Worry not, because support for cancer research remains strong, NCI Director Ned Sharpless said, even as the institute stalls in its attempts to increase paylines in fiscal year 2022 and as the White House requests a nearly $200 million cutto the FY23 NCI budget.
“There’s just a lot going on,” Sharpless said at a March 28 meeting of the NCI’s Board of Scientific Advisors. “And I think it’ll sound confusing, and it may even sound a little concerning at times for those of us who have devoted our lives to improving cancer outcomes.”
This year, NCI’s paylines will remain at the 11th percentile, the FY21 level, despite an increase of $159 million to the institute’s budget in the FY22 appropriations—throwing a wrench in Sharpless’s plans to raise the paylines to the 15th percentile by 2025 (The Cancer Letter, Sept. 4, 2020).
“This is a deep disappointment to me in the NCI. But I think taking a pause in our march to higher paylines is something we have to do this year,” Sharpless said.
Biden’s FY23 budget request, which went live shortly after Sharpless addressed his advisors, didn’t help. The administration’s FY23 spending proposal would cut NCI’s budget by 2.9% and add $4 billion to the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.
