National Cancer Institute Funding

National Cancer Institute (NCI) funding opportunities that may be of interest to University of Illinois Cancer Center members.


Scaling-up and Maintaining Evidence-based Interventions to Maximize Impact on Cancer (SUMMIT)- Lung Cancer Screening (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Required)

  • Application Date: 12/06/24
  • Letter of Intent: 30 days prior to application due date
  • Purpose: This notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) invites proposals for Research Projects to advance the science of scale-up and sustainment of lung cancer screening (LCS) for populations at high risk for lung cancer. Each Research Project will propose a trial to test implementation strategies to equitably and effectively scale-up and sustain the delivery of LCS to a large number of diverse clinical care delivery settings and populations at high risk for lung cancer, with an emphasis on populations experiencing health inequities.  

Scaling-up and Maintaining Evidence-based Interventions to Maximize Impact on Cancer (SUMMIT) – Tobacco Use Treatment for Cancer Survivors (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Required)

  • Application Date: 12/06/24
  • Letter of Intent: 30 days prior to application due date
  • Purpose: This notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) invites proposals for Research Projects to advance the science of scale-up and sustainment of tobacco use treatment (TUT) for cancer survivors. Each Research Project will propose a trial to test implementation strategies to equitably and effectively scale-up and sustain the delivery of TUT to a large number of diverse clinical care delivery settings and cancer survivor populations, with an emphasis on cancer survivor populations experiencing health inequities.

The Confluence of Cancer Stigma and HIV Stigma in HIV-positive Individuals Diagnosed with Cancer (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

  • Application Dates: 12/10/24
  • Letter of Intent: Due 30 days prior to application due date.
  • Purpose: Through this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) as a request for applications (RFA), the NCI intends to support research that expands the current understanding of the confluence of cancer stigma and HIV stigma among people with HIV (PWH) diagnosed with cancer; assesses the impact of these two converging stigmas on cancer outcomes among PWH with cancer; leverages stigma reduction interventions at multiple levels to intervene on modifiable mechanisms of stigma that contribute to negative cancer outcomes among PWH with cancer; and promotes research in domestic and international contexts, focusing on regions in which the HIV-cancer burden is elevated. 

Limited Competition: AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC; UM1 Clinical Trial Required)

  • Letter of Intent: 12/10/24
  • Application Date: 01/10/25
  • Purpose: Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the NCI intends to enable the provision of support for AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC). AMC is a multi-center infrastructure intended to stimulate cooperative research efforts in the following areas:
  • Design, development, and evaluation of clinical interventions for the prevention and treatment of malignancies in people with HIV (PWH);
  • Development of more effective therapeutics and management strategies for malignancies in PWH;
  • Investigation of the biology of HIV malignancies within the context of clinical trials;
  • Management of issues of international importance in malignancies in PWH; and
  • Distribution of excess tumor tissue and other relevant biologic fluids to the AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR) for ongoing or future investigations.

The AMC must consist of the following functional units: an Operations Center; Clinical Trial Sites; Network Laboratories; and a Statistical Center. The AMC team must have scientific disease-oriented Working Groups to study Kaposi sarcoma, hematologic malignancies, human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers, and solid tumors in PWH. The Network Laboratories will be responsible for routine clinical trial support activities, pathogenesis-driven correlative studies, and clinical pharmacology and pharmacokinetics studies of anticancer/antiviral interactions. All clinical trials to be conducted by the AMC must be available to subjects of all racial/ethnic groups.


Comprehensive Partnerships to Advance Cancer Health Equity (CPACHE) (U54 Clinical Trial Optional)

  • Application Dates: 01/16/2025 & 10/09/2025 

Mechanisms that Impact Cancer Risk after Bariatric Surgery (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

  • Letter of Intent: 01/16/25
  • Application Date: 02/16/25; 06/16/25; 10/16/25
  • Purpose: Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the NCI invites applications for support of investigator-initiated studies addressing mechanisms by which bariatric surgery impacts cancer risk, and seeks to draw in talented scientists who study bariatric surgery to investigate its effects on cancer, rather than shorter-term outcomes such as weight loss and diabetes.

NCI National Clinical Trials Network – Network Lead Academic Participating Sites (UG1 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

  • Letter of Intent: 01/24/25
    Application Date: 02/24/25
  • Purpose: This Notice of Funding Opportunity Announcement (NOFO) is one of six NOFOs that support the comprehensive effort by the NCI to provide the infrastructure for the conduct of national clinical trials through the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN). The primary goal of the NCTN is the conduct of multi-center, late-phase, clinical treatment trials (i.e., randomized phase 2 and phase 3 trials) and advanced imaging trials across a broad range of cancers, modalities, and diverse patient populations as part of the NCI’s overall clinical research program for adults, adolescents and young adults, and children with cancer. The NCTN also conducts, as necessary, preliminary studies needed for development of definitive trials, especially umbrella/basket trials and rare tumor trials, when an extensive, national patient catchment area is required.

Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs) in Human Cancers for Years 2024, 2025, and 2026 (P50 Clinical Trial Required)

  • Application Dates: 01/25/25; 05/25/25
  • Optional Letter of Intent: Due 30 days before the application due date.
  • Purpose: Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the NCI invites applications for P50 Research Center Grants for Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE). Based on the research proposed, applications may be jointly funded with the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). The program will fund P50 SPORE grants to support state-of-the-art investigator-initiated translational research that will contribute to improved prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of an organ-specific cancer or a related group of cancers. For this NOFO a group of highly related cancers are those that are derived from the same organ system, such as gastrointestinal, neuroendocrine, head and neck, and other cancers. Other programmatically appropriate groups of cancers may include those centered around a common biological mechanism critical for promoting tumorigenesis and/or cancer progression in organ sites that belong to different organ systems. For example, a SPORE may focus on cancers caused by the same infectious agent or cancers sustained and promoted by the dysregulation of a common signaling pathway. In addition, a SPORE may focus on cross-cutting themes such as pediatric cancers or cancer health disparities. The research supported through this program must be translational and must stem from research on human biology using cellular, molecular, structural, biochemical, and/or genetic experimental approaches. SPORE projects must have the goal of reaching a translational human endpoint within the project period of the grant.

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements for Assessing Capacity to Address Obesity for Cancer Prevention and Control

  • Application Date: 01/31/25
  • Letter of Intent: NA
  • Purpose: The Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the NCI announces this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) to encourage NCI-funded investigators to apply for administrative supplement funds to support research addressing obesity for cancer prevention and control. Ongoing developments in obesity prevention indicate that using multiple policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) approaches across the diverse sectors that influence obesity offer considerable promise, but few efforts have been made to carefully evaluate such whole of systems, or PSE, approaches. Foundational work is needed to help set the stage for investigators from academic institutions, cancer centers, other research organizations, and community partners to lead collaborative groups to organize, implement, and evaluate such approaches. Furthermore, determining which specific combination of PSE approaches are most appropriate for a specific community requires significant preparatory work. These supplements will help prepare for the next generation of obesity research oriented towards cancer prevention.

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements for Assessing Capacity to Address Obesity for Cancer Prevention and Control

  • Application Date: 01/31/25
  • Letter of Intent: NA
  • Purpose: The Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the NCI announces this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) to encourage NCI-funded investigators to apply for administrative supplement funds to support research addressing obesity for cancer prevention and control. Ongoing developments in obesity prevention indicate that using multiple policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) approaches across the diverse sectors that influence obesity offer considerable promise, but few efforts have been made to carefully evaluate such whole of systems, or PSE, approaches. Foundational work is needed to help set the stage for investigators from academic institutions, cancer centers, other research organizations, and community partners to lead collaborative groups to organize, implement, and evaluate such approaches. Furthermore, determining which specific combination of PSE approaches are most appropriate for a specific community requires significant preparatory work. These supplements will help prepare for the next generation of obesity research oriented towards cancer prevention.

Cancer Prevention and Control Clinical Trials Grant Program (R01 Clinical Trial Required)

  • Application Date: 02/05/25; 06/05/25; 10/05/25
  • Letter of Intent: 30 days prior to application.
  • Purpose: Through this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), the NCI invites applications for support of investigator-initiated clinical trials related to the programmatic interests of the NCI Division of Cancer Prevention and/or the NCI Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences that have the potential to reduce the burden of cancer through improvements in early detection, screening, prevention and interception, healthcare delivery, quality of life, and/or survivorship related to cancer; with such attributes, the proposed studies should also have the potential to improve clinical practice and/or public health. Applications submitted to this NOFO must include studies that meet the National Institutes of Health (NIH) definition of a clinical trial (see NOT-OD-15-015 for details) and provide specific clinical trial information as described in this NOFO and the application instructions. This NOFO does not and will not support clinical trials for studies of cancer diagnosis and/or oncologic therapy in patients.

Mechanisms that Impact Cancer Risk after Bariatric Surgery (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

  • Application Date: 02/05/25; 06/05/25; 10/05/25
  • Letter of Intent: 30 days prior to the application due date
  • Purpose: Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the NCI invites applications for support of investigator-initiated studies addressing mechanisms by which bariatric surgery impacts cancer risk and seeks to draw in talented scientists who study bariatric surgery to investigate its effects on cancer, rather than shorter term outcomes such as weight loss and diabetes.

Notice of Information: Reissuance of Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) “Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health” (R01, R21, R03)

  • Application Date: Beginning on 02/05/25 and thereafter.

Research Projects to Enhance Applicability of Mammalian Models for Translational Research (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

  • Application Dates: 02/05/25 & 03/05/25 

Mechanistic links between diet, lipid metabolism, and tumor growth and progression (UH2 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

  • Application Date: 02/14/25 & 10/23/25
  • Letter of Intent: NA
  • Purpose: Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the NCI requests applications that propose mechanistic investigations of the links between diet, lipid metabolism and tumor growth and progression. It is anticipated that this program will support fundamental studies designed to identify and define the molecular mechanisms through which lipid metabolism mediates tumor growth and progression, focusing specifically on the central role lipids play in linking diet with the biology of cancer; bridge the historically divided fields of nutrition and molecular metabolism; and stimulate research and tool development in this emerging area, which faces particular challenges because of the complexity of lipid biochemistry. For this announcement, unpublished preliminary data are limited to one figure, comprising no more than one-half page, to facilitate the entry of qualified new investigators to the field.

Pathway to Independence Award for Early-Stage Postdoctoral Researchers (K99/R00 – Independent Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)

Application Dates: 02/14/2025 & 02/16/2025 & subsequent dates through 2026.


Assay Validation of High Quality Markers for Clinical Studies in Cancer (UH3 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)

  • Application Date: 02/14/25; 06/11/25; 10/15/25
  • Letter of Intent: NA
  • Purpose: Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the NCI intends to accelerate the adoption and validation of molecular/cellular/imaging markers (referred to as “markers” or “biomarkers”) and assays for cancer detection, diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring, and prediction of response or resistance to treatment, as well as markers for cancer prevention and control. This NOFO will also support the validation of pharmacodynamic markers and markers of toxicity. Applicants to this NOFO must have an assay(s) whose performance has been analytically validated in specimens similar to those for the intended clinical use of the marker(s) and assay(s). As chemotherapies and/or radiation therapies are increasingly combined with immunotherapies to enhance the durability of anti-cancer responses, assays for measuring multiple markers, including immune markers, can be developed and validated simultaneously.

Impacts of climate change across the cancer control continuum (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)

Application Dates: 2/16/2025, 6/16/2025, 10/16/2025

  • Letter of Intent: Due 30 days prior to application due date

Cancer Epidemiology Cohorts: Building the Next Generation of Research Cohorts (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

  • Application Date: 02/28/2025

The Metastasis Research Network (MetNet): MetNet Research Projects (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

  • Application Date: 06/20/25
  • Letter of Intent: 30 days prior to application due date
  • Purpose: The NCI Metastasis Research Network (MetNet) is a collection of U54 Research Centers that support using systems-level approaches to understand pressing questions in metastasis. The overall goal of the MetNet is to advance our understanding of metastasis as a whole body, systems-level problem to develop a comprehensive and cohesive picture of the processes involved. Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the NCI invites applications for MetNet Research Projects. These Research Projects should be defined as discrete entities that use systems-level approaches to address gaps and opportunities in metastasis research to integrate into the MetNet and complement ongoing research across the Network.

Other funding opportunities and resources to search for funding are available on our website.

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