Bioinformatics, the expansion of clinical trials and biomarkers research will be among the top research priorities for the National Cancer Institute over the next few years, NCI director Andrew von Eschenbach, told the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in Orlando, Florida.

The NCI director outlined funding allocations for FY 2004, stressing the institute actively will be seeking community feedback as it redeploys its research assets. The Omnibus Appropriations bill for FY 2004 provided NCI with a budget of $4.77 billion, an increase of $178 million, or 3.9 per cent, over FY 2003. Rescissions in the omnibus package, however, cut that budget by $31 million, resulting in a final budget increase of $147 million or 3.2 per cent.

Mandated spending increases, non-competing grants and assessments to support the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research initiative put NCI at an operating deficit of $2.7 million, compared with FY 2003, von Eschenbach explained. To compensate, NCI division directors were asked to reduce their base FY 2004 budgets by 5 per cent to create a $75 million, pool for funding new initiatives. Roughly $54.5 million of the pool will be redeployed to address strategic initiatives identified by institute leadership as the highest priorities for the year, the NCI director said.

The dollars will go to the following areas: bioinformatics ($15 million); integrative cancer biology ($11 million); clinical trials program ($10 million); bio-markers ($7.5 million); imaging ($4 million); scale up of the Rapid Access to Intervention Development program, the Rapid Access to Prevention Intervention Development program and other programs ($4 million); and health disparities ($3 million). Of the remainder, $15 million will be placed in a reserve to be used for unforeseen expenses, while $5.5 million will be reallocated to operational units to support the initiation and expansion of division-specific program activities. Building on the institute's new "Discovery, Development, Delivery" paradigm, the NCI director noted much of the redirected funding would go to help expand existing efforts rather than launch all new initiatives.

As the institute considers how best to redeploy its resources to better meet its top priorities, a focus on creative research will be maintained throughout, von Eschenbach said. To ensure a continued dialogue between NCI and the research community, von Eschenbach directed the audience to access the institute's recently created online publication, The Cancer Bulletin, which will serve to convey future priorities and plans as well as provide a point for feedback from researchers. "The NCI does not intend to be an ATM machine for research, giving out money here and there, with no input from the community," von Eschenbach stressed. "We intend to work with you to coordinate and integrate, across the entire continuum, the nation's cancer programs that bring us together in this collective effort," he added.