The paramount goal of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is to develop the knowledge base that will ultimately lessen the impact of cancer. Among the most important contributors to this base are the outstanding extramurally funded scientists supported by the NCI through grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. The DEA was established within the NCI to provide the NCI and the scientific community with expert scientific review of the merits of extramural research, procedures, and policies to help the Institute achieve its goal. An important part of DEA’s mission is to manage and coordinate the second level of grants review with the National Cancer Advisory Board and the concept review of all new and reissued Request for Applications (RFAs) and research and development (R&D) Request for Proposals (RFPs) with the Board of Scientific Advisors (BSA).
