TY - JOUR
T1 - First international workshops on Provocative Questions (PQ) in cancer research, October-November 2014, New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Thiruvananthapuram, India
AU - Rajaraman, Preetha
AU - Dey, Bindu
AU - Majumder, Partha P.
AU - Mayor, Satyajit
AU - Pillai, M. Radhakrishna
AU - Ramaswamy, S.
AU - Shaha, Chandrima
AU - Johnson, Maureen
AU - Sivaram, Sudha
AU - Trimble, Edward L.
AU - Harlow, Edward E.
AU - VijayRaghavan, K.
N1 - Funding Information:
Once a year, NCI staff review all PQs generated from the workshops and the website. The final set of questions is selected by expert judgment following an analysis of existing published literature and the funded portfolio of several major government funding bodies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Defense Technical Information Center. The final PQs are funded through requests for applications (RFAs) issued using two mechanisms: the Research Project Grant (R01) and the Exploratory/Development Research Grant (R21). A recent analysis of PQ applicants in the U.S. indicates that U.S. PQ grants have attracted substantially more new investigators and applicants with medical degrees than the general NCI applicant pool [2] . Since the program’s inception in 2011, four separate RFA’s have been issued, under which 47 unique Provocative Questions have been opened for grant applications. In the years 2011 through 2013, 1822 applications were reviewed, 188 new grants approved, and $74 million awarded in first year funding.
Funding Information:
The committee decided that the main goal of the meeting would be to generate scientific discussion followed by the identification of a number of key fundable questions. All questions relevant to cancer would be considered, whether basic or applied, and whether particularly relevant to India or not. The final set of questions from the workshop would be funneled into both the usual NCI PQ process for generation of RFAs open to all investigators internationally, and would also be considered separately for funding in India. Given that various funding bodies exist in India, including the DBT, the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), and that these institutions fund different aspects of research in cancer, the specifics of funding in India would be decided after the questions were generated. The committee felt that the inclusion of both international and Indian scientists would be an important feature of the workshop. Three independent workshops would be held in different Indian cities, and each of these would be hosted by a leading research institution in that city: the National Institute of Immunology (NII) in New Delhi; the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) and the Stem Cell Institute inStem in Bengaluru; and the Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology (RGCB) in Thiruvananthapuram. Although the organizing committee considered specialized workshops focused on particular research disciplines in different cities, it was decided that researchers across the spectrum would be invited to each. Each workshop would be limited to a maximum of 25 participants (15 from India and 10 from other countries across the globe) to allow small group discussion and deeper consideration of each question. The workshops were jointly funded by the NCI and DBT.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015.Published by Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015/12/1
Y1 - 2015/12/1
N2 - In 2011, the National Cancer Institute (NCI, USA) introduced the Provocative Questions (PQ) Initiative, a new approach allowing active researchers to define major unsolved or neglected problems in oncology unaddressed by existing funding. Last year, the U.S. NCI teamed up with the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to pilot the PQ approach in three cities in India. Workshop outcomes included the generation of fundable "PQs" (perplexing questions understudied by the international scientific community), as well as the identification of several non-PQ projects and research-related issues of importance to DBT and other Indian funding groups. The workshops clearly indicated the need to expand beyond crafting "PQs" when considering the best areas for research funding in international settings. Nonetheless, the first set of PQ workshops provided a forum to discuss key issues regarding cancer research in India, including the paucity of cancer research funding, and the lack of relevant human resource training and technology sharing platforms. Continued open debate between researchers, funders and policymakers will be essential to effectively strengthen the cancer research portfolio in India.
AB - In 2011, the National Cancer Institute (NCI, USA) introduced the Provocative Questions (PQ) Initiative, a new approach allowing active researchers to define major unsolved or neglected problems in oncology unaddressed by existing funding. Last year, the U.S. NCI teamed up with the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to pilot the PQ approach in three cities in India. Workshop outcomes included the generation of fundable "PQs" (perplexing questions understudied by the international scientific community), as well as the identification of several non-PQ projects and research-related issues of importance to DBT and other Indian funding groups. The workshops clearly indicated the need to expand beyond crafting "PQs" when considering the best areas for research funding in international settings. Nonetheless, the first set of PQ workshops provided a forum to discuss key issues regarding cancer research in India, including the paucity of cancer research funding, and the lack of relevant human resource training and technology sharing platforms. Continued open debate between researchers, funders and policymakers will be essential to effectively strengthen the cancer research portfolio in India.
KW - Cancer research
KW - Department of Biotechnology
KW - Funding
KW - India
KW - National Cancer Institute
KW - Provocative Questions
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jcpo.2015.10.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jcpo.2015.10.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 26568911
AN - SCOPUS:84949565439
SN - 2213-5383
VL - 6
SP - 33
EP - 36
JO - Journal of Cancer Policy
JF - Journal of Cancer Policy
ER -