Administrative Supplements to Cancer Center Support Grants to Strengthen NCI-Supported Community Outreach Capacity through Community Health Educators of the National Outreach Network (Admin Suppl Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | PA 19 035

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 19 035

This funding opportunity (PA 19-035) is an administrative supplement program from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, specifically the National Cancer Institute (NCI). It is led by NCI's Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD) in collaboration with the NCI Office of Cancer Centers (OCC). The core idea is to provide additional, targeted funds to existing NCI-designated Cancer Centers that already hold Cancer Center Support Grants (CCSGs, P30 mechanism) so they can expand and professionalize their community outreach efforts. Rather than creating a brand-new stand-alone project, this supplement is meant to plug into and strengthen the work cancer centers are already doing under their CCSG, with a clear emphasis on reaching communities that face persistent gaps in cancer prevention, screening, treatment access, and outcomes.

The specific purpose of the supplement is to enable each participating NCI-designated Cancer Center to recruit a Community Health Educator (CHE) who will operate as part of the National Outreach Network (NON). In practice, this means the Cancer Center adds dedicated personnel whose job is to connect the Cancer Center to the community in a consistent, on-the-ground way. The CHE role is positioned as a bridge between evidence-based cancer information produced or curated by experts and the real-world needs, concerns, languages, and cultural contexts of local underserved populations. The program is fundamentally about building capacity: expanding the Cancer Center's ability to do outreach that is sustained, coordinated, and responsive, rather than occasional or fragmented.

A major expectation of the program is that these NON Community Health Educators will help improve both the development and dissemination of culturally appropriate, evidence-based cancer information. "Evidence-based" underscores that messages, educational materials, and outreach approaches should be grounded in reputable cancer research and established public health guidance. "Culturally appropriate" and "tailored to their specific needs" signal that the same message cannot simply be broadcast everywhere; it should be adapted to reflect community values, language preferences, literacy levels, trusted messengers, local barriers to care, and the practical realities of accessing services in different settings. The opportunity explicitly highlights underserved communities, including rural populations and many racial and ethnic groups that have historically experienced cancer health disparities, including African American/Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Hispanic/Latino, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander communities. The focus on these populations reflects CRCHD's mission to reduce disparities and improve equity in cancer-related outcomes.

From an eligibility and structure standpoint, the supplement is tied to CCSG P30 awards at NCI-designated Cancer Centers. While the general eligibility list in the notice includes a wide range of organizational types (such as various government entities, tribal governments and organizations, public and private higher education institutions, nonprofits, and for-profit organizations), the practical target audience for this particular administrative supplement is the set of Cancer Centers that already hold the relevant NCI Cancer Center Support Grant. In other words, the supplement is not a general open competition for any organization to start a new outreach program; it is an add-on to an existing NCI Cancer Center infrastructure award, intended to strengthen the Cancer Center's established community engagement and outreach functions through a dedicated CHE hire aligned with the NON model.

Financially, the notice lists an award ceiling of $125,000 and anticipates up to 39 awards, reflecting the intent to distribute relatively modest but meaningful increments of funding across multiple NCI-designated Cancer Centers. Because it is an administrative supplement, these funds are generally meant to support a well-defined expansion of scope within the existing grant framework, commonly including personnel and related outreach costs associated with establishing and operating the CHE position. The funding instrument type is a grant and the activity category is listed under Education and Health, which aligns with the emphasis on information dissemination, community engagement, and improving the public's ability to access and use cancer-related knowledge and services.

The notice also specifies "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," which clarifies that the supported activities should not include initiating or conducting clinical trials under this supplement. The focus is outreach capacity and education, not testing interventions through clinical trial mechanisms. Practically, this directs applicants to concentrate on community-facing education, engagement, navigation-oriented connections to services, and other non-trial activities that strengthen the Cancer Center's ability to reach underserved groups with high-quality information and to support informed decision-making around cancer prevention and control.

In terms of timing and administrative details, the opportunity was created on October 24, 2018, with an original closing date of December 15, 2018. That timeframe indicates it was issued as a time-bound competition for supplements during that period, and interested Cancer Centers would have been expected to propose a plan for recruiting and integrating a CHE into their outreach infrastructure and coordinating with the National Outreach Network. Overall, the opportunity reflects a capacity-building strategy: place trained community health education staff within major cancer centers, connect them through a national network, and use that structure to improve the reach, relevance, and trustworthiness of cancer information delivered to underserved communities, with the broader goal of reducing cancer health disparities.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Administrative Supplements to Cancer Center Support Grants to Strengthen NCI-Supported Community Outreach Capacity through Community Health Educators of the National Outreach Network (Admin Suppl Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.397.
• This funding opportunity was created on Oct 24, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 15, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $125,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 39 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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