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Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program

Risk Factor Assessment

The Risk Factor Assessment Branch in NCI’s Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program develops, supports, and stimulates assessment of modifiable risk factors among individuals and diverse populations across the cancer continuum to inform and advance health promotion.

Research areas include

  • diet, physical activity, and sleep metrics
  • methods, tools, technologies, and resources for risk factor assessment
  • obesity policy research
Learn More About

Program Directors

Investigators seeking grant funding for risk factor assessment projects are encouraged to contact scientific staff in the Risk Factor Assessment Branch (RFAB) with questions.

RFAB Program Directors

Featured Funding Opportunities

Exploratory Grants in Cancer Control
PA-25-253 (R21, Clinical Trial Optional)
Expires September 8, 2028

Modular R01s in Cancer Control and Population Sciences
PA-25-172 (R01, Clinical Trial Optional)
Expires January 8, 2028

Notice of Special Interest: Factors Impacting How Time-Restricted Eating (TRE) Influences Cancer-Related Outcomes
NOT-CA-24-073
Expires May 8, 2027

Digital Health Technology Derived Biomarkers and Outcome Assessments for Remote Monitoring and Endpoint Development
PAR-25-170 (UG3/UH3, Clinical Trial Optional)
Expires June 23, 2026

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Validation of Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Tools for Improved Assessment in Biomedical and Behavioral Research
NOT-CA-24-031
Expires July 6, 2025

Time-Sensitive Opportunities for Health Research
PAR-22-233
Expires March 2, 2025

Notice of Special Interest: Administrative Supplements for Assessing Capacity to Address Obesity for Cancer Prevention and Control
NOT-CA-25-004
Expires February 3, 2025

Note: There will be a pre-application webinar on November 18, 2024, from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET.

Time-Sensitive Obesity Policy and Program Evaluation
PAR-21-305 (R01 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Expires January 10, 2025

Notice of Special Interest: Technology Development for Cancer Control and Population Science Research
NOT-CA-23-037
Expires December 31, 2024

Notice of Special Interest: Stimulating Research to Understand and Address Hunger, Food, and Nutrition Insecurity
NOT-OD-22-135
Expires November 29, 2024

View all funding opportunities related to cancer control research.

Interest Areas

Learn more about RFAB’s interests in the following areas, relevant funding opportunity announcements, related EGRP events, and staff contacts.

Biomarkers

EGRP is interested in research to improve understanding of how biomarkers can be used in early detection/screening of cancer, identifying environmental exposures that may lead to cancer, and markers of nutrition, physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep that either promote or protect against cancer.

Dietary Assessment

EGRP partners with others at NCI, NIH, and other organizations to increase the precision of dietary intake estimates by improving self-report of dietary intake and the analytic procedures for processing reported information. This research will facilitate dietary monitoring and nutritional epidemiology efforts and advance our understanding of the relationship of diet to cancer outcomes.

Digital Health Technologies for Cancer Research

EGRP partners with others at NCI, NIH, and others to use digital health approaches to advance the assessment, monitoring, and understanding of cancer risk factors and determinants and increase participants reach and engagement in cancer research.

Obesity Policy Research

EGRP partners with others at NCI, NIH, and other organizations to support various initiatives in obesity policy research, including research on diet and physical activity that may inform policymaking at local, state, or federal levels and measurement of the food and physical activity environments.

Physical Activity Assessment

EGRP partners with others at NCI, NIH, and other organizations to support the collection of physical activity data in existing and planned surveys. Doing so will develop more complete assessments of individuals' physical activity based on information derived from multiple contexts, including transportation, occupation, and recreation.

Sleep Assessment

EGRP partners with others at NCI, NIH, and other organizations to support the collection of sleep data in existing and planned surveys and the development of improved sleep assessment measures. These efforts will facilitate sleep research efforts to improve our understanding of how sleep quantity, quality, timing, and contextual factors may impact health outcomes.

Featured Resources

2020-2030 Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research

The first NIH-wide strategic plan for nutrition research emphasizes cross-cutting, innovative opportunities to advance nutrition research across a wide range of areas, from basic science to experimental design to research training.

2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 provides advice on what to eat and drink to meet nutrient needs, promote health, and help prevent chronic disease. This edition of the Dietary Guidelines is the first to provide guidance for healthy dietary patterns by life stage, from birth through older adulthood, including women who are pregnant or lactating.

Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 provides advice on what to eat and drink to meet nutrient needs, promote health, and help prevent chronic disease. This edition of the Dietary Guidelines is the first to provide guidance for healthy dietary patterns by life stage, from birth through older adulthood, including women who are pregnant or lactating.

Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Diet Assessment Tool (ASA24)

ASA24 is a freely available web-based tool for epidemiologic, interventional, behavioral, or clinical research from NCI that enables multiple automatically coded self-administered 24-hour recalls and food records.

Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ)

A free food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) developed by NCI staff for use by researchers, clinicians, or teachers.

Healthy Eating Index (HEI)

The HEI is a measure of diet quality, independent of quantity, that can be used to assess compliance with the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans and monitor changes in dietary patterns.

Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET) Values

This webpage provides the MET values for activities in the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) and the 2002 Census Occupational Classification System (OCS).

Health-Related Surveys

Surveys containing information which may be useful for epidemiology studies, including behavioral risk factors, health information, medical care, and more.

Current Initiatives

Keep up to date about the current Risk Factor Assessment projects and initiatives ongoing at EGRP.

Dietary Patterns Methods Project

This Project compared key diet quality indices and their associations with cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality. It was initiated to strengthen the scientific evidence base on dietary patterns and inform the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

NIH Common Fund’s Nutrition for Precision Health (NPH), powered by the All of Us Research Program

The goal of this program is to develop algorithms that predict individual responses to food and dietary patterns. The NPH program will build on recent advances in biomedical science including artificial intelligence (AI), microbiome research, as well as the infrastructure and large, diverse participant group of the All of Us Research Program.

NIH-National Science Foundation Smart and Connected Health Program

This program aims to accelerate the development and use of innovative approaches that partner technology and data science-based solutions with biomedical and behavioral health research.

Past Initiatives

Get information and view details about the Risk Factor Assessment projects and initiatives at EGRP that have been completed.

Interactive Diet and Activity Tracking in AARP (IDATA)

The purpose of the Interactive Diet and Activity Tracking in AARP (IDATA) study was to evaluate and compare the measurement error structure of diet and physical activity assessment tools against reference biomarkers. IDATA data and/or biospecimens are available as public use data, but researchers must submit a project proposal, which are reviewed by NCI.

Observing Protein and Energy Nutrition (OPEN) Study

The OPEN Study was an NCI-sponsored study designed to assess dietary measurement error by comparing results from self-reported dietary intake data with four dietary biomarkers: doubly labeled water and urinary nitrogen, sodium, and potassium. The study was conducted from July 1999 to March 2000 and included 484 men and women, aged 40-69 years old, living in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Last Updated: 14 Nov, 2024