The NIH/NCI recently announced a new funding opportunity for projects that will develop, adapt, apply, scale up, and validate tools and methods to improve the collection and integration of cancer registry data and to expand the data items collected.

The NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program and the CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries collect data for the US population in order to report on cancer trends and identify needs for more cancer prevention and control efforts (see fact sheet at left for an example). However, in recent years, there have been challenges due to the increasing complexity of health care information. For example, with more care being delivered at outpatient facilities, it’s increasingly difficult to collect relevant information on all cancer cases diagnosed in their catchment areas.

The new funding opportunity will help advance surveillance science by improving data collection methods, expanding on data elements being captured, and creating tools and methods to be incorporated in the routine process that can be scaled up to multiple registries. For more information, see FOA: PAR-16-349. Applications will be accepted starting September 14, 2016.