ARRA “Grand Opportunities” Grant Initiative

As a result of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) the NCI participated in the “Grand Opportunities” (“GO”) Program (RFA-OD-09-004; RC2 grant) to support research on high impact translational research by encouraging and rewarding collaborative team science. The particular opportunity, “Coordination of Clinical/Translational Research across the NCI” was an initiative issued by the TRP for the benefit of the entire NCI for groups of extramural scientists with diverse expertise, and original, creative ideas to work together on translational cancer research projects of significant scope and consequence that, nonetheless, could be completed within two years.

The requirements for applying were strict: applicants had to form a team with a coordinating investigator(s) and other non-coordinating investigators; two or more institutions had to be involved; members of the team had to be currently funded by different NCI funding mechanisms which could include: Cancer Centers, SPOREs, P01s, R01s, Phase I U01s, Phase II N01s, EDRN, Cooperative Groups, CTSU, Clinical Consortia, or other NCI-supported translational research mechanisms; and the team had to perform intensive, high impact, and, if possible, paradigm-shifting studies associated with an ongoing or a new (ready to proceed) clinical trial.

Nine funded projects covering a broad range of organ site cancers, both common and rare, including blood malignancies, pancreatic, lung, prostate, and oral epithelial cancers, as well as melanoma, glioblastoma, and childhood rhabdomyosarcoma. The following table shows the projects that are currently supported by the “GO” initiative and the NCI Programs/Divisions in whose portfolio the grants are managed: