Our Mission
The primary focus of the Extramural Discovery Science (EDS) team, led by Elvan Daniels, MD, MPH, is to identify and invest in the most creative young investigators across the country who are doing the most innovative cancer discovery research by using a rigorous, independent, anonymous, and highly competitive peer review process.
Discovery research takes place throughout the American Cancer Society’s research programs. The mandate of the EDS department is to review and fund research performed at eligible US research institutions external (extramural) to the ACS that can help cancer patients and their families.
We are committed to maintaining a cancer research portfolio that includes any type of cancer, spans the cancer research continuum, and is aligned with our research priorities.
NEW GRANT REQUIREMENTS
All applications must fit into at least 1 of 6 research priority areas.
Our priority focus on health equity places special emphasis on addressing the social determinants of health that drive cancer health disparities and funding innovative solution-based health equity research.
We strongly encourage all ACS grantees to share their data freely and rapidly with systems that are open to the public to maximize value to cancer patients.
In addition to our traditional extramural research grants program, our portfolio also includes the newly launched Diversity in Cancer Research (DICR) Internship Program, the funding of Cancer Health Equity Research Centers, and the TheoryLab Collaborative and TLC grants.
The funds that we use to support research grants are possible because of generous donations to the ACS. See our current research investments.
Key Terms
- Discovery research: Experiments with genes, cells, animals, or people to find a new or improved understanding of an action, health behavior, process, technique, technology, or model to improve care.
- Research continuum: The full scope of research—often referred to as bench to bedside. The research can be performed in a research lab, in clinical trials, with health care providers, in health care systems, and within communities.
- Social determinants of health: Non-medical factors that influence health. These include conditions in the environments where people are born, live, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, quality-of-life outcomes and risks, and the social, economic, and political systems that shape the conditions of daily life.
Our Work
The Extramural Discovery Science (EDS) team facilitates the evaluation of grant applications by external and independent reviewers and manages the grant portfolios, providing appropriate oversight and stewardship of donors’ investments in cancer research.
Our Extramural Discovery Science Research Programs
Our research goal is simple — find answers that help save lives from cancer. Our strategy for funding research is just as straightforward — fund the most innovative cancer research. In fact, we've helped make possible many of the major cancer research breakthroughs since 1946. Our research programs include:
- Biochemistry and Immunology of Cancer
- Cell Biology and Preclinical Cancer Research
- Clinical and Cancer Control Research
- Diversity in Cancer Research
Grant Application and Review Process
Based on the research topic, scientific directors in the Extramural Discovery Science group assign each grant application to the appropriate peer review committee for an extensive and highly competitive scientific peer review, thus ensuring that we continue to invest in a broad portfolio of innovative and exciting cancer research.
Apply for a Grant
As the nation's largest private, not-for-profit source of funds for scientists studying cancer, the American Cancer Society remains committed to funding investigator-initiated research across the cancer continuum.
Peer Review
Grant applications are ranked on the basis of merit by one of several discipline-specific research grant program Peer Review Committees. Each Peer Review Committee is composed of 12-25 scientific advisors, or peers, who are experts in their fields.
Currently Funded Grants
No single nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization in the US has invested more to find the causes and cures of cancer than the American Cancer Society (ACS). We fund research on all cancers using the widest possible range of scientific approaches to answer the most critical questions.
ACS Professors
The American Cancer Society (ACS) Research Professor and Clinical Research Professor Awards are the most prestigious grants made by our national program.
These awards are given to full professors (of 15 years or less) who have made seminal contributions to cancer research that have changed the direction of the research enterprise or dramatically altered our view of the disease. The awards are intended to provide preeminent cancer researchers with flexibility to investigate innovative avenues of study.
TheoryLab—Where Researchers Connect and Collaborate
TheoryLab is a dynamic virtual community driven by two guiding principles – creativity and innovation – that will inspire transdisciplinary collaborations to define and investigate the most exciting cancer research opportunities. This exclusive community of ACS research stakeholders invites participation by scientists, clinicians, and health professionals with expertise that spans the entire spectrum of cancer research.
Top Triumphs—ACS Grantees' Accomplishments
The American Cancer Society is honored to have given funding to 49 investigators who went on to win the Nobel Prize, considered the highest accolade any scientist can receive. This is a tribute to the Society’s Research program and the strength of its peer-review process.
I was on the verge of shutting down my laboratory. In a career-changing move for me, the American Cancer Society funded my first grant.