Career Growth and Research Excellence

The goal of this program is to launch the careers of early-stage cancer scientists into independent researchers and to support the research and mentoring activities of elite clinicians and scientists at the full Professor stage of their careers. Pre-faculty scientists are funded by ACS Postdoctoral Fellowships, and early-stage faculty investigators are supported by Institutional Research Grant pilot grants.

This program accepts grant applications for:

• ACS Professors
• Institutional Research Grants (IRG) 
• Postdoctoral Fellowships (PF) 

Vision

Be a national leader in supporting the development and achievement of cancer research investigators at all stages of their career and across the research continuum.

Priorities

1. Postdoctoral trainees:  Support career development by providing fellowships and tailored programming for skill and leadership development
2. Early-stage investigators: Support grantees at established and emerging cancer research institutions through the IRG pilot grant program, which allows for a more streamlined and flexible sub-award process to meet the needs of the centers and their investigators
   
3. ACS Professors: Raise the profile, diversity (race/ethnicity, geographical representation, cancer research areas, gender, etc.), and quality of engagement with ACS of our preeminent ACS Professor Award Program through mentorship, involvement in events, and more
4. Across all career stages: Increase communication about, and engagement and alignment with program priorities and initiatives with grantees and across Extramural Discovery Science (EDS), other ACS Discovery Science teams, and the broader ACS enterprise including ACS Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN)

For more information on our grant making process, please visit Our Grant Process.

To view all of our peer review committees, please visit our Peer Review Committees webpage.

To see all EDS program descriptions on one page, see EDS Programs Structure and Roles.