The Conquer Cancer Career Development Award provides mentored research funding to early-career clinical investigators working to establish independent clinical cancer research programs after receiving their initial faculty appointments.
The proposed research must have a patient-oriented focus and involve clinical research and/or translational research using human participants or human materials. Projects focused predominantly on in vitro experiments or animal studies are not eligible. Applications are accepted across all areas of cancer research from investigators working in the United States and internationally.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Applicants must be physicians holding an MD, DO, or international equivalent and may work in any country.
- Applicants must be in the first through fourth year of a full-time primary faculty appointment in a clinical department at an academic medical institution.
- Applicants must commit at least 50% of their overall professional time to research during the award period.
- When the mentor is not an ASCO member, the application must include a supporting letter from an ASCO member at the sponsoring institution.
- First-year faculty members eligible for both the Young Investigator Award and Career Development Award may apply to only one of the two programs during the same cycle.
- Applicants may hold only one active Conquer Cancer grant at a time.
Funding Details:
- The total award amount is USD 200,000 over three years.
- Funding is paid in annual instalments of approximately USD 66,666, beginning on or around July 1.
- The award term is July 1, 2027–July 1, 2030.
- Dedicated donor funding for the 2027 cycle includes palliative and supportive care in oncology and breast cancer research.
Deadline:
- Applications opened: July 1, 2026.
- Application deadline: October 8, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
- Award term: July 1, 2027–July 1, 2030. (ASCO)
Further Information:
- All application materials must be prepared in English.
- Applications must comply with the official Request for Proposals.
- Applications must be submitted electronically through the Conquer Cancer application portal.
- Visit the official Conquer Cancer Career Development Award page for the complete guidelines and application resources.
- Submit the application through the official Career Development Award application portal.