Research Answers to NCIs Provocative Questions (R21) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

Research Answers to NCI's Provocative Questions (R21) (Funding Opportunity Number RFA-CA-15-009) is a National Institutes of Health grant opportunity led by the National Cancer Institute that is meant to push cancer researchers toward tackling a defined set of stubborn, high-impact gaps in the field. The core idea is that NCI has identified a list of "provocative questions" that highlight specific problems, contradictions, or under-explored observations in cancer research, and this funding is intended to support projects that directly aim to answer those questions. These questions are intentionally framed to make investigators rethink assumptions, pursue novel explanations, and generate new directions in areas where progress has been slower than expected or where existing approaches have not received enough attention. Importantly, the provocative questions are not presented as a complete roadmap of NCI's entire cancer research agenda; they function more like targeted challenges designed to stimulate creative, hypothesis-driven work on issues NCI considers both important and insufficiently studied.

This announcement uses the NIH R21 mechanism, which generally supports early-stage, exploratory, or high-risk/high-reward research efforts. In practice, that means the opportunity is suited to projects that may not yet have extensive preliminary data but have a strong scientific rationale and a clear plan to produce informative results. The goal is often to generate proof-of-concept findings, establish feasibility, develop or test innovative methods, or open up new lines of inquiry that could later be expanded through larger awards. Because the focus is tied to specific NCI-identified questions, competitive applications would be expected to show a tight, explicit connection between the proposed work and one or more provocative questions, rather than simply presenting a broad cancer research project.

The funding is categorized as discretionary and is offered as a grant. The activity areas reflect NCI's major research domains and include cancer cause and prevention (CFDA 93.393), detection and diagnosis (93.394), treatment (93.395), biology (93.396), and control (93.399). This spread signals that NCI is open to a wide range of scientific approaches, as long as they are aimed at resolving the particular paradoxes or problems captured in the provocative questions. The overall estimated total funding listed for the opportunity is $5,000,000, and the listed award ceiling is $200,000. No cost sharing or matching is required, which reduces barriers for applicants who might not have access to institutional or third-party matching funds.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of organizations across academia, government, nonprofit, and industry. Eligible applicants include public and state-controlled institutions of higher education and private institutions of higher education, as well as nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status. For-profit organizations are eligible, including small businesses and other for-profit entities (with small businesses explicitly listed). Government entities at multiple levels are included, such as state governments, county governments, city or township governments, special district governments, and independent school districts, along with public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities. The announcement also explicitly recognizes tribal participation through federally recognized Native American tribal governments and tribal organizations that are not federally recognized, and it includes a variety of mission-focused institution types such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs). In addition, non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations), regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions are listed as eligible, indicating that NCI intended this initiative to draw from a wide scientific community, not solely domestic U.S. institutions.

Key administrative dates show the announcement was posted and created on March 27, 2015, with an original and final closing date of October 28, 2016, and an archive date of November 28, 2016. That means the opportunity, as described here, is historical rather than currently open, but the structure and intent are still useful as a reference point for similar NCI initiatives and for understanding how the provocative questions program has been implemented through NIH grant mechanisms. The official additional information link is hosted on the NIH grants site at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-15-009.html, and the contact guidance provided points applicants to the NIH Office of Extramural Research webmaster addresses for technical issues accessing or linking to the announcement.

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