicants' eligibility based on the information and justifications included in the application materials.

Application Process
All applications must be submitted in accordance with the requirements and instructions of this Request for Proposal.  (RFP).  All applications must be in English and submitted online.

Proposals are required to be submitted by the institution’s Office of Sponsored Research and include a letter of support from the governing groups of the institution verifying 1) the proposal has Department Chair/Division approval, 2) institutional budgetary review and approval, 3) the priority status of the research should funding be approved, and 4) the study includes data collection and research support (e.g., biostatistics).

Proposals will provide concise documentation of the research plan and are to be modeled after the NCI Letter of Intent.  The proposal is expected to contain sufficient information to allow the reviewers to fully assess the scientific rigor of the proposed study.  A full protocol may be submitted as an attachment to a proposal. 
The full application must include the following components:

1.  Contact information
2.  Project information
3.  Applicant's biosketch
4.  Research plan
5.  Cited references
6.  Budget and justification
7.  Mentor's contact information and biosketch
8.  Mentor's letter of support
9.  Institutional letter of support from center director, dean or department head
10.  Signed Institutional Approval Face Sheet

 Required Information by Section

1. Contact Information

• Name
• Address, phone number, email address
• Institution
• Degree
• Area of specialization
• Faculty status

2. Project Information (maximum 6 pages)

• Project Title

• Investigators, including a statistician, and institutional affiliations

• Abstract

• Hypothesis/objectives
• Research design
• Study population
• Stage
• Major inclusions/exclusions
• Treatment plan
• Endpoints/Statistical analysis
• Feasibility
• Estimated time of completion/monthly accrual
• Previous experience
• Collaborators, if any, and their experience, including affiliates

• Lay summary
• Assurances for use of human subjects and/or animal subjects in the proposal

3. Applicant Biosketch:  Applicants may use their NIH biosketch if available.  Not to exceed two pages

4. Cited References:  A list of cited references should be included as an appendix to the proposal.

5. Budget Justification:  The award funds will be directed to the sponsoring institution and should be used toward salary support, supplies, data collection, patient costs, travel, etc., necessary for the research project.  Awards funds may not be applied to patient care costs that are reimbursable by third party payers.  The budget guidelines are as follows:

• Breakdown by major cost categories.
• Total award:  The annual award amount is $75,000. The suggested distribution that follows may be adjusted, provided that all allocation requirements are met:
• Research support: $50,000.00, of which $2500 will be dedicated by the host institution to cover expenses for attendance at NCCN annual meeting
• Data collection and analysis:  $16,000.00
• IRB fees up to $3,000
• Indirect costs (8%)
• Justification of major costs with enough detail to demonstrate how funding for major elements in the study will be allocated.
• For combined clinical and correlative studies, separate budgets for each component should be submitted.

7. Mentors Contact Information and Biosketch:   Mentors may use their NIH biosketch if they have one available.  The biosketch should not exceed four pages and include contact information.

8. Mentor's Letter of Support:  This should include the following:

• Confirmation that the applicant is a full time employee or faculty member of the member institution
• A critical review of the applicant and the research proposal
• Current and/or anticipated role the applicant holds at the institution
• Assurance that the sponsoring institution will provide adequate facilities and support for the proposed work, including gateways to participate in the relevant committees dealing with guideline review and application
• Intended structure of the mentor/investigator interaction during the proposed project

9. Institutional Letter of Support:

• A letter from the cancer center director, department head or dean at the sponsoring institution must be provided and include a statement that institutional support will enable the applicant to perform the proposed research and clinical practice guideline development.

10.  Institutional Approval:

• An authorized official representing the institution must approve the completed application--both the proposal and the budget--before submission.  This official is normally from the institution's Office of Sponsored Research.  The Institutional Approval Face Sheet must be signed and uploaded before the submission will be considered complete.

Selection Process
The NCCN Foundation Grants Selection Review Committee will select recipients for Young Investigator Awards based on the following criteria:

• Significance and originality of the proposed study
• Appropriateness and adequacy of the proposed methodology
• Focus on issues related to use of guidelines in health services research, patient education, survivorship, and quality of life that impact the ability to deliver care to patients
• Qualifications and experience of the applicant
• Availability of institutional resources to support the project
• Quality of the mentor and interaction between mentor and applicant for the project.

Questions:  Administrative support for the review, selection and granting of the Young Investigator Awards will be provided by the NCCN Oncology Research Program (ORP) to which all questions should be addressed.  ORP will establish a Scientific Review Committee (SRC) to review proposals received in response to this RFP.  SRC members will be drawn from NCCN Member Institutions and have expertise in the broad spectrum of clinical and nursing research areas for the Young Investigator Awards. Individual SRC members will recuse themselves from reviewing applications for their own institutions.