Cancer Research New Funding Opportunities

Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award

Application Deadline: July 1, 2026

Amount: $200,000/year for 2 years

Award: The Innovation Award is specifically designed to provide funding to extraordinary early-career researchers who have an innovative new idea but lack sufficient preliminary data to obtain traditional funding. The research supported by the award must be novel, exceptionally creative and, if successful, have the strong potential for high impact in the cancer field.

Please contact Tiffany Gardner, Associate Director of Foundation Relations, at tiffany.gardner@bcm.edu with any questions.

Childhood Cancer Therapeutic Catalyst

Deadline: October 31, 2026

Amount: Up to £250K per project for up to 18 months – indirect costs not allowed

Award: This scheme aims to de-risk early projects to facilitate further drug discovery research, funding, or partnering. We invite applications for early drug discovery proposals from across all childhood cancer indications and modalities. Some examples of projects we might fund include the following areas:

• Deconvolution and validation of novel targets and pathways
• Novel therapeutic approaches to validated targets
• Target identification projects (including development of platforms, assays and screens) 
• Drug discovery feasibility and de-risking

Please contact Mary Nunciato, Senior Director, Foundation Relations, at mary.hall@bcm.edu with any questions.

Community Grants

Application Deadline: Ongoing until funds are used.

Budget: $20,000-$40,000, for one year.

Award: The Colon Cancer Coalition seeks to provide funds to liked-minded partners advancing colon cancer research. Funds must be used on programs that will benefit individuals in and around the event city where the money is raised. Priority will be given to programs working to increase screening for adults over 50 to reach the national goal of 80%, patient screening navigation, or addressing young adult-onset colorectal cancer.

Contact: Please contact Lyndsie Whitehead, Assistant Director of Foundation Relations, at lyndsie.whitehead@bcm.edu for additional information.

Open Proposals Program

Application Deadline: Funding is available on a rolling basis, and new grants are awarded frequently.

Budget: $50,000 - $828,027, from 6 months to 36 months (average $224,000 for 2 years). NTAP supports indirect costs at a maximum of 10% of direct costs.  

Award: The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine – Neurofibromatosis Therapeutic Acceleration Program (NTAP) supports research projects designed to accelerate the development of effective treatments for NF1-associated peripheral nerve sheath tumors. NTAP’s Open Proposal program is open to any stage of drug development.  However, the proposal must focus on the peripheral nerve tumors of NF1 (Cutaneous, Plexiform and Atypical).

Please contact Lyndsie Whitehead, Assistant Director of Foundation Relations, for additional information.