RFA-CA-27-021: Sustained Support for Informatics Technologies for Cancer Research and Management (U24 Clinical Trial Optional)

RFA-CA-27-021: Sustained Support for Informatics Technologies for Cancer Research and Management (U24 Clinical Trial Optional)

RFA-CA-27-021 is the National Cancer Institute’s sustainment-focused U24 cooperative agreement for existing informatics tools and resources used in cancer research. The opportunity is open for its second submission window. The first application due date was July 1, 2026; the remaining application due date is October 19, 2026. Applications are due by 5:00 PM in the local time of the applicant organization, and the announcement states that late applications will not be accepted. The announcement expires October 20, 2026.

This is a current opportunity, not a closed archive entry. A team considering the October window should read the complete announcement and confirm its submission plan with its institutional research office before preparing the package.

Key details

What NCI wants to sustain

The announcement is aimed at high-value informatics resources that already have a meaningful role in cancer research. The proposed work can cover continued operations, maintenance, technical upgrades, security, stability, performance, user support, training, documentation, interoperability, and new functionality that responds to documented user needs. Relevant resources can serve discovery biology, population studies, clinical research, translational research, cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, early detection, epidemiology, or related parts of the cancer research continuum.

The central test is whether the resource has demonstrated impact and whether continued support will advance cancer research. An application should therefore explain what exists today, who uses it, what research depends on it, and why the resource needs a sustained operations plan. The announcement specifically asks applicants to show the current development status and utilization of the software or resource being sustained. Evidence can include a running hosted instance, an installable package such as source code or a container with usable instructions, a comprehensive description and user documentation, and peer-reviewed publications showing significant results obtained with the software.

This NOFO is not intended for an exploratory project or an early-stage technology that has not established current use. It is also not a fit when the main activity is simply applying an existing analysis method, or when significant data generation exceeds 10% of the budget in a single year. A proposal should keep its center of gravity on a research-driven informatics resource and the operations needed to keep that resource useful.

Eligible organizations and important restrictions

The eligible-organization list is broad. It includes public and private higher education institutions; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; small businesses and other for-profit organizations; state, county, city, township, special district, and tribal governments; eligible federal agencies; U.S. territories or possessions; independent school districts; public housing or Indian housing authorities; Native American tribal organizations; faith-based or community-based organizations; regional organizations; and non-U.S. entities.

Foreign organizations may apply. Non-domestic components of U.S. organizations may apply, and foreign components as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement are allowed. There is a separate and consequential restriction on foreign subawards and subcontracts: applications that include them are noncompliant and will not be considered for funding under this NOFO. The announcement says this restriction does not prevent unfunded international collaboration, foreign consultants, foreign components, or procurement of unique equipment or supplies from foreign vendors. Any international work should be reviewed carefully by the applicant’s grants and contracts office before the application is submitted.

Applicant organizations must have an active System for Award Management registration and a Unique Entity Identifier. They also need eRA Commons and Grants.gov registrations in place before submission. The announcement warns that registration can take six weeks or more and that incomplete registration is not a valid reason for a late application. Each Program Director or Principal Investigator must have an eRA Commons account, and the personal profile associated with that account must be linked to a valid ORCID ID. A PD/PI who also serves as the organizational Signing Official needs distinct eRA Commons accounts for those roles.

There is no cost-sharing requirement. An organization may submit more than one application when each application is scientifically distinct, but NIH will not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications that are under review at the same time.

Budget and project design

The annual budget limit is $600,000 in direct costs, excluding consortium facilities and administrative costs. The maximum project period is five years. NCI intends to commit $1,800,000 in FY 2027 to fund two awards, but that planned commitment is not a guaranteed amount for each application. Applicants should build a defensible resource-sustainment budget within the annual cap and connect every major cost to the resource’s continued value.

For a single-PI project, the PI must commit at least 1.8 person-months per year, or 15% effort. For a multiple-PI project, each PI must commit 1.2 person-months per year, or 10% effort. Budget Period 2 and later must include a set-aside equal to 10% of the annual direct-cost budget for collaborative activities with an appropriately qualified research group within or beyond the ITCR network. The announcement directs applicants to place this amount in the Other Expenses category under the heading “Collaborative Funds.” Release of those funds will depend on ITCR Steering Committee assessment of the proposed collaboration’s value for advancing the technology.

The budget must also include travel support for one investigator to attend the annual ITCR meeting. The meeting location varies and may be at an ITCR investigator’s institution in the United States or at NCI facilities in Rockville, Maryland. This is separate from the collaborative-activity set-aside and should be visible in the travel budget.

What the application should demonstrate

The Research Strategy needs to make a case for both present value and responsible continuation. Address the demonstrated impact of the resource, its distinctive value compared with competing technologies, and the user communities that depend on it. Explain how the resource will evolve as those communities’ needs change, how feedback will be collected, and how usability and utility will be assessed over the project period.

The technical plan should cover validation or performance assessment for algorithms, methods, or models included in the software. It should also address security considerations, including protection of sensitive data where applicable. The user-support plan should name the practical services that users will receive: documentation, training, outreach, help-desk support, mailing lists or forums, installation support for locally hosted instances, or other appropriate channels.

The Research Strategy must include a timeline and milestones, a plan for long-term sustainment beyond the award period, and plans for participation in ITCR meetings, working groups, education, and outreach. Participation in the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative should be addressed when applicable.

The application must include a separate “Collaborative Activities” section in the Research Strategy. It should describe potential scientifically focused collaborations that improve the utility or interoperability of the resource. Examples in the announcement include adapting a tool for a cancer research project, implementing common APIs for data exchange, using shared software or interoperability infrastructure, and working with the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative when relevant. Collaborations outside the existing ITCR network are welcome.

Applicants are encouraged to provide no more than 10 letters of support from the cancer research community. These letters should explain how the technology has benefited the writers’ research and why the resource should be sustained. They are most useful when they provide concrete evidence of need rather than generic praise.

Software, model, and data-sharing requirements

The Software and Model Sharing Plan must state the software license and provide a sharing timeline. NCI encourages a fully permissive, Open Source Initiative-approved license. The terms should allow biomedical researchers and educators in the nonprofit sector to use the software, permit dissemination and commercialization of enhanced or customized versions, and allow the source to be modified and shared. The software should also be transferable so another person or team can continue development if the original investigators cannot do so. Applicants may propose an open revision-control and source-code management system for distributing improvements.

Projects that develop or enhance machine-learning models have additional expectations. The application must identify the repository where the model will be stored and versioned, and include model-card information covering intended use, out-of-scope use, foreseeable risks and limitations, training details and privacy considerations, evaluation data, and performance characteristics. A draft model card with known values and parameters is required in the Software and Model Sharing Plan for these projects.

A Data Management and Sharing Plan is required for NIH-funded or conducted research that will generate scientific data. The plan uses the NIH structured format and must follow the applicable page limit. Resource Sharing Plans are also required under the standard Research application instructions.

How to apply for the October window

1. Confirm that the proposed resource is mature, currently used, and responsive to the sustainment scope. Gather usage, impact, publication, support, and technical-status evidence before drafting the Research Strategy.
2. Complete or verify the organization’s SAM, UEI, eRA Commons, and Grants.gov registrations. Create or affiliate every PD/PI eRA Commons account and link each personal profile to a valid ORCID ID.
3. Obtain the application forms package through NIH ASSIST, an institutional system-to-system solution, or Grants.gov Workspace. Use the route that the institution can support and track.
4. Prepare the SF424(R&R) forms and the PHS 398 Research Plan under the NIH Research (R) Instructions, adding the program-specific material required by this NOFO. Include the sustainment case, milestones, support plan, security approach, long-term plan, Collaborative Activities section, sharing plans, and human-subjects or clinical-trial records when applicable.
5. Check the budget against the $600,000 direct-cost annual limit, include the required PI effort, the Budget Period 2 and later Collaborative Funds set-aside, and annual ITCR meeting travel.
6. Submit electronically through the selected route by October 19, 2026, before 5:00 PM in the applicant organization’s local time. Correct any submission errors by the same deadline, then view and verify the application in eRA Commons. Paper applications are not accepted.

The announcement warns that incomplete, noncompliant, or nonresponsive applications will not be reviewed. Applicants should make time for institutional review and electronic corrections rather than treating the deadline as the moment to begin submission. The first submission window has passed, so an applicant preparing now should build for the October 19, 2026 cycle and should not describe July 1, 2026 as an available due date.

Review fit and practical decision rule

The strongest fit is an established informatics resource with clear cancer-research use, evidence of significant impact, a credible operations team, and a defined community that will benefit from continued availability. The plan should show how maintenance, user support, interoperability, security, performance, and carefully selected improvements will preserve and extend that value.

A weak fit would be a new software concept without a utilization record, a proposal centered on applying an existing method to a dataset, or a project that uses the sustainment label while putting most of its resources into data generation. Teams with foreign partners should also resolve the subaward restriction before committing to a consortium structure.

The current deadline is October 19, 2026. The official announcement remains the controlling source for the application package, program-specific instructions, forms, review requirements, and any later notices.

Official references

• RFA-CA-27-021 full announcement
• NCI ITCR funding opportunities