OCRA Global Ovarian Cancer Research Consortium AI Accelerator Grant 2027: A $1 Million, Three-Year Award for AI-Driven Ovarian Cancer Research

OCRA Global Ovarian Cancer Research Consortium AI Accelerator Grant 2027: A $1 Million, Three-Year Award for AI-Driven Ovarian Cancer Research

The 2027 AI Accelerator Grant was a focused research award from the Global Ovarian Cancer Research Consortium (GOCRC), administered and managed by the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA). The consortium brings together OCRA in the United States, Ovarian Cancer Action in the United Kingdom, Ovarian Cancer Canada, and the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation in Australia. Its purpose is to fund international, data-intensive collaborations that use artificial intelligence, including machine learning, to advance ovarian cancer research and improve patient outcomes.

This cycle is closed. OCRA’s official application page records the Letter of Intent (LOI) deadline as June 23, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. ET, and the final full-proposal deadline as September 15, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. ET. Full proposals were by invitation only, following LOI review. Both dates have passed, late submissions and extensions were not permitted, and the September deadline was never an alternate entry route for researchers who did not submit an LOI. The application page identifies this as the 2027 AI Accelerator Grant cycle; separately, it says OCRA’s other 2027 grant cycle does not include the AI Accelerator Grant. It lists no later AI Accelerator round. Treat this page as an archive of the published 2027 opportunity; check OCRA’s grant page for a future AI-specific announcement before preparing an application.

The award offered up to $1,000,000 USD in total support over three years to the institution of the Principal Investigator. The 2027 RFP also described optional in-kind AWS compute support of up to $200,000 per year and $600,000 total. AWS credits were additional to the financial award, and access required the supported work to be conducted in OCRA’s Discovery Lab Trusted Research Environment within the Community Accelerated Research Exchange.

This guide records the closed cycle’s verified award terms, team requirements, application stages, and required LOI materials. It is intended for principal investigators, computational biologists, data scientists, clinicians, and research administrators who are assessing the program’s fit or preparing to monitor OCRA for a future call. Historical details below describe the 2027 round and should not be mistaken for an open application window.

Key Details at a Glance

The important status distinction is between the two stages. The 2027 LOI stage closed before the invitation-only full-proposal stage, and the final submission deadline has also passed. The dates remain useful for understanding this archived competition, but neither stage is open. OCRA lists funding notification for mid-November 2026, and the RFP gives an anticipated grant start date of February 1, 2027; those are published schedule dates, not confirmation of decisions or awards.

What the Grant Offers

The financial award was designed for a substantial, collaborative research program rather than a short pilot. Up to $1 million was to be awarded over three years to the PI’s institution. The 2027 RFP stated that the amount was inclusive of indirect costs at the LOI budget stage. A team therefore needs a credible multi-year plan for personnel, data work, model development, validation, research governance, and dissemination before it reaches the full proposal stage.

AWS support is an optional additional benefit, not a replacement for the grant budget. Investigators could request up to $200,000 per year, up to $600,000 in total, in cloud-based compute credits. The RFP placed a condition on that support: the supported research must be conducted inside OCRA’s Discovery Lab Trusted Research Environment. Grant funds may not be used to support other computational platforms for the AWS-supported work. Teams considering the credits needed to understand the environment, data-transfer, security, and governance implications early.

The grant is explicitly international. Its value is not limited to a model or a dataset from one centre; the RFP asks for a team able to connect expertise across the four consortium countries. Projects are also expected to deposit public or shareable data generated through the funded work into the Discovery Lab environment, subject to consent and privacy requirements. That expectation makes data stewardship part of the research design, not an administrative detail to add after selection.

Research Priorities: Where Funded Projects Focus

The consortium named several areas that could help a team position its idea:

• Prevention, initiation, and early detection. Risk stratification, earlier biomarkers, and models of the earliest steps of disease are examples of questions within this area.
• The tumor ecosystem. Work may examine the tumor microenvironment, immune interactions, spatial biology, or signalling that shapes tumour growth and spread.
• Treatment resistance. Projects may seek to predict, explain, or overcome resistance to chemotherapy, targeted agents, or immunotherapy.

These were examples, not a closed list. OCRA said scientifically rigorous AI-driven ovarian cancer research intended to improve survival was eligible. AI had to be part of the research method, not a passing reference. The RFP asked the LOI to identify the intended AI architecture or approach, known models or frameworks, relevant cloud services, and the concrete research application. Possible applications include imaging analysis, biomarker discovery, patient stratification, or literature synthesis, but a team must explain how its chosen method advances the stated aims.

Who Should Apply

The 2027 RFP set a more specific bar than a general invitation to cancer researchers. It was a collaborative, team-based grant requiring at least four senior lead investigators, with representation from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. One investigator was designated PI, and the PI could be based in any country as long as the four-country representation was present.

The PI and lead investigators had to hold full-time faculty or equivalent appointments at an accredited university, medical school, public health school, or non-profit research institution. Each had to hold a doctoral degree when the LOI was submitted and could not be in a training position. The team had to include an AI specialist or experienced AI researcher. OCRA encouraged applications led by quantitative researchers when the work had clear ovarian cancer relevance, and strongly preferred inclusion of a clinician. Patient and public partners were also strongly encouraged, with their roles described across ideation, implementation, and knowledge translation.

Funding was limited to eligible non-profit academic and research institutions, including non-profit research hospitals, research institutes, and recognised scientific research facilities. For-profit entities, consulting companies, non-research organisations, and non-profits that do not conduct the research themselves are excluded. There were no citizenship requirements. An individual could be PI on only one LOI in the cycle, could participate in additional LOIs only in a non-PI role, and could not have another active OCRA grant when the new grant began.

In practical terms, a credible team combines ovarian cancer or gynecologic cancer expertise, access to meaningful data, and the ability to design and validate an AI method. The country requirement makes collaboration planning especially important. For a future call, institutions should settle who will serve as PI, confirm the appointment and doctoral-degree requirements for lead investigators, and make sure data access and patient-partner roles can be described before an LOI opens.

How the Application Works

The 2027 AI Accelerator Grant used a two-stage process, and submissions went through SmartSimple, OCRA’s grant management system. Both stages are now closed; the second stage was restricted to teams invited after LOI review.

1. Letter of Intent (LOI). The 2027 LOI had to be submitted in English through the PI’s SmartSimple account by 5:00 p.m. ET on June 23, 2026. OCRA did not permit late submissions or extensions. The LOI required a scientific abstract of no more than 6,000 characters, an AI brief summary of no more than 200 words, a patient-involvement summary of no more than 100 words, biosketches, and an estimated total funding request up to $1,000,000 inclusive of indirect costs.
2. LOI review and invitation. OCRA and the funders reviewed the LOIs, and only a fraction advanced. The RFP said applicants were expected to be notified in early August 2026; this archive does not assert what notice any applicant received. There is no feedback process for LOIs, so teams should not assume that an unsuccessful or unsubmitted LOI can be repaired at the full-proposal stage.
3. Full Proposal (by invitation only). Selected teams received access to the next stage through SmartSimple. The official OCRA application page lists the full-proposal deadline as September 15, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. ET. It is not open to researchers who did not receive an invitation. OCRA’s page listed funding notification for mid-November 2026.

During the 2027 cycle, applicants were directed to monitor SmartSimple and OCRA email for the LOI decision and any full-proposal invitation. OCRA advised adding [email protected] to a safe-sender list. Its RFP directed technical SmartSimple questions to that address and substantive questions to the named grant contact. Those instructions document the past process; they do not reopen the call.

Researchers considering a later cycle can use this published process as background only. OCRA says it runs one general grant cycle each year, and the official page distinguishes that cycle from the AI Accelerator Grant: its separate 2027 cycle does not include this program. No later AI Accelerator round is announced on the current official application page. Future dates, eligibility terms, award amounts, and application requirements must be checked against a new AI-specific call; the 2027 terms should not be carried forward automatically.

Timeline and Planning

The archived 2027 cycle followed this published sequence:

• May 8, 2026: the 2027 LOI opened.
• June 23, 2026: the general LOI deadline passed at 5:00 p.m. ET. OCRA does not accept late submissions or extensions.
• August 2026: OCRA expects to communicate LOI decisions and open full-proposal access for selected applicants.
• September 15, 2026: invited teams’ full proposals were due by 5:00 p.m. ET, according to OCRA’s official application page.
• Mid-November 2026: OCRA lists funding notification for this cycle.
• February 1, 2027: the RFP gives this as the anticipated grant start date.

For any future round, if OCRA announces one, begin well before its LOI window. Confirm the four-country team, appoint a PI, identify the AI specialist, document data access and consent constraints, and decide whether AWS compute credits are appropriate. Patient and public involvement should be planned at the project-design stage. These tasks affect whether the LOI can answer OCRA’s questions clearly and whether an invited team can turn the initial concept into a workable three-year research plan.

Required Materials and What Reviewers Look For

The published 2027 LOI requirements were specific. The scientific abstract had to cover the proposed research, aims, team, and available resources and was limited to 6,000 characters including spaces. The AI brief summary was limited to 200 words and had to identify the planned architecture or approach, models or frameworks where known, cloud services, and the research application. A patient and public involvement summary was limited to 100 words; applicants not involving partners had to explain why.

Biosketches were required for the PI, lead investigators, key personnel, and patient partners. The PI needed a current NIH biosketch. Lead-investigator biosketches had to identify each investigator’s country and be combined into one PDF; key-personnel and patient-partner materials had their own compilation requirements. The LOI budget stated the estimated total request up to $1,000,000, inclusive of indirect costs. Detailed budgets, AWS estimates, figures, references, appendices, and letters of recommendation or collaboration were not required or accepted at that stage.

An invited full proposal required a detailed scientific and operational case, including a research plan, methods, milestones, data-management and governance details, budget justification, investigator credentials, and a fuller patient-involvement plan. Full proposals also required a Signing Official and a Financial Official in SmartSimple. OCRA recommended that PIs establish those institutional roles well before the full-proposal deadline because the Signing Official had to approve the final submission.

Reviewers on a program like this are weighing several things at once:

• Scientific importance: does the project address an important ovarian cancer question and improve the prospect of better outcomes?
• Computational rigor: is the AI method appropriate, well-justified, and validated rather than included for appearance?
• Data quality and access: do you actually have, or have a credible plan to obtain, the data your model needs?
• Feasibility: can this team deliver in three years with the requested budget and the provided compute?
• Translational path: how could a positive result change screening, biology, or treatment?

Strong applications make the AI contribution concrete: what the model ingests, what it predicts or discovers, how performance is measured, how bias and uncertainty are handled, and how the result is validated against biology or outcomes. They also explain how data generated by the project can be shared within the Discovery Lab while respecting consent and privacy.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Treating AI as a buzzword. If the computational method could be removed without changing the project, the proposal is not a fit for this grant.
• Underestimating data logistics. Access agreements, harmonization, privacy, and governance take time; unresolved data plans undermine feasibility.
• Ignoring validation. A model with impressive internal metrics but no external or biological validation is a red flag for reviewers.
• Weak translational framing. Show how the work connects to prevention, the tumor ecosystem, treatment resistance, and patients.
• Missing the invitation-only structure. The full proposal cannot substitute for the closed LOI. For a future round, the LOI deserves careful work because it determines access to the final stage.
• Waiting for the deadline to build the team. Cross-country collaborations and data agreements should be in place before you draft.
• Treating AWS credits as unrestricted funding. The optional credits are tied to the Discovery Lab Trusted Research Environment and cannot simply be redirected to another computational platform.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much can I receive? Up to $1 million per grant over three years. The 2027 RFP also permits a request for up to $200,000 per year and $600,000 total in additional in-kind AWS compute support, subject to the Discovery Lab requirements.

Do I have to be based in the United States? No. The PI may be based in any country, but the team must include senior lead investigators representing the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

Can a for-profit company apply? No. Funding was limited to eligible non-profit academic and research institutions; the RFP excludes for-profit entities, consulting companies, non-research organisations, and non-profits that are not conducting the research themselves.

Does everyone submit a full proposal? No. Only teams selected after LOI review are invited. For 2027, both the LOI and invitation-only full-proposal stages are closed; the full-proposal deadline listed by OCRA was September 15, and it was not available to new applicants.

Where do I apply? Through SmartSimple, OCRA’s grant management system, linked from the official grant pages.

Is the current cycle still open? The general 2027 LOI closed June 23, 2026, and the invitation-only full-proposal deadline was September 15, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. ET. Both dates have passed. OCRA’s official page does not announce a later AI Accelerator cycle, so do not assume one until OCRA publishes it.

What should an invited team prepare? Monitor SmartSimple and OCRA email, confirm the institutional Signing Official and Financial Official, expand the LOI into a detailed research plan, and develop the budget, milestones, data-management plan, and patient-partner details required for the full proposal.

Next Steps and Official Links

The 2027 competition has ended: there is no open submission route for that cycle, including for teams that did not receive a full-proposal invitation. For future planning, monitor OCRA’s official program and application pages for a new announcement. If another call is published, read its own program description and RFP, confirm the country representation and institutional eligibility stated there, and map the research question to a clear AI method and validation plan.

• Grant programs overview: https://ocrahope.org/research/information-for-researchers/grant-programs/
• How to apply for an OCRA grant: https://ocrahope.org/research/information-for-researchers/apply-for-a-grant/
• 2027 AI Accelerator LOI RFP: https://ocrahope.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2027-AI-Accelerator-LOI-RFP_Final.pdf
• Questions: [email protected]

Confirm all amounts, eligibility rules, and deadlines directly on OCRA’s official pages before any future application, since OCRA sets the detailed terms for each annual cycle. For the 2027 cycle, the LOI closed June 23, 2026, and the invitation-only full-proposal deadline was September 15, 2026. Both have passed; this page is a historical reference, not an open call.