Alliance Cancer Care delivery research pilot project Funds

The Alliance offers funds to support pilot projects in Cancer Care Delivery Research (CCDR). The purpose of these pilot projects is to generate preliminary data that will lead to the development of an Alliance CCDR study for submission to the NCORP network. The committee is particularly interested in concepts that focus on: patient out of pocket costs, financial toxicity for patients/caregivers, and/or financial counseling; implementation of patient-reported outcomes into routine care delivery; practice-level changes that improve cancer care delivery, such as implementation of survivorship care plans, models for coordination of care, or surgical cancer care processes. These CCDR pilot project funds are available from the Alliance NCORP Research Base grant, which is supported by the NCI Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) and are available for CCDR pilot projects that can be completed within one year.

Award: Up to $150,000 in total costs (including institutional indirect costs) for 18 months.

Eligibility Criteria
Applicant eligibility

  • Applicants and their respective institutions must be Alliance members.
  • Applicants must be a member of the Alliance CCDR Committee.

Project eligibility

  • Interested applicants must submit a completed eligibility form to confirm institutional and individual Alliance membership, as well as CCDR Committee membership.
  • Eligible pilot projects are ones designed to generate preliminary data, in one of the research foci described above, that will lead to the development of an Alliance CCDR study that will be conducted with the NCORP network. For more information on the NCI conceptualization of studies that will be considered CCDR, please see the article by Kent et al entitled Cancer Care Delivery Research: Building the Evidence Base to Support Practice Change in Community Oncology..
  • It is preferred, but not required, that submitted concepts be presented to the Alliance CCDR Committee for discussion prior to approval of a funding application. All funded proposals must be presented on an Alliance CCDR Committee call.

Application Requirements

Eligible applicants will be invited to submit an application in the form of a 3-5 page concept to conduct a CCDR pilot. Proposals should be written using 11-point (or larger) font in either Arial, Helvetica, Palatino Linotype or Georgia typeface (black font color) with at least 0.5-inch margins on all sides.

The concept should follow the following format: 

  • Title page (include address, phone number, and preferred email address for PI) (not included in page limit)
  • Background (include rationale and significance)
  • Study objectives
  • Study plan (include schema and eligibility criteria)
  • Data analysis plan
  • Feasibility (provide evidence that study can reach accrual goal within 12 months of the start of funding)
  • Description of how this pilot study will lead to an Alliance CCDR protocol to be conducted within the NCORP network in the future.
  • Description of research environment
  • References (not included in page limit)

In addition to the concept, applications should include a biographical sketch of the PI(s), summary of Other Support for the PI(s), and a budget (following the PHS 398 budget format, including the Detailed Budget for Initial Budget Period AND the Checklist Form page) up to $150,000 in total costs with a budget justification. Awardees must budget for and attend at least one Alliance Group meeting to present the results of their research. Funds cannot be used for PI (or co-investigator) salary support, or salary support for Alliance Central Office staff.

While not required, it is strongly encouraged that applications should propose to conduct the pilot trial as a multi-institutional study (rather than as a single institution study) and include an NCORP community or minority/ underserved community site. Note: These pilot studies will not be considered Alliance protocols, and as such, will not be assigned a protocol number or be eligible for cancer control credits/reimbursements or per-case payments for the participating site(s).

Approved projects will be funded with an anticipated budget start date and a budget end date. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their proposal to their local IRB for approval at the time the application is submitted to the Alliance CCDR Committee for review to reduce time to activation, if funded. If the study is not activated within the first 12 months after funding is awarded, the study will be shut down.

Questions about the application process should be addressed to Anne Barber, Alliance Cancer Care Delivery Research Program Manager at abarber@facs.org.

Past Recipients
2021

  • Karen J. Wernli, PhD (Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute)
    “Quality Metrics in Time to Biopsy and Lung Cancer Diagnosis in Cancer Screening Population"

2020

  • Victoria Blinder, MD, MSc (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)
    “Workplace/Employer Accommodations During Cancer Treatment (WE-ACT): A Mobile Health App to Promote Job Retention in People Undergoing Treatment for Cancer”

2019

  • Lixin Song, PhD, RN, FAAN (UNC - Chapel Hill)
    “Feasibility Testing of Patient Reported Outcomes-informed Caregiving Education and Symptom Management System (PROCESS): A Personalized mHealth Program for Cancer Symptom and Complication Management”

2018

  • Sarah Birken, PhD (UNC Chapel Hill)
    “Identifying Strategies for Comprehensive Survivorship Care Plan Implementation”
  • Cindy Matsen, MD (University of Utah)
    “Understanding and Addressing Patient and Provider Preferences around Discussions of Cost of Breast Cancer Care”

2017

  • Gabriel Brooks, MD, MPH (Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center)
    "Cancer care delivery processes at community oncology practices and their association with acute hospital and emergency department utilization: A pilot study"
  • Arif Kamal, MD, MBA, MHS (Duke Cancer Institute)
    "Developing and testing a web-based tool to engage advanced cancer patients"

2016

  • Shelby Terstriep, MD (Sanford Health)
    "Use of remote symptom monitoring with breast cancer survivors using patient-reported outcome measures in MyChart”
  • Terri Lynn Woodard, MD (University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center)
    "Delivering patient-centered counseling to women at risk of cancer-related infertility: An innovative way to meet practice guidelines"