Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Fund for Innovation in Cancer Informatics?

Since funding the first grants in 2017, The Fund for Innovation in Cancer Informatics (ICI), has focused on work that supports and tests novel bioinformatics applications in cancer aimed at clinical impact.

The Core ICI grant program offers application rounds in the Spring and Fall and remains the bedrock of the ICI Fund. In January 2021, ICI launched a second grant program, High Impact Collaborative Grants (HICG). HICG aims to foster cooperation between two or more institutions that will result in significant clinical impact for patients in 36 months or less.

What are the key components of the two ICI Grant Programs?

The two key components are The ICI Core Program and the ICI High Impact Collaborative Grant Program:

The ICI Core Program:

• Supports investigator-initiated projects for up to 2 years. Quarterly status reports and mid-grant review required.
• Awards may be up to 100K per year (direct costs), plus 12% allowable indirect costs
• Enables cancer researchers to develop data on the efficacy of their approach that may in turn enable them to obtain additional funding from NCI, NSF or other research foundations supporting cancer research.
• For more information on the Core Program, click

The ICI High Impact Collaborative Grant Program (HICG):

• One or more multi-institutional awards that support investigator-initiated projects. Multi-year proposals require annual milestones evaluations
• For 1 to 3 years @ 200K per institution/per year. (contact program office for larger proposals). This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• The project should have a high probability of leading to near-term clinical impact in 3 years or less
• The project should focus on the use of existing data
• Minimum of two institutions and two Principal Investigators at each. Each team is required to have a clinician member at each institution.
• For more complete information on the HICG Program, click

Why was the Fund started?

The Fund’s donors recognize that cancer informatics is a relatively new field that has high potential impact and limited funding opportunities. The overall goals of the fund are to lower barriers to innovation and to impact patient care and treatment options. ICI employs a concise proposal process and works to make approved grants available 4-8 weeks from the deadline for application to help move innovative work forward. The goal of the new HICG is to dramatically accelerate improvements in clinical decision making, care, and outcomes for cancer patients in 36 months or less.

How does the Fund advance innovation?

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.)
• ICI Core grants provide seed grants to test innovative ideas, models, and tools that:
  • Create interesting, new data to impact clinical treatment and care
  • Optimize/leverage existing data resources 
  • Show promise for impact at scale
  • Encouraging collaboration between outstanding senior and talented junior researchers and between domestic and international institutions
• Requiring grantees to share their data broadly within the scientific community.
• Encouraging grantees to license their software under an open-source software license.
• High Impact Collaborative Grants focus on fostering collaboration between tool builders and tool users on decision support projects involving two or more institutions to achieve near term (36 months or less) clinical impact.

How do I learn more?

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

Who is eligible for an ICI High Impact Collaborative Grant?

All applications require identification of a Primary Grant Contact and Primary Institution. The primary grant contact will be the coordinator of the grant and the singular head of the team. The lead institution will manage reporting and budget allocation. ICI collaborative grant proposals are to be submitted on behalf of 2 or more institutions. Applications must be submitted by a team of at least 2 collaborators at each institution including one clinical collaborator or committed clinical advisor.  Other team members may include cancer or bioinformatics researchers (preferably junior faculty) postdoctoral investigators, or doctoral candidates at an NCI-designated Cancer Center, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Basic Laboratory Cancer Center, or their associated educational institution.

While funding will be awarded to a U.S. institution, 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 researchers.

Does ICI allow participation by international researchers?

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.

What collaborations are allowed?

• Inter-institutional
• Partnerships with specific disease foundations that can increase the funding available to support proposed projects
• Collaboration with groups that have large databases that include clinical (EHR) data as well as omic data
• Community engagement for the adoption of standardized data formats

When does ICI accept proposals for the HICG?

Preliminary Applications for HICG will be accepted this year on April 16, 2021. Specific submission details are available on the HICG Timetable page.

How do I submit a Pre-Application for an HICG grant?

The process for the ICI High Impact Collaborative Grant is two-steps:

1. The first step is to complete and submit a Pre-Application. ICI provides downloadable online pre-application. Pre-Applications should be emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. as a single PDF file.
2. If the pre-application is approved by the ICI Advisory Committee, the second step is to complete and submit the ICI High Impact Collaborative Grant

Is data standardization or data curation supported?

Yes. These are supported as long as they are part of the process or required as a point of care by the physicians. Data generation should not be the primary focus of the project.

How do you define clinical impact?

Intervention that effects positive improvement for the cancer patient from current practices. Improvements in clinical decision making, care, and outcomes for cancer patients. For example:

• Improved diagnosis, including via novel clinical assays, so that patients and physicians have confidence that the selected treatment strategy is appropriate for them and their disease.
• Improved methods for assessing the likely success or failure of lines of therapy, especially via reliable biomarkers, so that decisions regarding choice of therapy can be made with confidence.
• Reliable methods for defining high-risk populations for effective screening, so that cancer can be detected and treated as early as possible.

Learn more about ICI grantees and the clinical impact of their ICI funded work

What are some the key criteria that will be used to evaluate HICG applications?

• Is the proposal aligned with the goals of the program? The goals of HICG are to dramatically accelerate improvements in clinical decision making, care and outcomes in 36 months or less.
• Does the proposal provide clear, strategic thought in describing the problem and the solution?
• Does the proposal clearly demonstrate that they have a viable solution that will have *clinical impact (within 1-3 year timeframe)?
• Is there direct and active participation of clinicians in the development, implementation, and adoption into the clinical workflow?
• Are the PI(s) and collaborators well suited to the project? If established, what is their record of accomplishments? Do they have a clear and compelling history of working with others to achieve clinical impact?
• Is the institutional support, resources, equipment, and other physical resources available to the investigators adequate for the project proposed?

What are some of the criteria that will be used to assess near-term clinical impact?

• Access to clinical data is essential for the creation and assessment of decision support tools.
• Partnerships with active clinicians with substantial patient caseloads are needed for both the initial determination of feasibility (is the needed data available for patients?) and the longer-term demonstration of accuracy and utility through retrospective and prospective clinical trials.
• Scalability – the technology needs to be something easily adaptable and expandable.
• How will the project change existing standards of cancer care?
• How will the work translate to clinical use/patient care?

What expenses are allowed?

Allowed:

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

Not Allowed:

• Wet Lab Expenses 
• Tuition

If we receive ICI funding, what requirements should we be aware of?

• A minimum of two institutions. Each institution will have two Principal Investigators, including at least one clinician at each institution. The required clinicians will manage clinical application and use. The clinician does not have to be a Co-PI, they may simply be listed as additional members of the team. Applicants are also strongly encouraged to provide a statement of how the project will impact clinical care and how data or other findings will be shared with the community.
• The project requires a Primary Grant Contact designated leader and Primaryinstitution. The primary institution will manage reporting and budget allocation. All institutions will be listed as grant recipients for the project.
• Indirect Costs are limited to 12% or less
• If a proposal is funded, the contract includes:
  • Data sharing statement:
    The ICI fund is committed to data sharing and the reuse of tools in a secure and accessible environment. Data or other tools generated from a funded project should be submitted to one or more repositories, commons or other platforms for sharing to support the research community and to help advance cancer discoveries. We ask you to provide a statement to explain how the data or tools resulting from your work will be shared. Please be specific about how you will share your work and your timeline for doing so.
  • Submission of a brief status report every 6 months.
  • Multiyear grant submissions are required to include yearly, 12-month, milestones for the purpose of evaluating progress towards overall project goals. These milestones must be achieved in order to qualify for the following year of funding.
  • At the 12-month mark of each year, participate in a 30 min web-based presentation. The ICI community and advisors will be invited to comment and ask questions. ICI Advisors determine the next round of funding.
  • Notify The ICI Fund 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.
  • 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: the-ici-fund.org. Please submit all reports and notifications to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will also ask you to provide links to your publications or data on this ICI Fund website.
  • Submit a final report containing non-technical, scientific, and financial information.

Who administers ICI grants?

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

Do you provide feedback on the proposal?

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

Who reviews ICI proposals and makes award decisions?

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: 

The ICI Review Committee will serve as a clinical and research resource to ICI Advisors in reviewing applications.  The following individuals serve as members of the 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

How many High Impact Collaborative Grants will be awarded?

The number of grants awarded is dependent on the alignment of the proposal with the HICG goals and the ability to clearly demonstrate that their concept will improve cancer care.