Official funding announcement — preliminary draft
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Opportunity number: PAR-25-074
Official listed status: posted
Closing information: 2026-10-14 (official deadline clock time and time zone must be checked in NOFO)
Award disclosure: Applicant-level ceiling not stated in the retrieved federal synopsis; verify in full NOFO.
Applicant categories in federal synopsis: Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education; Public and State controlled institutions of higher education; Independent school districts; Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments); Private institutions of higher education; State governments; Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; County governments; Special district governments; Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification); Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education; For profit organizations other than small businesses; Small businesses; City or township governments; Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
Federal synopsis
Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) invites applications to support the validation of molecular/cellular/imaging markers (referred to as "markers" or "biomarkers") and assays for cancer detection, diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring, and prediction of response or resistance to treatment, as well as markers for cancer prevention and control. This FOA will support investigator-initiated research for both analytical, and clinical validation of assays to be used in cancer treatment, control, or prevention trials supported by the NCI. This NOFO will also support the validation of pharmacodynamic markers and markers of toxicity. Applicants should have assays that work on human samples and whose importance is well justified for development into clinical assays. As chemotherapies and/or radiation therapies are increasingly combined with immunotherapies to enhance the durability of anti-cancer responses, assays for measuring multiple markers, including immune markers, can be developed and validated simultaneously. The UH2 phase of this NOFO supports analytical validation of assays for these molecular/cellular/imaging markers, which must be achieved within 2 years before assays may undergo clinical validation. The UH3 phase of this NOFO supports clinical validation of analytically validated assays for up to 3 years using well-annotated biospecimens from retrospective or prospective clinical trials or studies. This NOFO may be used to validate existing assays for use in other cancer clinical trials, observational studies, or population studies. Efforts to harmonize clinical laboratory tests, including …
Draft intake record. Eligibility, program terms, current amendments and applicant ceiling must be independently verified before publishing.