PCF TACTICAL Awards

PCF TACTICAL Award

Funds connected teams developing next generation therapies for difficult prostate cancer through the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) TACTICAL Award is PCF's largest research grant mechanism, providing $5 million to $10 million per award over three to five years for coordinated teams pursuing high-risk, high-impact projects on lethal prostate cancer. TACTICAL stands apart from PCF's other programs by requiring a "team of teams" model — multiple distinct investigator groups whose work is explicitly coordinated — and by targeting projects that are currently unfunded by any other major source, ensuring the award genuinely enables research that could not happen otherwise. The 2026 cycle used a two-stage process with a Letter of Intent deadline of March 16, 2026; full applications are invited from selected LOI submitters.

Eligible applicants are academic scientist teams at universities or research organizations; for-profit entities are not eligible to receive the award. The scientific focus is the development of 21st-century therapies for lethal forms of prostate cancer, which PCF defines as castration-resistant, metastatic, and treatment-refractory disease. Because the program targets high-risk work, proposals must demonstrate that the science is not already covered by NIH, Department of Defense, or other major funders. Team size and composition are not rigidly specified but must reflect the team-of-teams structure, with each group contributing a distinct and coordinated scientific capability.

Competing for a TACTICAL Award requires demonstrating both scientific ambition and organizational coordination capacity. The LOI stage filters proposals before the full application is requested, making a compelling and concise scientific narrative at LOI critical. Annual cycles are expected, with LOIs typically due in mid-March. Teams should plan for a minimum 12-month preparation timeline and should confirm with PCF that the proposed research area does not overlap with current funded Dream Team or other TACTICAL projects.