Our Grant Process
Our research goal is simple — find answers that help save lives.
Our strategy for funding research is just as straightforward — fund the best science — and that's what our extensive scientific peer-review process ensures.
This strategy and process has helped support numerous important discoveries and some of the brightest researchers, including 53 Nobel Prize winners to date.
Deciding to Apply
Get answers to questions you have about grants from the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Learning About ACS Grants
ACS has a variety of research grant mechanisms to fund science across the cancer continuum.
Grants Overview & Priorities
Examples of What We Fund
Specific ACS Grants
Preparing a Grant Application
Potential grantees fill out applications in ProposalCentral.
Make sure to include contact information for yourself, the institution official, technology transfer officer, and the department head.
How Applications Are Reviewed
The Scientific Directors distribute applications to the most appropriate peer review committee and then assign each application to at least 2 committee members for independent and confidential review.
Peer Review Committees
Each has 12 to 25 members who are leaders in their areas of expertise, plus up to 3 other ACS Community Research Partners.
Each PRC’s ranking, critiques, and scores are then reviewed at the second tier for final funding decisions.
Discovery Scientific Council
Final funding decisions are made at the second tier of peer review.
Application Notifications
About 1 month after submitting an application, applicants will receive an email with an application number and names of their Scientific Director and Peer Review Committee.
About 4 months after submitting, applications will have been reviewed and applicants will receive reviewer critiques
In March and September, final funding decisions are made.
Resubmission Process
Applications that are not funded may be revised and resubmitted either once or twice, depending on the grant mechanism.
See Grant Policies to learn when resubmissions are acceptable. (Check the table of contents for Peer Review of Applications. For specific grant mechanisms, go to your grant mechanism on the table of contents, then look for Resubmission of Unfunded Applications. For IRGs, see Eligible Institutions and Institutional Responsibilities.
See Grant Instructions for an explanation of how to resubmit applications. (Check the table of contents for your grant mechanism, then see: Previous Critiques or Reply to Previous Review.)
Reports & Change Requests for Active Grants
We use ProposalCentral’s post-award management system for the administration process of American Cancer Society (ACS) research grants.
The site houses all reports, change requests, and correspondence about a grant and is accessible to both ACS program staff and grantees.
Grant recipients use ProposalCentral to:
- Get detailed information about their grant award
- Upload requests for grant changes
- Submit required deliverables such as Intellectual Property (IP) reports, annual progress reports, and final reports
- Provide access to information about their grant to others at their institution (such as grants officers)
