Mission Boost Grants (MBG)
Mission Boost Grants (MBG) support independent investigators pursuing cancer research that reduces the risks of human testing and advances new drugs, devices, or procedures into studies with patients.
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Funder: American Cancer Society
Due Dates: October 15, 2026 (Winter eligibility exception requests) | December 1, 2026 (Application) | April 15, 2027 (Summer eligibility exception requests) | June 1, 2027 (Application)
Funding Amounts: Stage I: $135,000/year direct costs for up to 2 years ($297,000 total including indirect costs); Stage II: up to $545,000 direct costs for up to 18 months, plus 10% indirect costs
Summary: Supports innovative, clinical-enabling cancer research that reduces risks of human testing and advances drugs, devices, or procedures into patient studies.
Key Information: Stage II requires at least 18 months of Stage I funding and completed Stage I milestones.
Description
The American Cancer Society’s Mission Boost Grants provide additional resources for independent investigators at any career stage pursuing research focused on translation to human testing. The program supports innovative, clinical-enabling projects through two funding stages. Stage I establishes outcome-specific, unequivocal milestones to reduce the risks of studying a new drug, device, or procedure in patients; these studies may be preclinical or clinical. Stage II advances the research to testing in cancer patients and must involve humans.
Projects must focus on studies in cancer patients, including first-time-in-human treatment, clinical proof-of-concept, side-effect reduction, clinical validation of diagnostics or medical devices, and prevention of initial cancer incidence or recurrence. ACS encourages pharmaceutical-company or private-entity collaborations and intends the funding to catalyze additional support toward delivering benefits to patients.
