Revision Applications for Incorporation of Novel NCI-Supported Technology to Accelerate Cancer Research (P50 Clinical Trial Optional) | RFA CA 20 025

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA CA 20 025

This NIH National Cancer Institute (NCI) funding opportunity, RFA-CA-20-025, supports revision applications to existing, currently funded NCI P50 Specialized Center grants. The main idea is to let an already-funded P50 center add a meaningful new capability to its ongoing work by bringing in a novel technology or instrument that was developed with support from NCI's Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) program. Rather than starting a brand-new center or launching an unrelated project, the revision is meant to build directly on the parent P50 award by expanding the original research questions within specific projects and/or speeding up the overall progress of the center's approved research plan.

A central goal of the announcement is independent validation and real-world acceleration of promising IMAT-supported technologies. In practice, that means the NCI is looking for P50 centers to take emerging tools and methods that may have been developed and tested in earlier-stage settings and demonstrate their usefulness, reliability, and suitability in the context of active cancer research programs. The intention is to help these technologies move faster from development into broader, appropriate research communities by showing that they work, that they add clear value, and that they can be adopted to answer important cancer biology, prevention, detection, diagnosis, or treatment questions being pursued by the center.

Because this is tied to the IMAT program, the FOA also emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration. The underlying expectation is that incorporating new molecular analysis technologies often requires teams that blend expertise across fields such as engineering, computational science, chemistry, data science, pathology, clinical oncology, and population sciences. By incentivizing centers to integrate these innovations into their research pipelines, the NCI is aiming to enable more powerful experiments, generate higher-quality or more informative data, and ultimately accelerate scientific discovery in cancer research. The FOA is labeled "Clinical Trial Optional," which signals that the proposed revision activities may include a clinical trial if scientifically justified and allowable within NIH/NCI rules, but a clinical trial is not required.

Eligibility is anchored to one key requirement: applicants must be currently funded NCI P50 specialized centers submitting a revision (formerly called a competing revision). The opportunity also lists a wide range of eligible applicant organization types in the standard federal grants format, including state, county, and local governments; public and private institutions of higher education; independent school districts; special district governments; federally recognized tribal governments; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); and small businesses. It also explicitly highlights certain categories of institutions and organizations as eligible, such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions. However, the FOA clearly states that non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign institutions) are not eligible to apply, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply. At the same time, it allows foreign components as defined under the NIH Grants Policy Statement, meaning a U.S.-based applicant may be able to include certain foreign collaborations or elements if they meet NIH's definition and requirements for foreign components.

Administratively, this is a discretionary grant program from the National Institutes of Health, under CFDA 93.394, and it falls within the broad activity areas of education and health. The opportunity was created on December 20, 2019, and the original closing date listed is September 29, 2020. No award ceiling or expected number of awards is provided in the excerpted source data, which usually means applicants would need to consult the full FOA for budget limits, project period constraints, and other detailed application instructions.

In plain terms, this funding opportunity is designed for NCI P50 centers that are already doing major, coordinated cancer research and want to strengthen or speed up that work by integrating a cutting-edge IMAT-developed technology. The NCI is using the revision mechanism to encourage fast, targeted improvements to ongoing center research, while also helping promising new tools prove themselves in demanding, real research environments where they can make a clear difference.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Revision Applications for Incorporation of Novel NCI-Supported Technology to Accelerate Cancer Research (P50 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.394.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2019-12-20.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-09-29. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for RFA CA 20 025

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