Limited Competition: Biospecimen Bank to Support NCI Early-Phase and Experimental Clinical Trials (U24 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)

The main goal of this limited competition Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to continue the state-of the-art biobanking infrastructure and operations for early-stage and experimental clinical trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The biobanking needs of the following NCI clinical trial programs will be supported: Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN), and Other NCI-supported early and experimental trials. Currently, this biobanking infrastructure supporting NCI early experimental clinical trials is part of a biobank serving primarily another NCI program, National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN). Through a separate U24 award under this FOA, the NCI aims to separate the existing ETCTN-serving biobanking infrastructure and operation from the current NCTN Biobank. This separated entity will be termed: Early-Phase and Experimental Clinical Trials Biospecimen Bank (also referred to as EET Biobank). Although the EET Biobank and the "parent" NCTN Biobank may be hosted in the same institution, they are expected to become independent operations with separate leaderships. EET Biobank will be responsible for collecting, processing, storing a variety of human specimens from patients with cancer who are participating in NCI-funded ETCTN and other NCI-supported early and experimental clinical trials. The responsibilities of EET Bank will also include maintenance of up-to-date specimen inventory and specimen distribution to qualified NCI-approved trial investigators and research laboratories.