# A public registry of unanswered clinical questions linked to funding calls

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-data-unanswered-questions-registry/  
OnCo record `idea-data-unanswered-questions-registry` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Keep a public list of the questions doctors and patients most need answered but no trial addresses, and tie research funding to it.

## Summary

Guideline panels repeatedly note evidence gaps but the gaps are buried in documents. The James Lind Alliance sets priorities with patients and clinicians but has limited oncology coverage. The proposal creates a structured, open registry of evidence gaps extracted from computable guidelines and living reviews, prioritised by burden and patient input, with funders committing to reference it in calls and trialists to register which gap a trial addresses.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: A gap registry referenced by funders will increase the share of newly funded oncology trials addressing prioritised gaps and reduce redundant trials on already-answered questions.
- Rationale: Research waste from redundant and misdirected trials is estimated at a large share of spending; making gaps explicit and prioritised gives funders and trialists a common target.
- Proposed test: Extract gaps from ten living reviews; have two funders reference the registry in calls for two years; measure the proportion of funded trials mapping to prioritised gaps versus before.
- Maturity: speculative
- Actor: philanthropy

## Sources

- James Lind Alliance: https://www.jla.nihr.ac.uk/

## Connected records

- fronts: [AI & Computation](https://onco.cc/fronts/ai-computation/)
- institutions: [Cancer Research UK](https://onco.cc/institutions/cruk/), [National Cancer Institute (NIH)](https://onco.cc/institutions/nci/)
- bottlenecks: [Funding follows fashion, not burden](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-funding-allocation/), [Knowledge reaches practice too slowly](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-knowledge-diffusion/), [Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-patient-voice/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/idea-data-unanswered-questions-registry.json