NIH NCI Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology
Funding opportunity: PAR-27-025
Mechanism: K12 Clinical Scientist Institutional Career Development Program Award, Clinical Trial Not Allowed
Status: Open
Next deadline: October 12, 2026 at 5:00 PM in the applicant organization’s local time for new applications. The next renewal, resubmission, or revision deadline is November 12, 2026 at 5:00 PM local time.
Program focus
The National Cancer Institute Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology is designed to increase the number of clinician-scientists trained in clinical and translational cancer research and support their development as cancer researchers. Scholars may gain research experience in a clinical trial led by a mentor or co-mentor, but this NOFO does not permit scholars to lead an independent clinical trial.
Funding
For a new Type 1 program, direct costs are limited to $50,000 in the initial year for planning, curriculum development, advertising, and recruitment. Scholars begin in the second year, when the program may request up to $750,000 in direct costs annually. Renewal applications may request up to $750,000 in direct costs annually for each of five years. The total project period may not exceed five years. Scholar salary support may be requested up to $110,000 plus fringe benefits, and up to $30,000 per scholar may support research and career-development expenses. Facilities and Administrative costs are reimbursed at 8% of modified total direct costs under the NOFO. No cost sharing is required.
Eligibility and institutional requirements
The operative Section III eligible-organization table includes U.S. public and private institutions of higher education, qualifying nonprofit organizations, local governments, Tribal governments and organizations, faith-based and community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. Foreign organizations and non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible. The sponsoring institution must provide the staff, facilities, educational resources, faculty, and potential scholar pool needed to operate the proposed institutional career-development program.
Source-control note: the NOFO’s introductory goal language refers broadly to nonprofit and for-profit institutions, but the operative Section III eligible-organization table does not list for-profit organizations. Atlas therefore does not treat a for-profit prime applicant as eligible unless NIH issues controlling clarification.
Program leadership and scholars
The Program Director or Principal Investigator should be an established investigator capable of providing scientific and administrative leadership and is expected to hold independent R01 and/or R01-equivalent cancer-focused support at the time of application and award. Scholars generally must devote at least 75% full-time professional effort to the K12 program; surgeon-scientists may request a minimum of 50% effort with justification. Scholars must be U.S. citizens, non-citizen nationals, or lawful permanent residents at the time of appointment.
Submission
Applications are submitted electronically through NIH ASSIST, Grants.gov Workspace, or an institutional system-to-system solution and tracked through eRA Commons. Required organizational registrations must be active before submission, and all PD/PIs must have eRA Commons accounts linked to valid ORCID identifiers.
Atlas fit and routing
This is a strong healthcare, oncology, academic-health, and clinician-scientist workforce opportunity for eligible institutions with established cancer research infrastructure. It is best treated as an institution-led opportunity for academic cancer centers, medical schools, teaching hospitals, and other eligible research organizations with the required K12 infrastructure, qualified PD/PI leadership, mentors, facilities, scholar pipeline, and institutional support. Dr. Miltie should not be advanced as a direct prime applicant under the operative eligibility table. Any legitimate Dr. Miltie role would need to be selected and justified by an eligible applicant institution and comply with the approved project and federal requirements.