National Cancer Institute

FY 2013 Introduction

For fiscal year 2013, the funding statistics by site and research topic included in the NCI Funded Research Portfolio (NFRP) are the result of a comprehensive analysis of research grants, contract awards, and NCI intramural research projects funded from October 2012 to September 2013. The funding levels for each fiscal year are only available once the year has concluded. The fiscal year for the U.S. Government runs from October 1 through September 30 of each year.

For fiscal year 2013, the budget of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) was $4.79 billion. This reflects a 5.5% decrease compared to fiscal year 2012. Most of the reduction was the result of government-wide spending cuts, commonly known as sequestration, implemented under the Budget Control Act of 2011.

Due to the fiscal year 2013 reduction in the NCI budget, funding levels for many disease categories and research areas—as they are classified in the NFRP—were lower in fiscal year 2013 than the previous year. Furthermore, funding levels in specific areas of cancer research naturally fluctuate for a variety of reasons. For example, funding may fluctuate because of individual research projects or programs that commence or conclude during a particular year.

Approximately half of the NCI budget supports basic research that may not be specific to one type of cancer. By its nature, basic research cuts across many disease areas, contributing to our knowledge of the underlying biology of cancer and enabling the research community to make advances against many cancer types. For these reasons, the funding levels reported in NFRP may not definitively report all research relevant to a given category.

Throughout the year, NCI does not make decisions about funding based on predetermined targets for a specific disease area or research category. Rather, the Institute relies heavily on scientific peer review, in which highly trained outside scientists review research proposals and judge them on factors such as scientific merit, potential impact, and likelihood of success. Proposals are also further evaluated by NCI leadership to consider additional factors such as public health significance, scientific novelty, and overall representation of the research topic within the NCI portfolio. In some cases, the National Cancer Advisory Board also reviews the NCI research funding recommendations.

More information about research funding is available here. More information on how the portfolio analysis is conducted is available under About NFRP, and a detailed overview of the allocation of NCI’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget is available in the NCI Fact Book.