Precompetitive Collaboration on Liquid Biopsy for Early Cancer Assessment (U01) | RFA CA 17 029

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA CA 17 029

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunity titled "Precompetitive Collaboration on Liquid Biopsy for Early Cancer Assessment (U01)" (Funding Opportunity Number RFA-CA-17-029; CFDA 93.394) supports a cooperative agreement program aimed at accelerating progress in liquid biopsy approaches for early cancer detection and assessment. The central goal is to create an Academic-Industrial Partnership Program where academic researchers and industry partners work together in a precompetitive space to develop new, and/or rigorously validate existing, technologies and assays that detect cancer-related material circulating in body fluids. The focus is on tools that can capture and quantify tumor-associated cells and tumor-derived biomarkers such as DNA, RNA, and exosomes, particularly in patients with early-stage disease or individuals at elevated risk for developing cancer. A major clinical emphasis is improving the ability to tell true cancer apart from benign conditions, and to distinguish aggressive cancers from indolent ones, which is critical for avoiding overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment.

This opportunity is designed to tackle a common bottleneck in the liquid biopsy field: the lack of harmonized, validated, and comparable methods across platforms and institutions. By promoting precompetitive alliances with industry, the program encourages groups to align on standards, workflows, performance metrics, and validation strategies so that results can be more reproducible and interpretable across studies. In practical terms, the initiative is meant to help move liquid biopsy technologies from promising but inconsistent research tools toward robust assays that can be trusted for early cancer assessment, including consistent capture, measurement, and analytic methods for low-abundance signals typically seen in early disease.

The award mechanism is a U01 cooperative agreement, meaning NIH is expected to have substantial involvement compared with a typical research project grant. While the specific operational details are not provided in the excerpt, U01 programs generally involve coordinated milestones, collaboration requirements, and active NIH scientific/programmatic partnership to ensure that the work stays aligned with program goals like standardization, technology harmonization, and validation outcomes. The opportunity is categorized under Education and Health in the funding activity listing, and the issuing agency is NIH. The original posting was created on 2017-08-02, with an original application closing date of 2018-01-23. The listed award ceiling is $600,000. The number of expected awards is not specified in the provided source text.

Eligibility is broad and includes many common U.S.-based organizational types such as state, county, and local governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; and a variety of nonprofit organizations (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3), as long as they are not institutions of higher education in those nonprofit categories). The opportunity also allows applications from for-profit organizations other than small businesses, as well as small businesses, and includes an "Others" category that typically captures additional eligible entities described in the announcement. The notice explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant types including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (other than federally recognized), and U.S. territories or possessions.

Foreign eligibility is limited in a specific way. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and non-domestic (non-U.S.) institutions are stated as not eligible to apply, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are also not eligible to apply. At the same time, foreign components as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement are allowed, which generally means a U.S. applicant organization can include certain foreign activities or collaborations when justified and structured as an allowable foreign component under NIH policy, even though a foreign organization cannot be the applicant of record.

Overall, this grant opportunity targets the collaborative, standards-driven development and validation of liquid biopsy technologies for early cancer assessment, with an emphasis on practical comparability and harmonization across platforms and partners. It is structured to bring academic and industry stakeholders together before competition begins in the marketplace so that foundational methods and validation evidence can be built in a coordinated way, ultimately supporting more reliable early detection and better clinical decision-making around cancer risk, presence, and aggressiveness.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Precompetitive Collaboration on Liquid Biopsy for Early Cancer Assessment (U01)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.394.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-08-02.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-01-23. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $600,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for RFA CA 17 029

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