HCC Breast SPORE - CEP & DRP RFAs
Last Edited March 11, 2026
The HCC Breast Cancer Program has released RFAs for its Breast SPORE Career Enhancement Program (CEP), and Developmental Research Program (DRP) Awards, with applications now due on April 27, 2026 at 5PM. Read more about these awards below for more information.
Career Enhancement Program Award RFA (CEP)
Request for Applications:
Career Enhancement Awards in Breast Cancer
Range of Awards:
One or two awards up to $75,000 in direct costs will be awarded.
Key Dates:
Application Deadline: On or before Monday, April 27, 2026 at 5PM
Award Date: August 1, 2026 – July 31, 2027
Eligibility:
- Early career stage faculty members (Instructor or Assistant Professor) within 5 years of initial faculty appointment who has not previously competed successfully as a Principal Investigator for a substantial government or foundation independent research award such as an R01 or R01-equivalent.
- Investigators from HCC and other selected institutions (Boston Medical Center, University of Massachusetts, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology) are eligible to apply.
- Advanced post-doctoral or clinical fellows who provide a letter from an eligible institution stating that the candidate will be joining its faculty within the year are eligible to apply.
- Investigators supported by NCI (e.g., K award) or other career development awards ARE NOT eligible to apply.
- Clinical, population science, lab-based researchers and computational biologists, data scientists/cancer bioinformatics scientists are all eligible to apply.
Purpose: To develop early career investigators committed to breast cancer research.
Application Materials: e-mail the application materials (see full RFA) in a single PDF file to kate_bak@dfci.harvard.edu.
Developmental Research Program Award RFA (DRP)
Request for Applications:
Developmental Project Awards in Breast Cancer
Range of Awards:
One or two awards up to $75,000 in direct costs will be awarded.
Key Dates:
Application Deadline: On or before Monday, April 27, 2026 at 5PM
Award Date: August 1, 2026 – July 31, 2027
Eligibility:
- HCC faculty members (Instructor, Assistant, Associate or full Professor) at HCC and other selected institutions (Boston Medical Center, University of Massachusetts, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
- Investigators supported by NCI career development awards (K series) are also eligible to apply.
- Clinical, population science, lab-based researchers, computational biologists, data scientists/cancer bioinformatics scientists are all eligible to apply.
- High-risk/high-yield projects with potential to generate preliminary data for new larger external grant applications are especially encouraged.
Purpose: To advance high quality, novel, early-phase research, to foster new ideas in breast cancer research and to move research projects from a pilot stage to a level where external funding for more mature research is possible.
Application Materials: e-mail the application materials (see full RFA) in a single PDF file to kate_bak@dfci.harvard.edu.