The National Cancer Institute (NCI) solicits grant applications from small business concerns (SBCs) that propose research projects focused on the development and/or application of innovative technologies addressing various aspects of the preparation, purification, processing, and handling of cancer-relevant samples. The overall goal is to develop technologies that maximize the quality and utility of biospecimens for molecular analyses of cancer cells and their host environments without compromising donor/patient health.
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will also support the development of methods and tools to assess sample quality, preserve/protect sample integrity, and establish verification criteria for quality assessment/quality control under diverse conditions. Responsive “technologies” encompass relevant methods, techniques, tools, instrumentation, and devices (but not software or informatics solutions).
The proposed development of cancer sample-preparation technologies must reflect the intent to ultimately commercialize these technologies.
This FOA is part of a broader NCI-sponsored Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) Program. Several IMAT FOAs of identical or closely related scientific scope using various funding mechanisms are available. To facilitate selection, a separate Notice in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts provides brief cross-comparison and links to all the IMAT FOAs. See
NOT-CA-08-003
.
