INSPIRE Research Challenge
INSPIRE Research Challenge supports early-career researchers worldwide with bold studies of modifiable lifestyle and environmental factors to advance cancer prevention, treatment and survivorship.
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Funder: American Institute for Cancer Research
Due Dates: October 5, 2026 (LOI opens) | November 13, 2026 (LOI deadline) | February 2027 (LOI outcomes) | September 2027 (Funding decisions)
Funding Amounts: Up to $85,000 for 12 months (published INSPIRE funding brief)
Summary: Supports early-career researchers worldwide developing bold ideas on modifiable factors in cancer prevention, treatment and survivorship.
Key Information: Applicants must be within 2–7 years of full-time-equivalent research since their doctorate and address a 2026–27 priority area.
Description
The INSPIRE Research Challenge supports innovative, bold and creative research with the potential to accelerate advances in cancer prevention, treatment and survivorship. World Cancer Research Fund International runs the challenge in partnership with the American Institute for Cancer Research, World Cancer Research Fund in the UK and Wereld Kanker Onderzoek Fonds in the Netherlands. It is open to early-career investigators worldwide.
Building on the network’s diet-and-nutrition research, INSPIRE addresses modifiable lifestyle and environmental factors, including sleep, psychological stress, immune function, ingested contaminants and pathogens. It prioritizes new ideas over incremental research, encouraging innovative combinations of research areas, collaborations, methods and technologies. For 2026–27, proposals must align with at least one of six specified research priority areas while demonstrating scientific quality, feasibility, relevance and potential impact.
