PAR-25-325-Full-Announcement.html

This is a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) issued by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) under the Department of Health and Human Services/National Institutes of Health for a U01 cooperative agreement to support research on biospecimen science in clinical assay development. The opportunity (PAR-25-325) falls under the Cancer Cause and Prevention Research program (CFDA 93.393) and is open to a wide range of applicants including higher education institutions, nonprofits, tribal organizations, government entities, and small businesses.

The funding aims to investigate and mitigate challenges in clinical assay development related to preanalytical variability in biospecimens, including tumor tissue biopsies, blood-based liquid biopsies, tissue swabs, and various bodily fluids. Research will examine how different biospecimen handling conditions affect biomarker quantification across testing platforms, with the goal of establishing evidence-based standardization of biopsy handling practices to accelerate biomarker clinical assay development. The opportunity specifically excludes clinical trials.