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CRI Clinical Innovator

Cancer Research Institute

The CRI Clinical Innovator supports pioneering immunotherapy clinical trials designed and led by academic researchers. These investigator-initiated studies are vital to improving patient outcomes, addressing areas of high unmet need, and generating critical mechanistic insights that can guide the future of cancer treatment.

Focus and Scope

The CRI Clinical Innovator funds innovative phase I/II or phase II clinical studies with a strong emphasis on:

Novel immunotherapy approaches
Mechanistic investigations into clinical response
The discovery and/or validation of predictive biomarkers

In an effort to maximize impact and ensure translational rigor, CRI may provide strategic guidance on trial design. CRI encourages data sharing through platforms such as the CRI iATLAS.

Applications are evaluated based on novelty, feasibility, scientific rationale, and potential for clinical impact. Competitive studies will integrate standardized approaches to sample collection, correlative assays, and advanced data analyses, ensuring that findings are reproducible, shareable, and impactful across the field.

By supporting clinician-scientists at the forefront of immunotherapy, the Clinical Innovator program advances clinical research that not only tests new therapies, but also deepens our understanding of the immune system’s role in cancer.

Additional Opportunities

In partnership with the Chordoma Foundation (CF), CRI also invites proposals focused on accelerating the development of effective treatments and ultimately a cure for chordoma, a rare type of cancer that occurs in the bones of the skull base and spine. Please be advised that CF has chordoma models and banked tumor samples (including a new TMA consisting of 95 chordoma specimens) that are available to the research community. Successful applications in this area will be co-funded by CRI and CF.

Financial Support

The Clinical Innovator provides up to $1M per trial. Funding may be used for investigator salary, patient costs, supplies, correlative assays, and data analyses. Payments are structured in milestones to ensure steady progress and trial completion.

Institutions will be provided indirect costs of up to 10% of the total amount awarded. Indirects are provided in addition to awarded funds.

Deadlines

The deadline to submit an Initial Protocol Concept is December 1. Candidates will be notified by late February if they are invited to submit a full proposal, including protocol.

Invited applications are due April 9. If these deadlines fall on the weekend, proposals will be accepted until the end of day that following Monday.

AI Based Application Success Predictor

1. Direct relevance to cancer immunology and immunotherapy (highest predictor)

This is the most important predictor.

CRI is not a general cancer-research funder. Competitive projects should directly advance understanding or application of:

Tumor immunology
Fundamental immunology relevant to cancer
Immune-cell function in tumors
Cancer immunotherapy
Immune resistance and response
Tumor microenvironment
Immunological biomarkers
Immune-based therapeutic strategies

For the Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship, CRI specifically emphasizes hypothesis-driven, mechanistic research in fundamental immunology and tumor immunology, including how the work will advance understanding of the immune system's role in cancer.

2. Scientific significance, innovation, and feasibility (very high predictor)

CRI explicitly identifies three core proposal-review dimensions:

Significance
Innovation
Feasibility

The strongest applications address an important immunological problem, introduce a genuinely new concept or approach, and remain technically achievable. Ambitious science is attractive, but the experimental strategy must still be convincing.

3. Strong candidate qualifications and demonstrated track record (very high predictor)

CRI formally considers:

Candidate qualifications
Demonstrated research track record
Evidence of scientific productivity
Technical expertise
Potential for future impact

For trainee and career-development programs, reviewers assess accomplishments relative to career stage rather than simply rewarding the longest publication list.

4. Potential to become a future leader in cancer immunology

Investigator development is central to CRI's funding model. Its programs span early-career researchers through established investigators and are designed to cultivate scientific leaders who can advance cancer immunotherapy.

Strong indicators include:

Clear long-term research vision
Commitment to immunology or tumor immunology
Emerging scientific independence
Leadership potential
Ability to establish a distinctive research direction

5. Outstanding sponsor, mentorship, and training environment (especially important for fellowships)

For postdoctoral funding, CRI explicitly reviews both:

The strength of the sponsor
The quality of the training environment

Competitive applications typically demonstrate access to expert mentorship, strong immunology infrastructure, appropriate technologies, and an environment capable of advancing the fellow toward independence.

6. Acquisition of genuinely new skills and expertise

A strong fellowship application explains how the proposed work will expand the applicant's capabilities through:

New experimental techniques
New conceptual expertise
Computational or data-science training
Advanced immunological methods
Cross-disciplinary mentorship

CRI expects the training experience to prepare the applicant for future scientific leadership and independence.

7. Bold, high-risk/high-reward potential (program-specific but very important)

Several CRI programs explicitly support bold ideas. The Lloyd J. Old STAR Program, for example, supports mid-career scientists pursuing high-risk, high-reward research at the leading edge of cancer immunotherapy, while the Technology Impact Award targets early-stage concepts with transformative potential.

The strongest proposals may challenge existing assumptions, open a new research direction, or create a technology that changes what is scientifically possible.

8. Strong translational pathway and clinical impact (for translational and clinical awards)

For programs such as the Clinic and Laboratory Integration Program and Clinical Innovator awards, success depends heavily on a credible bridge between immunological discovery and patient care. CRI's current portfolio explicitly supports research at the intersection of laboratory discovery and clinical application, as well as pioneering academic immunotherapy trials.

Competitive projects often demonstrate:

Strong biological rationale
Relevant biomarkers
Patient-selection strategy
Translational endpoints
Clinical-development potential
A realistic pathway toward testing or implementation

9. Interdisciplinary expertise and collaboration

Modern immunotherapy research often requires integration of:

Immunology
Oncology
Computational biology
Data science
Genomics
Bioengineering
Clinical research

CRI's current programs explicitly include opportunities at the intersection of immunology and data science, reinforcing the value of complementary expertise when it is essential to the scientific question.

Specialties

Cancer

Oncology

Eligibility Requirements

Candidates must be the Principal Investigator (PI) of the proposed study. CRI has no citizenship restrictions, and research supported by the award may be conducted at medical schools or research centers in the United States or abroad. Please note that CRI does not support research at for-profit institutions.

Eligible Countries:

United States

Sponsor Details

Sponsor Institute/Organizations: Cancer Research Institute

Sponsor Type: Corporate/Non-Profit

Address: 29 Broadway, Floor 4  New York, NY 10006-3111

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