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
Integrating Biospecimen Science Approaches into Clinical Assay Development	PAR-25-325 (U01)	Advanced development Translation Clinical validation	Academic Small business Foreign organization	Improved approaches for collecting, processing, and storing cancer-relevant biospecimens

Definitions of Stages of Support

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

Definitions of Stages of Support

NCI Resources and Non-grant Programs for Technology Development

Program Name	Type of Support	Eligible Organizations	Type of Technology	Contact
PREVENT Cancer Preclinical Drug Development Program	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
NCI Peer Learning And Networking (PLAN) webinar series	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
Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs (REACH)	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
NExT NCI Experimental Therapeutics Program	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	NExT mailbox
Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory	Characterization and evaluation of new nanomedicine platforms	Academic Small business	Nanomedicine, nanoparticles, nanomaterials, and other nanotechnology-based tools for cancer therapeutics and diagnostics	NCL mailbox
NCI Cooperative Human Tissue Network	Provides human specimens from routine procedures to investigators who use samples in their research	Academic	Methods that need human biospecimens for validation	CHTN contact

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.