An assistance grant or award used by the NIH and by the recipient grantee(s) or awardee(s) and institution(s) for the support of broadly based, multidisciplinary, often long-term, research program which has a specific major objective or a basic theme. A program project generally involves the organized efforts of relatively large groups, members of which are conducting research projects designed to elucidate the various aspects or components of their objectives. Awarded on behalf of a principal investigator, a P01 grant can support projects and shared resources. A program project funded by the NCI must contain at least three related projects, and can contain one or more cores (i.e., support facilities), each of which must support at least two projects. Each research project is usually under the leadership of an established investigator. The grant can provide support for certain basic resources used by the groups in the program, including clinical components, the sharing of which facilitates the total research effort. A program project is directed toward a range of problems having a central focus, in contrast to the usually narrower thrust of the traditional research project. Each project supported through this mechanism should contribute or be directly related to the common theme of the total research effort.
