Funding Opportunities

Intramural funding

The UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center facilitates multiple funding opportunities for the cancer research community at UCLA. Intramural funding opportunities are divided into three programs: Seed Grants, Impact Grants and Fellowship Awards. To administer these funding programs, we've established an external funding resource where you can learn about the different opportunities available to you, as well as download and submit applications

Called UCLA Bruin Learn, the funding portal can be access here: cancer.ucla.edu/funding. Please bookmark this page. A one-time registration is required, and you will also need a UCLA Logon ID to use Bruin Learn. If you do not already a UCLA Logon ID, please visit this page to create one.

Extramural funding

Below is a list of limited extramural funding opportunities, provided as a courtesy to Cancer Center members. For an extramural funding opportunity to be included on this list, applications must be directly submitted through the Cancer Center. If you have any questions about a specific opportunity listed below, please email Danielle Montes at dmontes@mednet.ucla.edu.

Listings are generally updated on a monthly basis. Entries are ordered by posting date, with most recent postings first. Opportunities are removed from this list once their final application due date has passed.

POSTED MARCH 13, 2023

UCLA SPORE program in Brain Cancer Developmental Research Program (DRP)

Deadline: The submission window opens on May 1, 2023 and closes at 5:00pm on May 19, 2023.

How to apply: Applications must be submitted as a single, complete PDF during the submission window. Submit your application to Diana Moughon via email dmoughon@mednet.ucla.edu. Visit the UCLA SPORE in Brain Cancer funding page on our website for more information and to download the application.

Overview: The DRP would like to support pilot projects focusing on innovative and interdisciplinary translational research, it is encouraged to submit high risk and high impact projects that explore new research opportunities in brain cancer research and promote multidisciplinary collaboration between basic, preclinical and clinical programs.

DRP Awards are available for faculty members associated with UCLA, as well as institutions within the surrounding community, to support innovative translational research in all areas of investigation that impact brain cancer.

UCLA SPORE program in Brain Cancer Career Enhancement Program (CEP)

Deadline: The submission window opens on May 1, 2023 and closes at 5:00pm on May 19, 2023.

How to apply: Applications must be submitted as a single, complete PDF during the submission window. Submit your application to Diana Moughon via email dmoughon@mednet.ucla.edu. Visit the UCLA SPORE in Brain Cancer funding page on our website for more information and to download the application.

Overview: The CEP would like to support junior faculty and established researchers who wish to commit their research interests or refocus on translational approaches in brain cancer research. Career Enhancement Program Awards are available for MD or PhD junior faculty and senior faculty associated with UCLA or institutions within the surrounding area. Exceptional postdoctoral fellows with plans to transition to a faculty position within a year may also apply but must submit a letter from an institution supporting their transition to faculty.

POSTED FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation (SWCRF) and Mark Foundation for Cancer Research Joint Request for Applications (RFA) for Collaborative Projects on Aging and Cancer

Deadline: One-page Letter of Intent due Mar 1, 2023 / Full application due: Jun 1, 2023.

How to apply: Submit to Genevieve Ortega-Alves via email.

Overview: The Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation (SWCRF) and The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research are pleased to issue a joint Request for Applications (RFA) for collaborative projects to focus on Aging and Cancer. Projects must include collaborations between two laboratories with different but complementary expertise. Proposals must justify the partnership through synergistic scientific aims. Awards will provide $500,000 total over three years ($250,000 to each PI)

• Collaborating labs must be at different institutions.
• Only one LOI per cancer center, which will count for the submitting institution, not the collaborating institution.
• Exception: individual investigators who were directly invited do not count against the one LOI per cancer center limit, but still must collaborate with someone at a different institution; these individual investigators are limited to one LOI each

POSTED JANUARY 6, 2023

Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation and the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research

Deadline: One-page research summary and NIH Biosketch due Fri, Feb 3, 2023 / Full application due: Jun 1, 2023.

How to apply: Submit a research summary and biosketch to Genevieve Ortega-Alves via email.

Overview: The Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation (SWCRF) and The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research are pleased to issue a joint Request for Applications (RFA) for collaborative projects to focus on Aging and Cancer. Projects must include collaborations between two laboratories with different but complementary expertise. Proposals must justify the partnership through synergistic scientific aims. Awards will provide $500,000 total over three years ($250,000 to each PI).

Faculty Seed Grants in Cancer Research Funding Opportunity

Deadline: Letters of Intent due: Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 12:00 pm PT / Full proposals due: Thursday, April 13, 2023 at 12:00 pm PT

How to apply: Please visit their website for instructions on how to apply.

Overview: The Cancer Research Coordinating Committee (CRCC) is pleased to issue a Request for Proposals for the 2023-24 Faculty Seed Grants. The CRCC is a systemwide, faculty-directed cancer research program that provides one-year seed grants for topics in any discipline that address any aspect of cancer, including its origins, prevention and cure. CRCC funds support meritorious research spanning all areas from basic research to applied clinical and community-based research in any field relevant to cancer. Eligible PIs must be members of the Academic Senate at one of the ten UC campuses. 

There will be one applicant webinar on Wednesday, January 11, 2023 at 1:30 pm PT (Register here). If you are a first-time applicant and/or new to SmartSimple, attendance is highly recommended.

W.M. Keck Foundation Science and Engineering Research Program Grants

Deadline: Internal proposal: January 9, 2023 / Letter of Intent: May 1, 2023 / Full application: August 15, 2023.

How to apply: For information about this opportunity, please visit https://www.wmkeck.org/research-overview/. For information about the internal limited submission process at UCLA, please visit https://ucla.infoready4.com/#competitionDetail/1880769.

Overview: This limited submission announcement is for the W.M. Keck Foundation Science and Engineering Research Program Grants. Note that these grants provide support for many different research areas, not exclusively cancer. The W. M. Keck Research Program seeks to benefit humanity by supporting Medical Research and Science & Engineering projects that are distinctive and novel in their approach, question the prevailing paradigm, or have the potential to break open new territory in their field.

This application process is for the Science and Engineering Research program only. Biomedical research is not eligible for this LSO; Keck supports this work through a different mechanism at DGSOM. Research focused on biological research without biomedical implications will be considered. The Keck Foundation is not currently accepting proposals from UCLA for the Medical Research program.