The National Cancer Institute has opened RFA-CA-27-006, NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Research Bases (UG1 Clinical Trial Required). NCORP Research Bases serve as the program’s research hubs, providing scientific and statistical leadership for multi-institutional cancer control, prevention, and care-delivery research, including required clinical trials and quality-of-life studies embedded within treatment and imaging studies.
Deadline: September 18, 2026 at 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization. The opportunity opened August 18, 2026 and expires September 19, 2026.
Funding: NCI intends to commit $74.5 million in FY2027 for up to seven awards. Application budgets are not formally capped but must reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. All applicants should request a six-year project period. Cost sharing is not required.
Controlling new-application eligibility: Although the standard NIH organization table includes multiple domestic organization classes, the NOFO imposes a narrower requirement for new applications. A new application must be submitted by an NCI Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) Group, a cancer foundation affiliated with an NCTN Group, or an NCI-designated Cancer Center with comprehensive expertise in cancer clinical research. Non-U.S. organizations and non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and applications involving foreign subawards or subcontracts are noncompliant under the current NIH policy stated in the NOFO.
Research Base readiness: A responsive Research Base must provide an established scientific and statistical leadership structure, clinical-trial development and conduct capability, study operations and data management, regulatory and participant-protection compliance, auditing, training, quality assurance, security and confidentiality controls, and support for NCORP Community and Academic Community Sites. New applicants must document major clinical-research achievements and accrual over the prior five years and supply the NOFO-specific policies, templates, timelines, data-management, monitoring, audit, conflict-of-interest, and security materials.
Submission: Applications follow the NIH Research (R) Application Guide and the NOFO-specific UG1 instructions. The application package must be accessed and submitted electronically through NIH ASSIST, Grants.gov Workspace, or an institutional system-to-system solution, with tracking through eRA Commons. Required registrations must be active before submission.
Atlas fit: This is a high-value cancer clinical-research opportunity but is operationally restricted to mature NCORP/NCTN and NCI-designated cancer-research infrastructure. Dr. Miltie should not be classified as a direct prime based on the generic organization table. Preferred posture: Partner-Led / NCORP Research Base. Route immediately to applicable state academic cancer centers, NCI-designated Cancer Centers, NCTN Groups, and NCTN-affiliated cancer foundations that can satisfy the full Research Base requirements.