Early-Stage Innovative Technology Development for Basic and Clinical Cancer Research (R61 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA CA 27 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA CA 27 001

This funding opportunity, titled "Early-Stage Innovative Technology Development for Basic and Clinical Cancer Research (R61 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" (RFA-CA-27-001), is a National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant program aimed at jump-starting brand-new technology development that could change what researchers are able to measure, detect, or validate in cancer research settings. The central purpose is not to fund another biological study that happens to use modern tools, but instead to support the creation of the tools themselves, especially where the technology would unlock new kinds of molecular or cellular characterization of cancer or materially improve how biospecimens are handled and quality-controlled for downstream research. The work should be early-stage and clearly focused on a cancer-relevant use case, even if the underlying platform could later be generalized to broader biomedical applications.

The award mechanism is an NIH R61, which is typically used for early, milestone-driven exploratory development. In practical terms, the NOFO is looking for proof-of-concept or pilot-style projects that directly test technical feasibility. That means reviewers will expect applicants to propose a concrete method, tool, assay, platform, or instrument and then lay out the key feasibility experiments that would show it can work as claimed, along with metrics that define what "success" looks like (for example, analytical sensitivity/specificity, reproducibility, dynamic range, throughput, limits of detection, robustness to sample variability, or stability under real-world handling conditions). Projects should be positioned as technology development efforts where the major novelty sits in the technology itself, not simply in asking a new cancer biology question with an existing tool.

A major boundary of the program is what it will not support. Applications that mainly apply established technologies to hypothesis-driven research are considered non-responsive when the innovative part is primarily the biological target, disease subtype, or clinical question. In other words, if the approach is "use an existing sequencing/imaging/proteomics platform to study X," and the innovation is the cancer question rather than the technology, it is unlikely to be reviewed under this solicitation. The program is designed for applicants who are engineering, inventing, or substantially advancing a technology and can show a plausible path toward a capability that is not currently achievable, or not achievable at the needed performance, cost, speed, scale, or specimen quality standard.

The scope explicitly includes two broad technology themes. The first is technologies that offer new capabilities for molecular or cellular characterization of cancer, which can include innovations that improve measurement depth, resolution, spatial context, single-cell or subcellular information, multiplexing, rare-event detection, or integrated multi-omic readouts, provided the application is framed as a technology build and feasibility validation. The second is technologies that improve handling and quality control of biospecimens used in basic, clinical, or epidemiological cancer research. That biospecimen emphasis signals interest in solutions that reduce pre-analytical variability, preserve molecular integrity, standardize collection and processing workflows, or provide reliable QC readouts that help researchers know whether a specimen is fit for a given type of assay. Importantly, the intended beneficiaries span basic labs, clinical research environments, and population/epi studies, so practicality and robustness can matter as much as raw performance.

This NOFO sits within NCI's broader Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) Program, which is known for supporting high-impact measurement and analysis technologies relevant to cancer. While the text provided does not detail review criteria, IMAT-style solicitations typically reward clear novelty, strong technical rationale, well-chosen feasibility milestones, credible development plans, and evidence that the resulting technology could become widely usable in cancer research once matured. Applicants should expect that "innovative" here means more than incremental optimization; it implies a meaningful advance in capability, reliability, accessibility, or applicability, with a cancer-centered justification.

On eligibility, the opportunity is broadly open across government, academic, nonprofit, and private-sector organizations. Eligible applicants include state, county, city/township and special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations (including those other than small businesses); and small businesses, plus other categories NIH allows under its policies. International participation is also explicitly allowed: non-U.S. (foreign) organizations may apply directly, non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are eligible, and foreign components as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement are permitted. That makes this a viable route for multinational technology-development teams, provided the project fits NCI's technology-development intent and cancer-relevant framing.

Key administrative details in the source data include that the sponsoring agency is the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through NCI, the activity category is Health, and the CFDA (Assistance Listing) number is 93.394. The original closing date listed is 2026-11-10. The opportunity indicates an award ceiling of $150,000 and an expectation of about 20 awards, which signals relatively small, feasibility-focused budgets consistent with early proof-of-concept work rather than full-scale platform maturation. Overall, this program is best suited for teams with a clearly articulated technological innovation, a realistic pilot plan to de-risk it, and a strong argument that the tool would enable or substantially improve cancer research measurements or specimen quality assurance without drifting into clinical trial work (clinical trials are not allowed under this R61 announcement).

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Early-Stage Innovative Technology Development for Basic and Clinical Cancer Research (R61 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" 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 2026-06-03.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2026-11-10. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $150,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 20 candidate(s).
• 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 27 001

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