Technology Development for Cancer Research Funding Opportunities
Technical innovation is key to improving and transforming our ability to understand, prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer. Investing in highly novel early-stage technologies is important to enabling future breakthroughs in research and clinical care.
NCI drives early-stage innovation and the translation of emerging tools into laboratory and clinical use through several diverse technology-focused grant programs. Some of the most impactful, rapidly evolving areas of cancer research are benefitting from technologies that were advanced through these programs.
Funding Opportunities for Cancer Technologies
| Program/Initiative Name | Funding Opportunities | Stage of Support | Eligible Organizations | Type of Technology |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) Program |
IMAT funding opportunities (R61 and R33) |
Early-stage Advanced development |
Academic Small business Foreign organization |
Novel physical technologies, platforms, methods, or approaches for any field of cancer research |
|
Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR) Program |
ITCR funding opportunities (R21, U01, and U24) |
Early-stage Advanced development Sustainment |
Academic Small business Foreign organization |
Bioinformatics or statistical techniques, tools, software, or resources |
|
Bioengineering Research Grants |
PAR-25-321 (R21) PAR-25-346 (R21) PAR-22-242 (R01) PAR-22-243 (R01) |
Early-stage Advanced development Translation Clinical validation Application of novel technology |
Academic Small business Foreign organization |
Interdisciplinary research teams proposing engineering solutions to specific problems in basic or clinical cancer research |
|
Academic Industrial Partnerships for Translation of Technologies |
PAR-25-337 (R01) PAR-25-338 (R01) PAR-24-325 (U01) PAR-25-079 (R01) |
Translation |
Partnership between academic and industrial investigators |
Technologies for diagnosis and treatment Integrative, quantitative bioengineering approaches and technologies Imaging, data science, or spectroscopic technology |
| Nanotechnology and Cancer | Nanotechnology funding opportunities (R01) |
Advanced development Translation Application of novel technology |
Academic Small Business |
Nanotechnologies including nanomaterials, nanodevices, and delivery of nanoparticles to study cancer and improve cancer interventions |
|
Assay Validation of High Quality Markers |
PAR-25-074 (UH2/UH3) PAR-25-075 (UH3) PAR-24-304 (R01 revisions) |
Advanced development Translation Clinical validation |
Academic or Small business |
Assays for cancer treatment, control, or prevention or for clinically relevant pharmacodynamic markers |
|
NCI Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Center |
SBIR funding opportunities (R41, R42, R43, R44, contract) |
Early stage Advanced development Translation Clinical validation |
Small business |
Therapeutics; in vitro and in vivo diagnostics; imaging technologies; devices for cancer therapy; agents and technologies for cancer prevention; technologies for cancer control; tools for cancer biology research; digital health tools and software platforms |
|
Tissue Engineering Collaborative (TEC) |
Cancer TEC funding opportunities (R01) |
Advanced development Application of novel technology |
Academic Small business Foreign organization |
Innovative well-characterized in vitro and ex vivo biomimetic tissue engineered systems for cancer research |
| Physical Sciences in Oncology Network (PS-ON) | PS-ON funding opportunities |
Advanced development Application of novel technology |
Academic Small business Foreign organization |
Physical science approaches such as techniques to measure physical propertise of single cells, discrete multicellular structures, and tissues |
| AI in Cancer Research | AI-related funding opportunities | All stages of development |
Academic Small business Foreign organization Current NCI grantees |
Artificial intelligence tools and models as well as strategies for making data AI-ready |
|
Developing and Enhancing Mammalian Models |
PAR-24-306 (R01) |
Advanced development Translation |
Academic Small business Foreign organization |
Cell lines, patient-derived xenografts, genetically engineered models, organoids or culture models |
| Microbiome and Cancer | Microbiome funding opportunities (R21 and R01) |
Advanced development Translation Application of novel technology |
Academic Small business Foreign organization |
Bacteria, archaebacteria, bacteriophages, non-oncolytic viruses, and their natural products as novel cancer therapy, detection, and diagnosis strategies |
|
Smart Health and Biomedical Research |
Smart Health program information |
Early stage Advanced development |
Academic Non-profit |
Novel methods to intuitively and intelligently collect, sense, connect, analyze, and interpret data to enable discovery and optimize health |
|
Digital Health Technology Derived Biomarkers |
PAR-25-170 (UG3/UH3) |
Advanced development Clinical validation |
Academic Small business |
Digital health technology-derived biomarkers or clinical outcome assessments for remote monitoring |
Notices of Special Interest
Notices of Special Interest, or NOSIs, highlight a specific topic of interest and direct applicants to one or more active notices of funding opportunity for submission of applications. Projects that align with the scientific areas described in the NOSI should submit an application to one of the referenced NOFOs and cite the NOSI number in the agency routing identified field box 4b of the SF424 R&R form.
NCI has issued or signed on to many NOSIs relevant to technology development (e.g. adaptive biomaterials, quantum sensing technologies, oncoaging models, synthetic biology, etc). Researchers can peruse the full list of NOSIs through the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts.
Beyond NCI: Other Opportunities at NIH
| Program Name | Stage of Support | Eligible Organizations | Type of Technology |
|---|---|---|---|
| NIGMS Technology Development Program |
Early-stage Advanced development Translation |
Academic Small business |
Laboratory instruments, algorithms and software, chemical reagents, and biological molecules or systems that could benefit a broad spectrum of biomedical research |
| NHGRI Genome Technology Program |
Early-stage Advanced development |
Academic Small business Foreign organization |
Methods, technologies, and systems that achieve orders-of-magnitude improvements in genomic technologies |
| NIBIB Biomedical Technology Resource Center |
Advanced development Translation |
Academic Small business |
Technologies driven by the needs of basic, translational, and/or clinical researchers that could be broadly useful |
|
NCATS Awards Supporting Cutting-Edge Technologies for Translational Science |
Early stage |
Academic Small business |
Technologies to address barriers, limitations, or bottlenecks in translational science, particularly for therapeutic development |
|
Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN Initiative) |
Early stage Advanced development Clinical validation |
Academic Small business Foreign organization |
Tools to probe processes in the brain; devices and instrumentation for studying the nervous system; sensor technologies to quantify brain behavior; computational models, etc. |
|
Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL Initiative) |
Advanced development Translation |
Academic Small business Foreign organization |
Technologies for enhanced pain management; devices for safe, effective, and non-addictive diagnosis and treatment of pain or opioid use disorder |
NCI Resources and Non-grant Programs for Technology Development
| Program Name | Type of Support | Eligible Organizations | Type of Technology | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Guidance and contract resources to bring interventions and biomarkers for cancer prevention towards clinical implementation |
Academic Small business Foreign organization |
Methods for immunoprevention, chemoprevention, and detection of clinically translatable biomarkers |
PREVENT mailbox | |
|
Training on customer discovery, business models, market strategies, and commercialization. |
Academic or small business without SBIR/STTR funding |
Emerging technologies ready for translation to impact unmet clinical needs |
Eric Padmore | |
|
Coaching on entrepreneurship and customer discovery; guidance on procedures for submitting SBIR/STTR proposals |
Small business with no previous SBIR/STTR awards |
Therapeutics; in vitro and in vivo diagnostics; imaging technologies; devices for cancer therapy; agents and technologies for cancer prevention; technologies for cancer control; tools for cancer biology research; digital health tools and software platforms |
Melissa Li | |
|
Best practices for product development, commercialization, and applying for funding from standout SBIR-supported companies |
Academics interested in entrepreneurship Small business |
Tools with significant commercial potential |
William Bozza | |
|
Education on business strategy; funding for technology development; personalized expert feedback |
Academic in geographic area supported by one of the REACH hubs |
Technologies with potential to impact medicine and have commercial viability |
Hub list | |
|
Resources for the development and implementation of new clinically-relevant methods with potential to benefit patients |
Academic Small business Foreign organization |
Therapeutic approaches, imaging, and theragnostic agents |
||
|
Characterization and evaluation of new nanomedicine platforms |
Academic Small business |
Nanomedicine, nanoparticles, nanomaterials, and other nanotechnology-based tools for cancer therapeutics and diagnostics |
||
|
Provides human specimens from routine procedures to investigators who use samples in their research |
Academic |
Methods that need human biospecimens for validation |
Scientific Contacts
Dana Wolff-Hughes, Ph.D. - Digital health technologies, computational models of cancer risk factors
Jennifer Couch, Ph.D. - Technology for molecular applications, biophysical biology, computational methods for basic cancer research
Kelly Crotty, Ph.D. - Early-stage technology development for basic, translational, or clinical cancer research
Not sure where to start? You can reach out to Tony Dickherber, Ph.D. with a description of your technology-focused project and he'll direct you to the right program director or funding opportunity.
Definitions
Early stage: Method still requires proof-of-concept experiments; generally no requirement for preliminary data.
Advanced development: Preliminary data demonstrate feasibility; focus on improvements, optimization, analytical validation.
Translation: Transitioning technologies from a demonstration of possibility to a status ready for use by end users in biomedical research.
Clinical validation: Analyze technical performance of an assay or tool using human specimens to confirm relevance to clinical outcomes; bringing the method to the point of being ready to integrate into clinical workflows.
Sustainment: Maintaining an established tool for continued use by the research community.
Application of novel technology: Integrate a new, emerging tool into hypothesis-driven research to drive discoveries and validate the method in a biologically relevant context.