Frequently Asked Questions

The Fund for Innovation in Cancer Informatics (ICI) provides grants to support and test novel bioinformatics applications in cancer. The Fund enables cancer researchers to develop data on the efficacy of their approach that may in turn enable them to obtain additional funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Science Foundation (NSF), or other research foundations supporting cancer research. ICI grants support investigator-initiated projects for up to 2 years.  Awards may be up to $100,000 per year (direct costs), plus 12% allowable indirect costs.  Two-year grant submissions should include mid-grant milestones (at approximately 12-months) for the purpose of evaluating progress toward overall project goals. These milestones must be achieved in order to qualify for the second year of funding.

The Fund’s donors recognize that cancer informatics is a relatively new field that has high potential impact and limited funding opportunities. The goal of the Fund is to lower barriers to innovation. The initial ICI awards were made in April 2017.

The Fund advances innovation by:

• Seeking out and supporting grantees pursuing important bioinformatics problems with high potential for near-term impact (particularly as it relates to improved care and treatment options for cancer patients.)
• Providing seed grants to test innovative ideas, models, and tools that:
  • Create interesting, new data
  • Optimize/leverage existing data resources 
  • Show promise for impact at scale.
• Requiring grantees to share their data broadly within the scientific community.
• Encouraging collaboration between outstanding senior and talented junior researchers and between domestic and international institutions.
• Encouraging grantees to license their software under an open source software license.

Please explore the information contained on this website.  We welcome your questions and further inquiries. Please visit our Contact page.

Letters of Recommendation are not required except when using data from an outside source. We also recommend letters when the impact of the work is dependent on outside or indirect parties. 

ICI Major Grants are two-year grants. The Fall Rounds typically start in December or early January. The Spring Rounds typically start in June.

Grant cohorts will have the same start dates so that mid-grant reviews can be done at the same time.

Applications must be submitted by a team that includes at least one cancer researcher working in partnership with a bioinformatician, computational biologist, or computer scientist either or both of whom should be junior faculty, postdoctoral investigators, or doctoral candidates at an NCI-designated Cancer Center, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Basic Laboratory Cancer Center, or their associated educational institutions.

Funding will be awarded to a U.S. institution, while work may be accomplished in collaboration with international researchers. Organizations receiving the ICI funds must be currently recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a public charity under sections 501(c)(3) or 509(a)(1), (2), or (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. When collaborating with international researchers, the U.S. institution must certify that they will handle the funds according to the terms of U.S. laws and the grant. Provided that these requirements are met, there is NO limit to the percentage of the grant that can go toward the work of the international researcher.

Proposals are accepted twice each year. Specific submission deadlines are available on the Grant Deadline page.

The Fund for Innovation in Cancer Informatics provides an online form for grant requests.

All projects are strongly encouraged to include a clinical investigator on the team to support project translation. While a Co-PI position is ideal, you may simply list additional members of your team. We also strongly encourage you to provide a statement of how your project will impact clinical care and how you will share your data or other findings with the community.

Yes. Topics of special interest are provided for each round of grant-making. See the Grant Overview page. Some recent examples include:

• Model Analysis Applications for Large Cancer Genomics Datasets
• Bridging Cancer Genomics Data Resources
• Analysis of Clinical Trials Data
• Integration of Cancer Genomics Data with Electronic Medical or Health Record Systems
• Functional Annotation of Genetic Variants in Cancer
• Mobile Apps for Cancer Patients Undergoing Cancer Treatment to Record Their Health Data
• Accelerating the Development and Validation of Liquid Biopsy Assays

No. Submissions are welcome in other areas of cancer informatics as well.

Note: We adhere to NIH’s guidelines as they relate to salary cap. The 12% cap on indirects applies to each year.

Allowed:

• Salary support
• Equipment
• Data Management and Storage 
• Software Maintenance
• Fringe Benefits
• Travel
• Overhead (up to 12%)

Not Allowed:

• Wet Lab Expenses 
• Tuition

ICI does not provide written feedback, but we will be happy to discuss grant reviewer observations.

A team of expert advisors will select ICI Award winners. The team is led by David Brown, who served in a senior management role at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and as a member of the Barr Program Presidential Advisory Committee. Other advisors include:

• Robert L. Grossman, PhD
  Director of the Center for Translational Data Science at the University of Chicago.  Dr. Grossman is the principal investigator for the NCI Genomic Data Commons.
• Channing Paller, MD
  Principal Investigator of the FACTS (Factors Affecting Combination Trial Success) Program sponsored by the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program at NCI. Dr. Paller is an oncologist and faculty member at Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.
• Chris Sander, PhD
  Director of the cBio Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  Dr. Sander is co-founder of the computational biology field and a leader in applying its methods to cancer research.
• Nikolaus Schultz, PhD
  Associate Attending in Computational Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.  Dr. Schultz co-leads the development of the cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics, a resource for visualization and analysis of large-scale cancer center genomics data sets.

ICI Review Committee:

• Ethan Cerami, PhD
  Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• Karuna Ganesh, MD
  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Jianjiong Gao, PhD 
  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Michael Hassett, MD, MPH
  Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• Anil Korkut, PhD
  University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
• Eduard Reznik, PhD
  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Eliezer Van Allen, MD
  Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• Neil Vasan, MD, PhD
  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Francisco Sanchez-Vega,  PhD
  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

ICI Technical Reviewer:

• Alexandra Maertens, PhD
  Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

ICI employs a concise proposal process and works to make approved grants available 4-6 weeks from the deadline for application to help move innovative work forward.

The Fund is a donor advised fund at Fidelity Charitable. Brown Philanthropy Advisors works on behalf of Fidelity Charitable and its donors to administer ICI grants.

The number of grants in each cycle may vary. Please see the Recipients page for the grants made in each cycle to date. As examples, in the Spring 2018 grant cycle, we made five grants: three Major Grants and two smaller, Discovery Grants. In the Fall 2017 funding cycle, we made the same number and types of grants. In the Spring 2017 funding cycle, we made six grants: four Major Grants and two Discovery Grants.

Yes. Funding must be awarded to an eligible U.S. institution, while work may be accomplished in collaboration with international researchers. When collaborating with international researchers, the U.S. institution must certify that they will handle the funds according to the terms of U.S. laws and the grant.  Provided that these requirements are met, there is no limit to the percentage of the grant that can go toward the work of the international researcher.

Two-year grant submissions are required to make a PowerPoint presentation (at approximately 12-months) featuring project updates and status of mid-grant deliverables for the purpose of evaluating progress towards overall project goals. Year two funding is dependent on mid-grant deliverables being met.

• Submit brief quarterly status reports.
• Participate in a web-based meeting with other grantees and ICI application reviewers approximately 10-12 months following grant approval. The purpose of this gathering is to report on research progress, foster community, and further the potential for learning, collaboration and progress in the bioinformatics field.
• Submit research data to repositories or platforms for data sharing in order to maximize its availability to the research community.
• Submit a final report containing non-technical, scientific, and financial information. Brown Philanthropy Advisors asks to be notified in writing of any changes in address affecting the grant's principal investigators (PI), change in PI while the grant is active, or changes in the party or parties accepting responsibility for the grant.  
• Notifications should be made to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Grantees are requested to identify the Fund for Innovation in Cancer Informatics as a funder of the research in scientific reports and papers. When possible, please provide the web address: www.the-ici-fund.org. We will also ask to provide links to your publications or data on this ICI Fund website.