Career Development Award Special Competitions Grant

The 2026 Conquer Cancer Career Development Award in Palliative and Supportive Care offers $200,000 over three years to support clinical investigators in establishing independent cancer research programs. This mentored award emphasizes patient-oriented research, excluding in vitro or animal studies. Eligible applicants include physicians in early faculty positions, with a commitment to research and mentorship requirements. The award fosters innovative contributions to oncology while upholding the highest standards of research integrity.

The Career Development Award (CDA) provides research funding to clinical investigators, who have received their initial faculty appointment, as they work to establish an independent clinical cancer research program. This is a mentored award and the research project is conducted under the guidance of a scientific mentor. The research must have a patient-oriented focus, including a clinical research study and/or translational research involving human subjects. Proposals with a predominant focus on in vitro or animal studies (even if clinically relevant) are not allowed. Applications in all areas of cancer research are accepted from U.S. applicants.
The CDA is a three-year grant totaling $200,000 that supports personnel and/or research expenses, and travel to attend the Conquer Cancer Grants and Awards Ceremony at the ASCO Annual Meeting.
For the 2026 cycle, Conquer Cancer has a competition for the following:

• CDA in Triple Negative Breast Cancer Research
• This list will be updated as new funding is confirmed.

Eligibility

Applicants must meet the following criteria:
Be a physician (MD, DO, or international equivalent with explanation) working in the United States.Be in the first to fourth year of a full-time primary faculty appointment in a clinical department at an academic medical institution at the time of grant submission. Faculty appointment may begin with the entry-level faculty position within the applicant’s institution (i.e., Instructor/Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Assistant Member).Have a valid, active medical license in the United States at the time of application.Have completed productive postdoctoral research and demonstrated the ability to undertake independent investigator-initiated clinical research in triple negative breast cancer.Be an ASCO member or have submitted a membership application with the grant application. To apply for new membership, or to renew an existing membership, visit asco.org/membership.Be able to commit at least 50% of their time for research (applies to total effort, not just the proposed CDA project) during the award period.Have a mentor from the sponsoring institution. If the mentor is not an ASCO member, a supporting letter from an ASCO member from the sponsoring institution must be included.Be up-to-date and in compliance with all requirements (e.g., progress reports, final reports, budget summaries, IRB approvals, etc.) of any past grants received from Conquer Cancer.Applicants with concurrent federal career development awards (e.g., K23, K08, or any other type of career development award), career development awards from private foundations, and institutional training grants (T32, KL2/K12 or equivalent) are eligible to apply provided there are no scientific and budgetary overlaps. Note: Conquer Cancer must be informed when a CDA recipient receives other career development awards during the term of the CDA and reserves the right to determine that the CDA may not be held concurrent with other funding. Past recipients of training fellowships (e.g., Young Investigator Award or an F32 grant) are eligible to apply.Applicants should not have been a Principal Investigator on any large project grants (e.g., R01 or international equivalent).
You must be a member of this organization to apply for this award - become a member.