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Mission

The Provocative Questions Initiative is a research program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

The National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is the federal government's principal agency for cancer research and training. NCI’s mission is to lead, conduct, and support cancer research across the nation to advance scientific knowledge and help all people to live longer, healthier lives. NCI’s scope of work spans a broad spectrum of cancer research across a variety of disciplines and supports research training opportunities at career stages across the academic continuum. 

Program Mission

To support research projects designed to use sound and innovative research strategies to solve specific problems and paradoxes in cancer research identified by the NCI as understudied, paradoxical, or difficult to address.

Proposals Should:

  • Build on specific advances in our understanding of cancer and cancer control
  • Address broad issues in the biology of cancer that have proven difficult to resolve
  • Take into consideration the likelihood of progress in the foreseeable future (e.g., 5 to 10 years)
  • Address ways to overcome obstacles to answering the question

About PQs

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