Clinical Grants and Contracts Branch (CGCB)

The Clinical Grants and Contracts Branch leads CTEP's efforts to fund early phase clinical trials focused on promising cancer therapeutic agents and treatment therapies proposed by the cancer research community at large. As such, CGCB serves as a vital resource to the clinical oncology community and manages one of the most diverse portfolios of cancers in DCTD concentrated on clinical oncology, surgical oncology, and pharmacogenomics.

CGCB research portfolio includes Phase 0,1, and 2 investigational IND-directed studies as well as non-IND trials evaluating: dose, safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and effectiveness of novel anticancer drugs, vaccines, biologics, immunotherapeutic agents, cell and gene therapies, and any combinations thereof including standard of care chemotherapeutic drugs, radiation, and surgery/surgical procedures in development.

To support such clinical research efforts, CGCB Program Directors provide guidance to investigators pre-award, and administers grants and cooperative agreements throughout its duration which includes the scientific, technical, administrative, and fiscal aspects of an award. CGCB staff also exercise proper stewardship over clinical trials funded by NCI in accordance with NIH and NCI clinical trial policies, regulations, and oversight procedures. Other key responsibilities and initiatives include:

• Advising extramural investigators on appropriate funding opportunities and grant mechanisms and informing applicants of grant application processes/policies.
• Promoting extramural interactions with NCI-funded resources/programs designed to facilitate the translation of therapeutic interventions and discoveries such as the NeXT program and CTEP's IND agents and biorepository (see CTEP's "Resources for Investigators" site for details).
• Reviewing the existing and pending grant portfolio to maintain the proper scientific balance, in addition to recommending clinical trial-based research projects for funding that are scientifically and programmatically sound with appropriate correlative science research aims.
• Analyzing NCI and NIH grant portfolios/programs and conducting literature searches to keep abreast of research developments and to identify scientific gaps and opportunities for new initiatives.
• Providing scientific input and administrative oversight in the management of CTEP UM1 and U01-funded consortia and the Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN).
• Serving as the NCI Lead Program Director on multi-disciplinary clinical research initiatives/programs funded through RFAs and special NOFOs. Duties range from the administrative oversight of an award to having substantial involvement in setting cancer-specific scientific agendas through subcommittees and/or working groups within large-scale consortia, networks, and data coordinating centers. Examples include, but are not limited to:
  • Blood and Marrow Clinical Trial Network (BMTCTN)
  • Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR)
  • Childhood Cancer Survivorship Study (CCSS)
  • Patient Derived Xenograft (PDX) Development and Trial Centers Network & PDX Data Commons and Coordinating Center (PDXNET)
• Fostering extramural-intramural collaborations among clinical researchers seeking support from the NOFO on "Collaborative Research at the NIH Clinical Center" and the NIH "Lasker Clinical Research Scholars Program". In these partnerships, CGCB administers and oversees cooperative agreements in coordination with the appropriate NIH intramural program leaders.