The Purpose of the Cancer Center at Brown University’s ACS-IRG Grant Program is to give small grants to beginning cancer research investigators who do not have national peer-reviewed research grant support so they can obtain preliminary results that will enable them to compete successfully for national research grants. 

The Purposes of the ACS-IRG Pilot Projects Grants are to: 

1. Support the development of beginning investigators to conduct independent cancer research; 

2. Foster direct relationships between funded institutions and the local American Cancer Society.

Up to three projects will be awarded a maximum of $40,000 (direct cost only) for one year.  A one-time competitive renewal for an additional year of funding is possible. 

Due: September 15, 2025

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Advance-K is more than just a training program, it's a launchpad.

Over the course of 12 months, up to 10 selected Scholars will take part in an intensive, bi-weekly training series focused on:

• Mastering the art of grant writing (NIH, K01, K08, K23, or VA/Foundation CDAs)
• Building a powerful mentorship team
• Refining your research project and training plan
• Engaging with a vibrant network of peers, experts, and institutional resources

This highly competitive program is designed to equip emerging investigators from Brown, URI or the affliliated hospital systems with the skills, mentorship, and support needed to submit a competitive career development award (CDA) proposal-and win it.
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Rapid Response Research awards are specifically intended to support early- to mid-career health equity researchers whose racial or Indigenous health equity research was interrupted by federal funding shifts. Project Directors (PD) for this award need not have been the Principal Investigator or PD of the originally funded project. Funds may cover a wide range of costs that were associated with the original research project. 

We expect to award approximately $2M in rapid response grants, with awards ranging from $50k to $200k for up to 24 months.

For this single stage application process, Brief Proposals are due May 28, 2025 at 3pm EDT. Submit the application and required documentation through the RWJF Application & Review System.

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The American Cancer Society (ACS) aims to improve the lives of people with cancer and their families through advocacy, research, and patient support and to ensure everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer.

The ACS invites applications for the Clinician Scientist Development Grant (CSDG) program, which supports full-time faculty members in becoming independent investigators as clinician-scientists. This grant is designed for people trained primarily as clinicians who want to maintain clinical practice and conduct cancer research.

Grants of $135,000 a year for direct costs plus 8 percent allowable indirect costs will be awarded for three to five years.

To be eligible, applicants must work at a U.S. academic institution or eligible nonprofit, have a doctoral degree, an active clinical license, and participate in clinical care, not be a current or former primary investigator (PI) of an individual mentored training grant, and have not had an R-level or equivalent grant as PI.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the American Cancer Society website.

Due June 1, 2025 and December 1, 2025

American Cancer Society RFP

The Innovation Award is specifically designed to provide funding to extraordinary early career researchers who have an innovative new idea but lack sufficient preliminary data to obtain traditional funding. It is not designed to fund incremental advances. The research supported by the award must be novel, exceptionally creative and, if successful, have the strong potential for high impact in the cancer field.

Application Deadline: July 1, 2025

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The New Research Support grant focuses on community-driven health equity work, with funding anticipated for at least 4 projects of up to $250k and 4 projects of up to $500k, for a performance period of 36 months. 

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is committed to improving health equity in the United States. In partnership with others, RWJF is taking bold leaps to transform health and help pave the way toward a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right. 

Letters of Intent due July 16, 2025 at 3PM EDT.

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The Mark Foundation Emerging Leader Awards support innovative cancer research from the next generation of leaders. These grants are awarded to outstanding early career investigators to support high-impact, high-risk projects that are distinct from their current research portfolio. Applicants must be three to eight years from the start of an independent faculty appointment as of December 31, 2025 (i.e., the official start date of the appointment must fall within the calendar years 2017-2022).

LOI Due May 5th at 5PM ET

Applications Due by July 28th at 5PM ET

Award Overview

The Mark Foundation Endeavor Awards support collaborative research projects that bring together investigators with diverse areas of expertise to tackle challenges in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. These grants are awarded to teams of three or more investigators to generate and integrate data from diverse lines of research and transform those insights into advances for cancer patients that could not be achieved by individual efforts. A description of the teams granted Endeavor Awards in 2023 can be found here.

Award Amount: $3,000,000 over 3 years

LOI due September 3, 2025

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The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) intends to issue a PCORI Funding Announcement (PFA) on August 12, 2025, seeking to fund high-quality, patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) studies that focus on rare diseases. This preannouncement provides potential applicants additional time to identify collaborators; obtain patient and stakeholder input on potential studies; and develop responsive, high-quality proposals.

Opens: August 12, 2025

LOI Due: September 23, 2025

Application Deadline: January 13, 2026

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The fiscal year 2025 (FY25) Rare Cancers Research Program (RCRP) Concept Award (CA) supports highly innovative, untested, potentially groundbreaking novel concepts in rare cancers. This award mechanism supports high-risk studies that have the potential to reveal entirely new avenues for investigation in rare cancers. Applications must describe how the new idea will be innovative and present as a novel course of investigation in the field of rare cancers.

Distinctive Features:

·        Preliminary data are not required.

·        Due to the blinded nature of the review process, identifying or making references to the Principal Investigator (PI), collaborator(s), or their organization(s) in the proposal (Project Narrative, Supporting Documentations, Impact Statement, Justification Statement, and Statement of Work [SOW]) is prohibited and will result in administrative rejection of the application.

Funding Details: (New for FY25) Funding limits are now listed as total cost limits, which is the combination of both direct and indirect costs.

Due: Aug 26, 2025

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The fiscal year 2025 (FY25) Rare Cancers Research Program (RCRP) Idea Development Award (IDA) promotes new ideas that are still in the early stages of development and have the potential to yield impactful data and new avenues of investigation.

Distinctive Features:

·        Applications are encouraged to include an exploratory aim or sub-aim to support any necessary discovery-driven research.

·        Preliminary data with disease-specific rationale are required. However, these data do not necessarily need to be derived from studies of the proposed rare cancer type(s)/subtype(s) under study.

·        Research should have high potential impact on rare cancers and the patient community.

Funding Details: (New for FY25) Funding limits are now listed as total cost limits, which is the combination of both direct and indirect costs.

Due: Oct 06, 2025

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The fiscal year 2025 (FY25) Rare Cancers Research Program (RCRP) Resource and Community Development Award (RCDA) supports the development of research resources and clinical or preclinical data sets that will advance the field of rare cancers research and ultimately improve outcomes for individuals with rare cancers. Major gaps to be filled by this funding opportunity include:

·        Lack of research and clinical resources, including patient tissues, cell, and tumor models.

·        Lack of communication and dissemination strategies within scientific and patient communities for sharing rare cancers research and clinical findings.

·        Lack of infrastructure for sharing data and other resources.

·        Lack of therapeutics and mechanistic research to inform treatment development.

Distinctive Features:

·        Engagement and partnerships with Patient Advocates must be integrated into the project from development of the research question through the execution of the study.

·        Community building and enhancement are key components.

·        Dissemination and sustainability of the platform for scientific and/or clinical, and patient community must be described.

·        Preliminary data not required but may be included to address feasibility.

Funding Details: (New for FY25) Funding limits are now listed as total cost limits, which is the combination of both direct and indirect costs.

Due: Oct 06, 2025

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Supports innovative, exploratory, high-risk/potentially high-reward research. Novelty and innovation are expected to be key aspects of the proposed project. By the end of the Idea Award funding period, the anticipated outcomes of successful efforts should be establishing proof of principle and obtaining preliminary data to secure follow-on funding.

Distinctive Features:

·        Application submission is a two-step process requiring both a pre-application and a full application. Investigators must receive an invitation to submit a full application.

·        Preliminary data are discouraged.

Due: Oct 01, 2025

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This funding opportunity announcement is for the addition of independent, early career investigators (Scholars) who are no more than seven years from their initial faculty appointment to the Melanoma Research Program (MRP) Melanoma Academy. The Melanoma Academy is a unique, interactive virtual academy focused on bringing together established investigators and Scholars to develop a network of successful, highly productive melanoma researchers in a collaborative research and career development environment.

Distinctive Features:

·        This award mechanism focuses on both the Scholar’s research and career potential.

·        Scholars must designate a Career Guide. The Career Guide must have a track record of successful mentorship coupled with a strong record of funding and publications in melanoma.

·        Preliminary data are not required.

Funding Details: The Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) expects to allot approximately $1.76 million (M) to fund approximately 2 Melanoma Academy Scholar Award applications with direct cost caps of $550,000. The maximum period of performance is 3 years. It is anticipated that awards made from this fiscal year 2025 (FY25) funding opportunity will be funded with FY25 funds, which will expire for use on September 30, 2031. Awards supported with FY25 funds will be made no later than September 30, 2026.

Due: Oct 01, 2025

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Addresses the relatively new and underfunded area of melanoma-specific survivorship by supporting a broad range of innovative and impactful research that has the intended outcome of improving the health and well-being of melanoma survivors, their families, and/or their caregivers. Proposed studies focusing exclusively on animal models or considering survival only without consideration of quality of life, overall health, and/or function are not responsive to this funding opportunity.

Distinctive Features:

·        The application must include at least one melanoma consumer collaborator, defined as a melanoma survivor, family member, and/or caregiver who can provide lived experience expertise to the research project team, or a melanoma-community supporting organization who will be integral to the planning, execution and implementation of the proposed research.

·        Clinical trials are allowed.

Due: Oct 01, 2025

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Supports a broad range of hypothesis-driven, multidisciplinary studies that have a short-term goal of advancing the state of the science in melanoma research and/or patient care. Team science is a synergistic effort that harnesses techniques, approaches, and perspectives from multiple disciplines and/or therapeutic areas to address complex, multi-dimensional problems that will impact patient outcomes.

Distinctive Features:

·        This funding mechanism requires multiple Principal Investigators (PIs). At least two and up to three PIs should partner to jointly design and execute a single research project; multi- institutional partnerships are encouraged. If recommended for funding, each PI will be named on separate awards to the recipient organization(s).

·        *New for FY25* After submitting the required pre-application, investigators must receive an invitation to submit a full application.

•        Only the Initiating PI will submit a pre-application. All PIs will need to submit full applications. The Partnering PI(s)’s application is an abbreviated package specific to their proposed effort.

·        Investigators are encouraged, but not required, to form collaborative relationships with the melanoma consumer community to maximize the impact and translatability of the research for the benefit of the intended community(ies).

Due: Oct 01, 2025

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Supports a multidisciplinary research program of at least two, but not more than three, distinct but complementary research projects addressing an overarching question relevant to rare melanomas.

Distinctive Features:

·        *New for FY25* This funding mechanism is a partnering mechanism, requiring an Initiating Principal Investigator (PI) and at least one, but not more than two, Partnering PIs, see Figure 1.

•      Each named PI is expected to be a Project Leader for one of the proposed research projects. If recommended for funding, each PI will be named on separate awards to the recipient organization(s).

·        *New for FY25* After submitting the required pre-application, investigators must receive an invitation to submit a full application.

•      Only the Initiating PI will submit a pre-application. All PIs will need to submit full applications. The Partnering PI(s)’s application is an abbreviated package specific to their proposed research project.

·        Clinical trials are allowed.

·        Investigators are encouraged, but not required, to form collaborative relationships with the rare melanoma consumer community to maximize the impact and translatability of the research for the benefit of the intended community(ies).

Due: Oct 01, 2025

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Unlimited funding, Rolling application 

Bold ideas to help children with brain tumors can come at any time. The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation accepts and evaluates requests for research funding on an ongoing basis throughout the year so that researchers are able to develop these ideas into the next scientific breakthrough. There are no deadlines, and we encourage investigators to apply at their earliest convenience.

Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation Research Grant

Established in 1936, the Charles A. King Trust was created to “support and promote the investigation of human disease and the alleviation of human suffering through improved treatment.” The Charles A. King Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship Program provides funding to postdoctoral fellows and mentored clinician scientists in the mid to late stages of their research training in basic and preclinical science, and clinical, health services, population health, and implementation research to help them become independent investigators in biomedical research. Through the fellowship program, grants ranging from $194,100 to $215,000 over two years, inclusive of stipend, fringe, and a $25,000 annual flexible expense allowance will be awarded. The program supports research across biomedical fields that focuses on the causes of human disease with the mission of improving treatment. 

Link to complete RFP