Cancer Grand Challenges (NCI + Cancer Research UK)

Cancer Grand Challenges is NCI's major co-funded initiative with Cancer Research UK. Launched in 2020, it backs global interdisciplinary teams tackling unsolved problems in cancer biology. It is delivered through the NIH Other Transaction Award mechanism and sits in the UK-US transatlantic space, with US-only participation not required. Each team can receive about $25 million over five years. The program is highly selective and consortium-based: teams apply as international collaborations, and the latest funded round in the record came from a field of 176 applicants narrowed to 12 shortlisted teams and then 5 awards in 2023. The program is open to universities, nonprofits, for-profits, and research organizations, but not individuals. The fit is strongest for ambitious, cross-border consortia with a clear scientific wedge into cancer biology's hardest questions. Teams need the reach to sustain a five-year effort and the governance to coordinate across disciplines, countries, and institutions. It is a program for problems that are too large for a single lab and specific enough to organize around one shared challenge.

Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.