More Highlights
NCI recognizes 12 outstanding clinical investigators with a two-year award to acknowledge and support leaders in clinical cancer research programs at NCI Designated Cancer Centers. This second cohort of investigators joins a group of 11 other outstanding clinical investigators who received this prestigious award last year. An updated request for applications from NCI Designated Cancer Centers is anticipated in early 2011.
A funding opportunity is now available: Immune Response Modifier (IRM) Special Translational Research Acceleration Project (STRAP). Investigators who are interested in submitting a request in response to the IRM STRAP should consult the Notice (NOT-CA-10-025) or can view more about the STRAP Program.
To dramatically improve the current process of activating new clinical trials, NCI's Clinical and Translational Research Advisory Committee (CTAC) initiated a review of the clinical trial activation process. On March 23, CTAC's Operational Efficiency Working Group presented its final report, outlining a series of recommended changes to NCIs current clinical trials activation procedures. These changes aim to decrease, by at least half, the time it takes to initiate new clinical studies.
On October 6, 2009, NCI recognized 11 clinical investigators with a first of its kind award to acknowledge and fund those who lead clinical cancer research programs at NCI Designated Cancer Centers. The awards are the result of the implementation of one of the recommendations of NCI's Clinical Trials Working Group (CTWG), which was established to advise the institute on methods to improve and enhance the publicly funded clinical trials enterprise. More information about this award opportunity for FY 2010 can be found here. (This announcement has expired; an updated announcement is anticipated for FY 2011.)
The proposed START (Standard Terms of Agreement for Research Trials) clauses are designed to help cut the time spent on contract negotiations between pharmaceutical/biotech companies and academic medical centers.
The purpose of the program is to establish a comprehensive database containing regularly updated information on all NCI funded interventional clinical trials. Grantees will be requested to enter specific information about each clinical trial into the database. NCI will use this information to coordinate research efforts to optimize our nation's investment in cancer research.
