The National Cancer Institute has opened RFA-CA-27-008, NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Academic Community Sites (UG1 Clinical Trial Not Allowed). This competition supports consortia led by academic centers with networks of community hospitals, oncology practices, public hospitals, and other healthcare centers. The goal is to expand representative participant accrual to cancer control, prevention, treatment, imaging, and care-delivery clinical research through NCORP and the National Clinical Trials Network.
Deadline: September 18, 2026 at 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization. The opportunity opened August 18, 2026. No late applications will be accepted.
Funding: NCI intends to commit $73 million in FY2027 for up to 50 awards across the Community Sites and Academic Community Sites competitions. Application budgets are not formally capped but must reflect actual project needs and should be based on projected annual participant accrual plus the infrastructure required to support accrual at proposed affiliate sites. Applicants should request a six-year project period. Cost sharing is not required.
Eligibility and prime-applicant controls: The controlling additional eligibility provision defines an eligible prime as an academic hospital and/or academic clinic program providing direct medical care to patients as one integral organizational entity under a single financial-management system and governance structure. The academic center must also have comprehensive medical training programs and preclinical laboratories that conduct basic research. An institution that is an awardee or affiliate of an NCTN Lead Academic Participating Site is not eligible to apply under this NOFO. Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and military treatment facilities cannot serve as the prime, although they may participate in a consortium led by an eligible institution if they are not the major contributor to accrual. Foreign organizations, foreign components of U.S. organizations, and foreign components are not allowed.
Required application controls: The application must demonstrate a robust infrastructure for participant accrual across affiliate organizations, governance and leadership, research and regulatory capability, and recent accrual performance. NOFO-specific attachments include summary tables covering recent accrual to NCI cancer control, prevention and screening trials; NCTN treatment, quality-of-life and imaging studies; other Research Base and industry studies; committee participation; trial-opening performance; and cancer-care-delivery research accrual where applicable. The Research Strategy must follow the specified NCORP Academic Community Site structure. Applicants must budget from projected accrual and infrastructure needs, including required leadership effort and travel. Routine patient care costs are not supported as a budget expense under this NOFO.
Submission: Applications must follow NIH Research (R) instructions and the NOFO-specific UG1 requirements and are submitted electronically using NIH ASSIST, an institutional system-to-system solution through Grants.gov, or Grants.gov Workspace and tracked in eRA Commons. Required registrations must be active before submission.
Atlas fit: This is a high-value academic-health and cancer-research opportunity, but Dr. Miltie should not be classified as an eligible direct prime merely because the generic organization table includes for-profit organizations. The controlling prime definition requires a qualifying academic hospital or academic clinic program with direct patient care, comprehensive medical training, basic-research laboratories, affiliate networks, and established cancer-research accrual infrastructure. Preferred posture: Partner-Led / Academic Medical Center Consortium. Route immediately to applicable state academic medical centers, cancer centers, university health systems, teaching hospitals, and NCORP-capable oncology networks. Any Dr. Miltie role should be evaluated only as a legitimate partner, subrecipient, or vendor role permitted by the prime applicant and NOFO.