Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. (doing business as Dfci) operates as a federal grant recipient delivering basic and translational cancer research, immunotherapy development, and clinical trial coordination services to the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Health Agency, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The institute acts primarily as a grant prime recipient (74% of recent awards) rather than a federal contractor, with a mission anchored in academic medical research affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

Dfci is a nonprofit tax-exempt hospital and research organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The institute competes in full-and-open federal grant competitions without set-aside restrictions; its portfolio reflects typical academic medical center funding patterns, with no SBA certifications or small-business designations. Recent activity shows 1,875 total awards (prime and sub combined) across 53 federal agencies, though the funding concentration is narrow: the National Cancer Institute accounts for 784 awards carrying minimal reported potential value, while the Defense Health Agency, Army Medical Command, and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases round out the active set. The Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Integrated Service Network 1 anchors the potential-value ranking with 15 awards valued at $4.3 million combined, though this represents only 55% coverage of stated combined potential value across the portfolio.

Dfci's research footprint spans cancer biology, immunotherapy, and precision medicine. Recent prime grant work includes a $2.0 million Defense Health Agency Military Medical Research and Development (CFDA 12.420) award for the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium (effective September 2026–September 2030), a $4.2 million DHA grant for B7-H3 CAR-T cell therapy development targeting pediatric sarcomas and solid tumors (September 2026–August 2030), and a $2.5 million National Cancer Institute Cancer Cause and Prevention Research Program (CFDA 93.393) award for precision interception in multiple myeloma precursor conditions (June 2026–May 2031). The institute also received a $1.71 million NCI Cancer Treatment Research award for novel CDK-targeting strategies in cancer therapeutics (September 2025–July 2032) and leads the ACTIVATE project, a $833,467 NCI grant (September 2025–August 2030) developing AI-driven clinical trial matching tools to improve cancer trial recruitment. Grant work spans molecular mechanistic studies in cell cycle regulation, epigenetics, immunometabolism, and CAR-T engineering, with secondary foci on early detection algorithms and health equity in cancer screening and survivorship.

Dfci operates as both a grant prime and a frequent subrecipient to other academic institutions and research consortia. Sub-award work includes participation in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia-led programs on neuroblastoma therapy resistance (P01 CA217959), the Broad Institute's "Count Me In" sarcoma genomics initiative, and collaborative projects with Mayo Clinic, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Stanford, and Yale on diverse oncology topics including kidney cancer genomics, breast cancer immunotherapy, and hematologic malignancies. The institute also subcontracts on clinical trial coordination and biospecimen collection work under prime grants from the Broad Institute, Public Health Institute, and other major research organizations.

Service Contract Inventory data, covering federal service contracts above $150,000, shows minimal SCI-captured activity: only 3 records spanning FY2022–FY2024, all as named subcontractors with roughly 0.6–0.8 FTEs reported per year. This reflects Dfci's positioning as a research grant recipient rather than a federal services contractor; SCI is not a meaningful measure of the institute's total federal or enterprise revenue.

Activity has grown in recent years—from 113 awards in 2022 to 226 in 2024—though 2025–2026 shows a decline (156 and 75 awards respectively in those years). Approximately 129 awards face completion inside the next twenty-four months, creating recompete opportunity. The institute's federal funding is predominantly hypothesis-driven, peer-reviewed research grants from health and science agencies rather than directed federal contracts, reflecting its role as a leading academic cancer research institution.