American Cancer Society Announces up to $8 Million in Catalyst Awards and Post Doctoral Fellowship Grants to Help Fund Early-Stage Researchers

ATLANTA, August 20, 2024 - The American Cancer Society (ACS) today announced the creation of the Catalyst awards to grant up to $8 million to early-stage investigators and Post Doctoral Fellowships in the United States. The Catalyst awards are meant to "catalyze" researchers with high scoring, but not yet funded research projects either recently submitted to ACS or the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Through the Catalyst awards, ACS intends to sustain the projects and support investigators as they continue to apply for research grants, including resubmissions of their unfunded proposals. Each award is for one year and $150,000 in direct costs only.

"We are so proud to announce the Catalyst awards and Post Doctoral Fellowship grants. The American Cancer Society has a longstanding commitment to fund impactful cancer research and invest in scientists, often early on in their careers," said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society. "We recognize that there has been a decrease in available funding for cancer research, resulting in a surplus of innovative and potentially impactful research projects that have gone unfunded, so we're excited to be able to support these important investigations."

"Thanks to tremendous progress in recent years, enthusiasm and creativity are evident across the cancer research community," said Dr. W. Kimryn Rathmell, director of the NCI.

"The Catalyst awards are an innovative demonstration of interagency collaboration and commitment to early career investigators that will help get more promising research into the pipeline and drive advances for people with cancer everywhere."

To qualify for a Catalyst award, the applicant must clearly articulate and justify the need for the grant. ACS encourages applications in all areas of cancer research; special consideration will be given to those addressing ACS priorities of:

• Prevention, screening, early detection, and cancer recurrence
• Health care implementation, the uptake of evidence-based cancer care, and survivorship
• Improving mortality from prostate cancer
• Improving equitable access to care and reducing cancer disparities
• Bench to bedside translation

To be eligible for a Catalyst award, the principal investigator must have a doctoral degree, work at an academic institution in the U.S. or eligible non-profit and have an independent faculty appointment (or equivalent position).

In addition, the applicant must meet the following criteria:

• Applicants must have applied for an ACS Research Scholar grant from April 2023 through April 2024 and received a score of Outstanding following review, but the application was not funded or must have applied for an NIH R01 to the NCI in 2023 or 2024 and scored in the 20^th percentile or lower but missed the payline cutoff.
• Applicants cannot be the principal investigator of more than one current or past R01/R01-equivalent grant at the time of the application. An R01-equivalent grant is a grant that is more than $100,000 in direct costs per year and is for more than three years.
• The scope of the Catalyst submission cannot be currently funded by another funding agency.

All application materials can be found on ProposalCentral and eligible applicants will be given access to the materials by ACS. The application deadline is September 9, 2024.

Post Doctoral Fellowship awards will be selected from the pool of applicants who submitted to ACS for grants in the fall of 2023 or spring of 2024.

All grants will be handed out no later than January 1, 2025.

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About the American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society is a leading cancer-fighting organization with a vision to end cancer as we know it, for everyone. For more than 110 years, we have been improving the lives of people with cancer and their families as the only organization combating cancer through advocacy, research, and patient support. We are committed to ensuring everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer. To learn more, visit cancer.org or call our 24/7 helpline at 1-800-227-2345. Connect with us on Facebook, X, and Instagram.