Moores Cancer Center/American Cancer Society Pilot Grant Announcement

AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
JUNIOR INVESTIGATOR PILOT GRANTS
2026 Request for Applications (RFAs)

Deadline: Monday, Nov. 10, 2025

UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center (MCC) is now accepting applications from junior investigators for American Cancer Society (ACS) Institutional Research Grants (IRG) (ACS-IRG-24-1317140-51-IRG). The application deadline is Monday, November 10, 2025. Projects in all disciplines, with a clear focus on cancer, are encouraged and accepted. Applicants must be assistant professors at UC San Diego, within six years of their first independent faculty appointment.

Overview

Up to $60,000 per award; up to three, one-year awards will be granted.
For each award, $40,000 will be from the ACS with an additional $20,000 supplemented by MCC.
Applications for ACS seed grants must demonstrate a clear relevance to cancer, and investigators with a history of cancer-relevant research will be favored. Other than NIH K series or career development grants solely intended for salary, applicants can have no current support from the national agencies (foundation grants are acceptable provided they are not the result of national-peer-reviewed competition and that they support a different project). Applicants must be independent and have a commitment from UC San Diego for salary and space.
Review the full application criteria and apply online through the UC San Diego Internal Funding & Limited Submissions website (applications must be submitted through this link).
For more information, or to request the full RFA directly, please contact Caroline McKeown, Ph.D., at cmckeown@health.ucsd.edu.

Please share this announcement with colleagues who meet the eligibility criteria.

Sincerely,

John M. Carethers
Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences

Diane Simeone
Director, Moores Cancer Center

University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093