NCI Announces Eight RFAs On Provocative Questions

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has issued eight Requests for Applications (RFAs) seeking Research Answers to Provocative Questions. The Provocative Questions (PQ) Initiative invites proposals to stimulate specific areas of cancer research that are deemed understudied, neglected, paradoxical, or have been difficult to address.

Over the past year, NCI has developed an updated set of 24 PQs framed to inspire cancer scientists to conceive new approaches and/or feasible solutions. Some of the questions are new, and focus investigators’ efforts on specific gaps in current knowledge and inspire creative solutions that may have profound scientific and ultimately practical implications.

The RFAs invite research projects to use sound and innovative research strategies to solve specific problems and paradoxes in cancer research identified by the Initiative. Each proposed project must be focused on solving one particular research problem defined by one specific PQ selected from the current list (as they appear in the RFAs).

The RFAs are organized into four thematic blocks and are for the Research Project Grant (R01) and Exploratory/Developmental Grant (R21) mechanisms:

1)Group A – PQs in this group seek answers to specific unsolved problems in cancer prevention and risk:

  • RFA-CA-12-015 (R01) and RFA-CA-12-016 (R21) – challenges investigators to seek answers to specific unsolved problems generally related to investigation of changes in behavior and various exposure risks, mechanistic links between cancer risk factors and biological events associated with cancer development, and how we might identify and better understand prevention mechanisms.

2)Group B – PQs in this group are focused on perplexing problems in mechanisms of tumor development or recurrence:

  • RFA-CA-12-017 (R01) and RFA-CA-12-018 (R21) – challenges investigators to seek answers to specific unsolved problems generally related to mechanisms of tumor development or recurrence.

3)Group C – PQs in this group concentrate on improving tumor detection, diagnosis, and prognosis:

  • RFA-CA-12-019 (R01) and RFA-CA-12-020 (R21) – challenges investigators to seek answers to specific unsolved problems generally related to the development or refinement of methods to detect or diagnose tumors and highlight our still nascent knowledge of the stages of tumor development as they relate to determining which tumors are most likely to lead to more aggressive states.

4)Group D – PQs in this group are focused on problems in cancer therapy and outcomes:

  • RFA-CA-12-021 (R01) and RFA-CA-12-022 (R21) – challenges cancer researchers to think about and elucidate specific problems generally related to the development and use of new therapeutic agents and how we can learn from both the successes and failures of clinical treatment.

Letters of intent are due November 4, 2012, and May 20, 2013. The application deadlines are December 4, 2012, and June 20, 2013, by 5:00 p.m. local time of the applicant organization.

The RFAs expire June 21, 2013.

The NCI contact is Emily Greenspan, Ph.D., Center for Strategic Scientific Initiatives; e-mail: .

Access the NCI PQ Website at

View the PQs at (The following questions are particularly relevant to NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences: A1-6, B1, B4, C1, C3, D2, D3, and D6.)

Access the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts for more details:

NOT-CA-12-014:

RFA-CA-12-015 (R01):

RFA-CA-12-016 (R21):

RFA-CA-12-017 (R01):

RFA-CA-12-018 (R21):

RFA-CA-12-019 (R01):

RFA-CA-12-020 (R21):

RFA-CA-12-021 (R01):

RFA-CA-12-022 (R21):