Activities to Promote Technology Research Collaborations (APTRC) for Cancer Research (Admin Supp) | PA 17 143

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 17 143

Activities to Promote Technology Research Collaborations (APTRC) for Cancer Research (Admin Supp) (PA 17-143) is a National Cancer Institute (NCI) funding opportunity from the National Institutes of Health that uses a grant mechanism to provide administrative supplements aimed at strengthening and accelerating technology-focused collaborations in cancer research. The core purpose is to promote research partnerships that help move promising technologies forward, particularly where collaboration can make development faster, more rigorous, or more broadly useful to the cancer research community. As an administrative supplement opportunity, it is generally designed to add support to existing, active NIH/NCI awards rather than function as a standalone, brand-new research grant, with the intent of boosting specific collaborative activities that align with the parent award and NCI priorities.

The opportunity sits on top of two distinct NCI technology-development programs that target different, but complementary, parts of the cancer research technology pipeline. First, the Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) program emphasizes highly innovative, data-generating platforms and methodologies. In practical terms, IMAT is oriented toward new or improved tools that directly create biological or clinical data, such as novel molecular assays, measurement platforms, or experimental methods that can reveal cancer biology in ways that were previously difficult or impossible. Second, the Informatics Technologies for Cancer Research (ITCR) program focuses on data processing and visualization technologies. This is the computational side of the equation, supporting tools that can manage, analyze, integrate, interpret, and visually present cancer-relevant data at scale, helping researchers turn raw datasets into usable scientific and clinical insights.

By linking APTRC to IMAT and ITCR, NCI is signaling that it views collaboration as a key driver of impact for both wet-lab and computational technology development. Many high-potential technologies stall because they lack validation across sites, access to diverse datasets, interoperability with existing systems, or the engineering and user-centered design needed for broad adoption. Collaboration supplements like APTRC are positioned to address those gaps by encouraging teams to work across disciplines (for example, assay developers partnering with informatics groups, or software teams partnering with domain experts and data generators) and across institutions, potentially improving robustness, usability, and real-world relevance.

Eligibility is notably inclusive with respect to geography and organizational type. In addition to standard eligible applicants, the announcement explicitly allows non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations and foreign institutions) to apply, permits non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations, and allows foreign components as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement. This matters because technology development and validation often benefit from international expertise, unique cohorts, specialized facilities, or complementary engineering and computational strengths that may exist outside the United States. The funding notice also directs applicants to the full announcement for detailed eligibility rules, which is important because administrative supplements often come with constraints tied to the parent award, scope alignment, and documentation requirements.

From the source details provided, the opportunity is categorized as discretionary, uses a grant funding instrument, and falls under education and health as the activity category, with CFDA number 93.394. The original closing date listed is 2017-12-12, and the expected number of awards is 20. An award ceiling is not specified in the provided extract, which typically means the maximum amount may depend on the parent grant, the nature of the supplement activities, and NCI/NIH administrative supplement policies rather than a single fixed cap.

Overall, APTRC (Admin Supp) is best understood as NCI support meant to catalyze collaborative work that strengthens cancer technology research in two high-impact domains: (1) innovative molecular and measurement technologies that generate new kinds of cancer data (IMAT), and (2) informatics methods that can process and visualize complex cancer data effectively (ITCR). The program encourages collaboration as a practical strategy to improve performance, validation, integration, and eventual adoption of technologies that could transform how cancer is studied, detected, characterized, and ultimately managed.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Activities to Promote Technology Research Collaborations (APTRC) for Cancer Research (Admin Supp)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.394.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-01-27.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-12-12. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 20 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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