The NCI Community Oncology Research Program Academic Community Sites funding opportunity supports academic medical centers working with networks of community hospitals, oncology practices, public hospitals, and other healthcare facilities to bring cancer research closer to where patients receive care.
Funded sites will participate in cancer control, prevention, screening, treatment, imaging, quality-of-life, and care-delivery research through the national NCORP and National Clinical Trials Network infrastructure. (Simpler Grants)
Eligibility Criteria:
- This is an institutional cooperative agreement, not an individual investigator grant.
- The applicant must be an eligible U.S.-based academic hospital and/or academic clinical program providing direct medical care to patients.
- Eligible organizations may include public and private higher-education institutions, nonprofit organizations, for-profit organizations, certain government entities, tribal organizations, and other eligible U.S. organizations, subject to the program-specific academic-center requirements.
- The Academic Community Site must be led by an academic center and include a network of community hospitals, oncology practices, public hospitals, and/or other healthcare centers.
- Pediatric NCORP sites are generally expected to achieve at least 50 new unique participant accruals annually.
- Foreign institutions, foreign components of U.S. organizations, and foreign research components are not eligible.
- Multiple applications from the same organization are permitted when each application is scientifically distinct.
Funding Details:
- NCI intends to provide approximately USD 73 million in FY2027 for up to 50 awards across the NCORP Community Sites and Academic Community Sites programs.
- No fixed maximum award amount is specified for an individual Academic Community Site.
- Budgets should be based on projected annual participant accrual and the infrastructure needed to support participating affiliate sites.
- Applicants should request a six-year project period.
- Cost sharing or matching funds are not required.
Deadline:
- Earliest submission date: August 18, 2026.
- Application deadline: September 18, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. local time of the applicant organization.
- Scientific merit review: March 2027.
- Advisory Council review: May 2027.
- Earliest project start date: July 2027.
Further Information:
- Academic Community Sites are expected to participate in cancer control research, cancer prevention research, and optionally cancer care delivery research, while also maintaining the capacity to enroll patients in NCTN treatment studies.
- Although the NOFO is labeled “Clinical Trials Not Allowed,” this means applicants cannot propose their own independent clinical trial as part of the UG1 application; funded sites are nevertheless expected to enroll participants in existing NCI-sponsored NCORP and NCTN clinical trials and other human-subject research.
- Participating centers are expected to engage community oncologists, collect biospecimens, support trial recruitment, contribute to research development, and help increase the representativeness and generalizability of cancer research.
- Program questions may be directed to the NCORP program at NCORP@mail.nih.gov.
- Official program information and application details: View the official Simpler.Grants.gov listing for RFA-CA-27-008, including the complete NOFO, application package, eligibility requirements, and submission information.