This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) supports the development of cancer-relevant technologies suitable for use in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Specifically, the FOA solicits applications for projects to adapt, apply, and validate existing or emerging technologies into a new generation of user-friendly, low-cost technologies for preventing, detecting, diagnosing, and/or treating cancers in people living in LMICs.
Applicants should have a working assay or device prototype (not necessarily already capable of cancer applications). The U01 project includes studies to both adapt this technology as well as demonstrate technical functionality and clinical performance for use of the device or assay in specific LMIC settings by meeting objective performance milestones followed by improvements and validations of the technologies in the LMIC settings. Projects proposed in response to this FOA will require multidisciplinary efforts to succeed; therefore, all applicant teams must include expertise in engineering/assay/treatment development, oncology, global healthcare delivery, and business development. Investigators responding to this FOA must consider affordability and cost-effectiveness as well as usability at the point-of-need as part of their design criteria.
This funding opportunity is part of a broader NCI-sponsored Affordable Cancer Technologies (ACTs) Program.