In keeping with our mission, the LCRF grant program provides funding for research into the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of lung cancer. Our funding mechanisms are designed to fund innovative projects across a variety of diverse topics and to support the careers of talented scientists. To learn about research that has been previously funded by LCRF, please visit the Our Investigators section. Information for investigators seeking funding for research, including an overview of our funding mechanisms and any current requests for proposals, can be found below. For questions about our grants, please contact us at grants@LCRF.org.
Open Requests for Proposals
2026 LCRF Research Grant on Prevention and Early Detection in Lung Cancer
Given the significance and need for early detection of lung cancer and advancements in molecular screening, LCRF continues to offer a funding mechanism to support research projects that facilitate prevention or approaches for early detection of lung cancer. Work supported through this mechanism addresses important questions in non-small cell and small cell lung cancer.
This funding mechanism is focused on identifying, characterizing, and developing approaches and techniques that will allow early detection and/or prevention of lung cancer and gaining insight into pre-neoplastic processes in the lungs. The ultimate goal is to detect lung cancer at the earliest stages and subsequently increase survival and survivorship. While this list is not exclusive, general areas of interest include:
- Improvements in risk stratification of patients and uptake for screening
- Identification and characterization of new biomarkers for NSCLC and SCLC
- Development of predictive, diagnostic, or prognostic biomarkers
- Liquid biopsy assays and related techniques
- Genomic and histological approaches to improve early detection in tissue samples
- Novel imaging and computational modalities to identify and risk stratify pre-neoplastic lesions
- Implementation science with systematic uptake of evidence-based research findings into routine practices to improve quality and effectiveness of health services for early detection
- Studies of pre-neoplasia and progression to lung neoplasia to inform prevention strategies
- Development of pathways to increase uptake and utilization of lung cancer screening
- Epidemiology studies to identify risk factors and implementation of prevention measures
- Development of any new technologies that will aid in identifying early-stage lung cancers
These awards provide a maximum of $150,000 in funding over a period of two years. Investigators must be affiliated with a non-profit academic or research institution and must be post-doctoral researchers, clinical fellows, or early-career and mid-career investigators with less than seven years’ experience since their initial faculty appointment. For full details, eligibility criteria, and application instructions, please refer to the request for proposals.
Applications will be submitted through a two-step process consisting of a Letter of Intent (LOI) and full proposal. Applicants whose LOI submission is reviewed favorably will be invited to complete a full proposal. Applicants may only apply for one LCRF grant per grant cycle.
LOI submission deadline is March 10, 2026. Applicants will be notified of their status on April 28, 2026, and the full proposal submission deadline is June 2, 2026.
2026 LCRF Research Grant on Overcoming Resistance in Lung Cancer
In 2026, this grant mechanism will focus on furthering the understanding of the development, prevention, and therapy of resistance by supporting projects that seek to identify, characterize, treat or prevent resistance to lung cancer therapies. Work supported through this mechanism will address important mechanistic questions and developmental therapeutics across histological subtypes of lung cancer (including lung adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and small cell lung cancer) and across the care continuum including newly designed targeted therapies and immunotherapies. These studies will enhance the momentum of improving lung cancer outcomes and have the potential to increase survivorship.
We encourage applications on a wide variety of topics related to understanding and/or overcoming resistance including but not limited to:
- Mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapies for oncogene-driven lung cancers. Proposals are encouraged in the areas of histological transformation, oligometastatic disease, oligo-remnant disease, uncommon mutations and non-genomic mechanisms of resistance.
- Biology and mechanisms of drug resistance to lung cancer therapies including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, and antibody drug conjugates.
- Novel treatment approaches and new therapies to overcome and/or prevent resistance to lung cancer therapies.
- Novel diagnostic approaches (i.e. biomarkers) to monitor treatment response and relapse.
- Overcoming resistance in difficult to treat sites of metastases such as leptomeningeal and brain metastases.
These awards provide a maximum of $150,000 in funding over a period of two years. Investigators must be affiliated with a non-profit academic or research institution and must be post-doctoral researchers, clinical fellows, or early-career and mid-career investigators with less than seven years’ experience since their initial faculty appointment. For full details, eligibility criteria, and application instructions, please refer to the request for proposals.
Applications will be submitted through a two-step process consisting of a Letter of Intent (LOI) and full proposal. Applicants whose LOI submission is reviewed favorably will be invited to complete a full proposal. Applicants may only apply for one LCRF grant per grant cycle.
LOI submission deadline is March 10, 2026. Applicants will be notified of their status on April 28, 2026, and the full proposal submission deadline is June 2, 2026.
2026 LCRF Leading Edge Research Grant Program
Lung cancer continues to be the number one cause of cancer deaths worldwide, accounting for an estimated 125,070 deaths annually in the United States alone. Despite being the most common cancer killer of both men and women, lung cancer research remains critically underfunded. To help close this gap and improve outcomes, the goal of the LCRF Leading Edge Research Grant Program is to fund innovative projects across the full spectrum of basic, translational, clinical, epidemiological, health services, disparities, and social determinants of health research. The 2026 LCRF Leading Edge Research Grant Program will provide $150,000 over a period of two years for projects including but not limited to the following topics:
- Lung cancer biology
- Identification of new biomarkers
- Machine learning and digital pathology
- Development of more effective and less toxic therapies including but not limited to targeted and immune-therapies
- Genetic and gene-environment interactions
- Interactions and contributions of multiple factors (e.g. smoking, genetics, environment, societal factors) to disparities in lung cancer outcomes
- Mechanism of Antibody Drug Conjugates
- Novel approaches to immunotherapy such as bispecific antibodies, vaccines, cellular therapies etc.
- Bioengineering approaches to understanding and/or treating lung cancer (i.e., theranostics, biomaterials, nanotechnology, controlled-drug release, and gene therapy)
- Supportive measures for people with lung cancer and their families, such as palliative care and telemedicine
- Identification of metabolic vulnerabilities in lung cancer
These awards provide a maximum of $150,000 in funding over a period of two years. Investigators must be affiliated with a non-profit academic or research institution and must be post-doctoral researchers, clinical fellows, or early-career and mid-career investigators with less than seven years’ experience since their initial faculty appointment. For full details, eligibility criteria, and application instructions, please refer to the request for proposals.
Applications will be submitted through a two-step process consisting of a Letter of Intent (LOI) and full proposal. Applicants whose LOI submission is reviewed favorably will be invited to complete a full proposal. Applicants may only apply for one LCRF grant per grant cycle.
LOI submission deadline is March 10, 2026. Applicants will be notified of their status on April 28, 2026, and the full proposal submission deadline is June 2, 2026.
OUCH-Int’l and LCRF Research Grant Program on the Effects of Air Pollution and Climate Change on Carcinogenesis and Lung Cancer Prevalence
Increasing evidence indicates that air pollution is a major cause of lung cancer, and the number of estimated lung cancer deaths attributable to air pollution has increased by nearly 30% since 2007, as smoking has decreased and air pollution has increased. OUCH-Int’l and LCRF Research Grant Program on the Effects of Air Pollution and Climate Change on Carcinogenesis and Lung Cancer Prevalence is a two-year award supporting investigators at any level in their career. This award’s objective is to fund innovative projects to support research that examines the impact of climate change and environmental pollution on lung cancer risk, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes and identifies strategies to mitigate these effects.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Impact of climate change on cancer incidence and prevalence
- Role of screening for lung cancer in a warming climate, particularly in never-smokers or anyone who falls outside of the screening guidelines
- Understanding the impact of extreme weather events on lung cancer prevalence and outcomes (e.g., extreme weather events, severe heat, access to care, etc.)
- Investigations into the role of air pollution and lung cancer in never-smokers
- Research focused on the effects and interactions of environmental carcinogens and ways to mitigate their impact
- Research into the mechanisms by which PM2.5 and other environmental carcinogens cause lung cancer
These awards provide a maximum of $200,000 in funding over a period of two years. Applicants may be at any level in their career; post-doctoral researchers; clinical fellows; or early-, mid-, or senior career investigators are eligible to apply. Applications from US-based and international organizations are welcome and may hold any residency/citizenship status. For complete details, eligibility criteria, and application instructions, please refer to the request for proposals.
Applicants may only apply for one LCRF grant per grant cycle.
Full proposal submission deadline is June 2, 2026. Awardees will be notified in November 2026.
Selection process underway
2025 LCRF | Boehringer Ingelheim Team Science Award on Innovative Therapeutic Strategies to Understand and Treat Lung Cancers Harboring HER2 Mutations
Lung cancer is responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other cancer. The last 10-15 years have seen accelerated clinical trials and FDA approvals of targeted therapies for non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) in part due to advances in molecular profiling of tumors. Many of these targeted therapies are directed against oncogenic drivers. The HER family of tyrosine kinases include HER1 (epidermal growth factor receptor [EGFR] or ERBB1), HER2 (HER2/neu or ERBB2), HER3, and HER4. EGFR mutations were one of the first oncogenic drivers that were successfully targeted with the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Despite substantial progress in this area, available treatments are generally not curative, and resistance invariably develops. HER2 mutations have also been identified as potential oncogenic drivers in lung cancer.
It is of vital importance that there is a better understanding of the biology of HER2-mutated lung cancer as well as the mechanism of tumor response and resistance. Moreover, given that therapeutic options available to date are not curative, there is a need for novel approaches to treat HER2-mutant lung cancers.
The 2025 LCRF – Boehringer Ingelheim Team Science Award on Innovative Approaches Toward the Treatment of HER2-Driven Lung Cancer will focus on the science behind HER2 mutations as oncogenic drivers of malignancy and/or the development of novel therapeutic approaches for patients with tumors harboring HER2 mutations.
We encourage applications on a wide variety of topics related to HER2 mutant lung cancer, including but not limited to the following:
- Projects directed toward the understanding the biology of HER2-mutant lung cancer
- Mechanisms of primary or secondary resistance to all types of treatment
- There is a particular interest in projects that employ real-world data in HER2-mutant lung cancers by using available datasets to understand correlations between patient demographics (e.g., smoking status) and mutation status
- Studies on the immune landscape and tumor microenvironment
- Biology and mechanisms of tumor progression
- Identification of biomarkers to predict sensitivity to specific therapies
- Methods for optimizing treatment (efficacy and/or tolerability), etc.
- An understanding of the significance of other HER2 alterations, such as HER2 amplification and overexpression in association with HER2 mutations, i.e., is there a specific pattern of these alterations when combined with HER2 mutations and/or with specific patient characteristics
The proposal must include studies in patients with lung cancer harboring HER2 mutations; have a “team science” approach with a program of closely integrated projects consisting of clinical, basic and/or translational work; and have a central, important theme with projects addressing various aspects of this theme.
This award provides a maximum of $1,500,000 in funding over a period of three years. For full details, eligibility criteria, and application instructions, please refer to the request for proposals.
Applications will be submitted through a two-step process consisting of a Letter of Intent (LOI) and full proposal. Applicants whose LOI submission is reviewed favorably will be invited to complete a full proposal. Applicants may only apply for one LCRF grant per grant cycle.
LOI submission deadline was September 30, 2025. The full proposal submission deadline was January 6, 2026.
2025 LCRF Team Science Award on Advancing Therapies Toward CURING EGFR Mutated Lung Cancers
Lung cancer is responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other cancer. The last 20 years have seen accelerated clinical trials and FDA approvals of targeted therapies for non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) in part due to advances in molecular profiling of tumors. Many of these targeted therapies are directed against oncogenic drivers. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations were the first oncogenic drivers that were successfully targeted with the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Despite substantial progress in the treatment of EGFRmut+ lung cancer, available treatments are not curative, and resistance invariably develops. Sometimes biopsies are repeated to identify the source of resistance to potentially evaluate patients for additional targeted therapy.
Given that therapeutic options available to date are not curative, there is a need for novel approaches to treat these lung cancers and improve outcomes for patients with the ultimate intention of cure. The 2025 LCRF Team Science Award on Advancing Therapies Toward CURING EGFR Mutated Lung Cancers will focus on furthering the development of novel therapies for patients with EGFRmut+ NSCLC.
We encourage applications on a wide variety of topics including but not limited to the following:
Resistance
- Prediction of patients at high risk for having disease resistant to treatment
- Study and eradication of persister cells
- Identification and treatment of all types of resistance
- Histologic transformation
- On target resistance
- Off target resistance
- Biomarkers as indicators of disease resistance and progression
Optimizing treatment to overcome resistance
- Novel agents (i.e. immunotherapy, cell therapy, vaccines, ADCs, etc.)
- Treatment combinations and/or sequencing (i.e. roles of chemotherapy, angiogenesis inhibitors, immunotherapy, novel combinations)
- Study and treatment of oligometastatic disease
- Biomarkers that direct the most efficacious treatment
- Difficult to treat metastatic sites
- CNS metastases (brain and leptomeningeal disease)
- Novel treatments (i.e. novel drugs, innovative radiation)
- Identifying patients at risk for CNS metastases that may need more intense monitoring
- Determination of best treatment for other sites of metastases (i.e. bone, liver, etc.)
- CNS metastases (brain and leptomeningeal disease)
This award provides a maximum of $1,500,000 in funding over a period of three years. For full details, eligibility criteria, and application instructions, please refer to the request for proposals.
Applications will be submitted through a two-step process consisting of a Letter of Intent (LOI) and full proposal. Applicants whose LOI submission is reviewed favorably will be invited to complete a full proposal. Applicants may only apply for one LCRF grant per grant cycle.
LOI submission deadline was July 29, 2025. The full proposal submission deadline was November 4, 2025.