Cancer Grand Challenges
Supports large interdisciplinary global teams tackling transformative unsolved problems in cancer biology.
Eligibility · United States, United Kingdom
Cancer Grand Challenges is a co-funded program of the National Cancer Institute and Cancer Research UK that supports large, interdisciplinary global research teams assembled to tackle the hardest unsolved problems in cancer biology. Launched in 2020, the program has run rounds in 2021 and 2023. Each winning team receives approximately $25 million over five years through an NIH Other Transaction Award (OTA) mechanism; Cancer Research UK funds UK-based team members through its own side of the co-funding arrangement. Applications and all reporting are managed through cancergrandchallenges.org, not through grants.gov.
The 2023 round attracted 176 applications. Twelve teams were shortlisted and five were funded — a success rate of approximately 2.8%. The five 2023 awardees were Team PROSPECT (early-onset colorectal cancer, MGH/WUSTL), Team SAMBAI (cancer inequities in the African diaspora, Morehouse), Team PROTECT (pediatric solid tumors, Heidelberg), Team KOODAC (pediatric solid tumors, Würzburg/CHOP), and Team MATCHMAKERS (T-cell receptor antigen recognition, MIT). The 2021 round funded four teams including CANCAN (cachexia), eDyNAmiC (extrachromosomal DNA), NexTGen (engineered T-cell therapies for pediatric cancer), and PROMINENT (carcinogen-driven cancer initiation).
Eligibility is global and cross-sectoral — universities, research institutes, nonprofits, and for-profit organizations from any country may participate as team members or lead institutions. Teams must be interdisciplinary by design and address an NCI-defined Grand Challenge topic. The OTA mechanism differs from standard NIH grants in governance and reporting requirements; teams should review the NCI OTA Policy Guide published at cancergrandchallenges.org before applying. The program is expected to run again on an approximately biennial cycle; the next round timing had not been confirmed at the time of catalog fetch.
NCI-defined Grand Challenge topics in cancer biology — cross-cutting, high-risk, potentially transformative research that no single team could tackle alone.
Sign up free to see the funding breakdown
Sign up free to see the industries in scope
Sign up free to see the full eligibility
Sign up free to see how to apply
Sign up free to see what you submit
Sign up free to see the timeline