Limited Competition: Biospecimen Banks to support NCI National Clinical Trials Network Biospecimen Banks (NCTN Biobanks) and the NCI Early-Phase and Experimental Clinical Trials Biospecimen Bank (EET Biobank) (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
National Cancer Institute (NCI) · NIH Institute/Center · RFA-CA-28-004
Source: Grants.gov · View original posting ↗
- AwardWhat a single award can be worth — the funder's published per-award amount or floor–ceiling range.
- $19M total
- DeadlineFinal application due date.
- Feb 11, 2027
- Letter of intentDue date for the letter of intent (a short pre-application some funders require or request before the full proposal).
- —
- MechanismNIH activity code — the grant type (R01 research project, R21 exploratory, K series career development, F series fellowship, …).
- U24
- DurationMaximum project period for a single award.
- —
- Expected awardsHow many awards the funder anticipates making under this opportunity.
- 6
- Funding cycleHow often the program accepts applications (annual, multiple cycles per year, rolling, or one-time).
- One-time
- Open dateWhen applications open (or opened).
- Oct 15, 2026
- Total fundingThe overall pool the funder expects to commit across ALL awards under this opportunity — not what one project receives.
- $19M total
- Clinical trialWhether proposed projects must, may, or must not include a clinical trial.
- Not allowed
Research areas
Auto-classified from the title and description (keyword-based) — may be imperfect.
Description
This is a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a Limited Competition that will invite application(s) from eligible organization(s) to apply. Please see Section III. Eligibility for additional information. In accordance with NIH standard peer-review processes, the application(s) will be peer-reviewed, and only meritorious application(s) will be considered for funding. Through this limited competition Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) solicits applications to support continuation of two biospecimen banking resources. The National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) Biospecimen Banks (NCTN Biobanks) support the NCI-funded NCTN and the Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP), and The Early-Phase and Experimental Clinical Trials Biospecimen Bank (EET Biobank) supports the Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN) and other NCI-supported early phase and experimental clinical trials. The objective is to maintain these national resources for the collection, processing, storage, and distribution of high-quality, clinically annotated human biospecimens. The goal of these resources is to ensure the availability of biospecimens from participants in NCI-funded clinical trials focused on treatment, prevention, and cancer control studies to enable translational cancer research. The NCTN Biobanks support biomarker development and validation, secondary correlative studies, and broader scientific discovery using biospecimens collected through harmonized protocols and linked to clinical outcome data from large multi-site clinical trials. The EET Biobank supports biospecimen banking for ETCTN and other early-phase and experimental therapeutic clinical trials involving investigational agents. Biospecimens collected through these studies support biomarker assay development, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic analyses, investigation of drug response and resistance mechanisms, patient stratification, and translational research supporting development of novel cancer therapies. In accordance with NIH standard peer-review processes, the application(s) will be peer-reviewed, and only meritorious application(s) will be considered for funding.