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Conquer Cancer®, the ASCO Foundation Young Investigator Award for Translational Cancer Research

The ASCO Foundation

Grant Amount$50,000 USD

Grant Term1 Year

Start of Grant TermJuly 1, 2026

Application DeadlineDecember 17, 2025 1:00 PM

Decision DateFebruary 2026

Additional InformationAdditional details regarding this grant can be found in the Program Guidelines and Application Instructions. Final determinations of eligibility will not be completed until the AACR is in receipt of the submitted application.

Description

The AACR-Conquer Cancer®, the ASCO Foundation Young Investigator Award for Translational Cancer Research provides funding to promising investigators to encourage and promote quality research in translational oncology. The purpose of this jointly supported award is to fund a physician-scientist during the transition from a fellowship program to a faculty appointment. Research projects are restricted to translational cancer research.

The award provides $50,000 over one year for expenses related to the research project. Funds may also be designated for non-personnel expenses, such as research/laboratory supplies, equipment, publication charges for manuscripts that pertain directly to the funded project, and other research expenses.

AI Based Application Success Predictor

✅ 1. Clear, immediate clinical relevance

ASCO is clinically oriented. Strong proposals show:

direct impact on cancer patient outcomes

immediate translational or implementation utility

practice-changing potential

Descriptive/basic biology alone performs poorly.

✅ 2. Focus on unmet clinical needs

High-scoring topics often include:

health disparities / equity

treatment toxicity mitigation

survivorship quality of life

access to care

guideline adoption gaps

The “why now?” must be urgent and patient-centered.

✅ 3. Feasible prospective clinical cohorts

ASCO reviewers heavily favor:

realistically enrollable patient groups

structured clinical follow-up

endpoints linked to guideline-relevant metrics

Retrospective-only designs underperform.

✅ 4. Investigator enthusiasm + independence

For Career Development Awards (CDAs) and Young Investigator Awards (YIAs):

independence trajectory

distinct niche separate from mentor

publication momentum

protected time

Mentorship environment is often a decisive factor.

✅ 5. Diversity, equity, and inclusion

ASCO consistently prioritizes:

racial/disparities research

community oncology inclusion

rural access

insurance/financial toxicity

Strong DEI frameworks score substantially higher.

✅ 6. Realistic scope

ASCO projects are 1–3 years with modest budgets. Reviewers punish:

overly complex multi-omics

unrealistic randomization targets

technology deployments requiring regulatory lift

Constrained, clean aims win.

✅ 7. Patient-centered endpoints

Historically favored endpoints:

symptom burden

toxicity reduction

hospital utilization

functional status

PRO measures

OS, PFS, and DFS alone are not enough.

✅ 8. Implementation science framing

Increasingly successful:

care delivery optimization

guideline adherence interventions

workflow re-engineering

decision support tools

Grounding in an implementation framework (e.g., RE-AIM) earns points.

✅ 9. Interdisciplinary mentorship

Winning proposals often pair:

clinical mentor + methodologist

clinical mentor + health economist

clinical mentor + biostatistician

Single-mentor proposals often get dinged.

✅ 10. Clear path to subsequent funding

Reviewers explicitly look for:

NIH K trajectory

R01 seedability

institutional commitment

Articulating next steps is non-optional.

🔬 Scientific themes with high success frequency

Across cycles, repeatedly funded areas include:

immunotherapy toxicity prediction/management

precision biomarker incorporation into care

financial toxicity interventions

health services delivery

geriatric oncology

palliative integration

These align with ASCO’s advocacy priorities.

👥 Population focus trends

ASCO shows sustained support for:

older adults

underserved racial groups

rural / community oncology populations

AYA survivors (though less dominant than pediatric funders)

Justifying why this population is critical.

🧠 Common reviewer praise

“Robust feasibility plan”
“Strong biostatistical support”
“Clearly independent scientific identity”
“Clinically meaningful and translatable”

You’ll see these phrases recur in summary statements.

📉 Predictors of rejection

✘ purely lab-based projects without clinic pathway
✘ lack of power calculations / statistical plan
✘ hyped technology without workflow realism
✘ thin mentorship structure
✘ vague patient accrual pipeline
✘ no follow-on funding strategy

🧾 Structure of Winning Specific Aims

Most successful ASCO grant aims follow a structure such as:

Aim 1 — identify/validate a clinically relevant biomarker or care delivery gap
Aim 2 — develop or pilot an intervention (clinical tool, workflow change)
Aim 3 — evaluate feasibility / acceptability / preliminary outcome

For YIAs, two aims are usually safer.

🔎 High-yield study designs

Patterns across funded abstracts:

observational prospective cohorts

pilot feasibility trials

pragmatic randomized designs

single-arm toxicity mitigation pilots

hybrid implementation designs (Type 1/2)

Pure discovery = rarely funded.

🧬 Biomarker-focused submissions

Successful biomarker studies show:

validated analytic methods

specific clinical decision points

cost/turnaround considerations

implementation pathway

Vague “correlative biology” is weak.

💵 Budget realism matters

ASCO budgets are tight. Reviewers want:

minimal capital equipment

limited sequencing

no long-shot infrastructure setup

Lean, credible budgeting correlates with better scores.

🧑‍🔬 Investigator Profile Signals

Awardees commonly have:

first-author clinical oncology publications

supportive division chief letter

committed protected research time

named statistician (0.05–0.15 FTE)

Letters without specific commitment language are penalized.

💬 Tone & narrative

High-scoring proposals:

foreground patient stories

quantify burden clearly

address equity explicitly

emphasize implementability

ASCO reviewers are clinicians — clarity wins.

🧵 Soft Cultural Rules

These subtle heuristics matter:

You must demonstrate real-world clinical pain points.

Interventions should be deployable in community practice, not just academic centers.

Preliminary data greatly increases confidence.

📣 Emerging interest areas (portfolio trend shift)

Recent cycles show rising attention to:

AI/ML for triage or toxicity prediction (with rigorous oversight)

care navigation models

decentralized trial frameworks

tele-oncology

Framed with equity guardrails.

🧩 Condensed Success Fingerprint

A competitive ASCO Foundation proposal is:

✅ clinically practice-relevant
✅ equity-enhancing
✅ feasible in community oncology
✅ prospectively collectable
✅ statistically powered
✅ seedable to NIH K or R01

Specialties

Cancer

Eligibility Requirements

Applicants must have a medical degree (MD, DO, MD/PhD, or equivalent) in a related field and not currently be a candidate for a further doctoral degree.

At the start of the grant term on July 1, 2026, applicants must:

Be in the last two years of their final subspecialty training and within ten years of obtaining their medical degree (i.e., degree cannot have been conferred before July 1, 2016; the formal date of receipt of doctoral degree is the date the degree was conferred, as indicated on their diploma and/or transcript).
- Examples of subspecialty training include, but are not limited to, a hematology-oncology fellowship, a surgical oncology fellowship, or a radiation oncology residency.
Have a valid, active medical license in the country where the research will be conducted
Have a mentor in the proposed research field from the sponsoring institution; the mentor must assume responsibility and provide guidance for the research
Be able to commit at least 60% of full-time effort in research (applies to total research, not just the proposed project) during the grant term
Be planning an investigative career in clinical oncology
Work in an oncology laboratory or clinical research setting at an academic medical institution anywhere in the world

Sponsor Details

Sponsor Institute/Organizations: The ASCO Foundation

Sponsor Type: Corporate/Non-Profit

Address: 615 Chestnut St., 17th Floor Philadelphia, PA 19106-4404 USA Telephone: 215-440-9300 Email: aacr@aacr.org

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