Limited Competition: Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (U24) | RFA CA 15 502

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA CA 15 502

The Limited Competition: Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (U24) funding opportunity (RFA-CA-15-502) is an NIH cooperative agreement designed to continue support for the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS), a major, long-running research resource focused on understanding the long-term health effects experienced by people who survived cancer diagnosed during childhood. The central aim is not simply to fund a single research project, but to maintain and advance the CCSS as a shared national resource that enables many investigators to study how childhood cancers and their treatments influence survivors later in life, including medical, functional, and quality-of-life outcomes that may emerge years or decades after therapy.

CCSS is described as a multi-institutional collaborative cohort with a large and well-characterized participant base. It includes more than 24,000 individuals who survived at least five years after a childhood cancer diagnosis made between 1970 and 1999, along with over 3,700 sibling control subjects. That structure is important because it supports comparisons between survivors and a closely matched non-cancer group, strengthening research on late effects and helping scientists separate treatment-related risks from background risks present in families and the general population.

This FOA is a limited competition, meaning eligibility is restricted: only the current recipients of the CCSS award are allowed to apply. While the listing of eligible applicant types includes a wide range of organizations and institutions (such as state and local governments, public and private universities, tribal governments and tribal organizations, nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status, for-profit organizations, small businesses, independent school districts, and public housing authorities), the practical eligibility gate for this particular competition is the requirement that the applicant already holds the existing CCSS award. The FOA also explicitly references inclusion of various institution types often highlighted in federal funding (for example, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions), as well as faith-based or community-based organizations and eligible federal agencies, but again, the limited-competition restriction controls who can actually submit an application.

The announcement sets clear boundaries on foreign involvement. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities are not eligible to apply, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply. However, foreign components are allowed under NIH policy only if they are Canadian institutions, which signals that cross-border collaboration may be permitted in a narrow and defined way, likely reflecting CCSS’s established collaborations and the practical value of harmonizing survivor research across North America while keeping the award and primary accountability within eligible U.S. structures.

From a funding and administrative standpoint, the mechanism is a U24 cooperative agreement, which typically indicates substantial NIH involvement in the conduct and oversight of the program compared with a standard research project grant. The opportunity falls under the Education and Health activity category and is associated with CFDA number 93.395. The award ceiling is listed as $2,700,000, with an expectation of one award, emphasizing that this is intended to support a single coordinating effort to maintain and operate the CCSS resource at scale rather than to fund multiple competing centers. The original closing date for applications was February 8, 2016, and the FOA was created on September 14, 2015, placing it in a specific historical funding cycle tied to continuation of an established cohort and its infrastructure.

Overall, the grant opportunity is best understood as continued federal support for the backbone infrastructure of CCSS: keeping the cohort active, maintaining data and coordination capabilities, and enabling broad, long-term studies of survivorship outcomes after pediatric cancer. The value of the award is in sustaining a widely used platform that many research questions can be built upon, particularly as survivors age and late effects become more apparent and more clinically relevant.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Limited Competition: Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (U24)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.395.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2015-09-14.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2016-02-08. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2,700,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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