DATES AND DEADLINES
- Proposal Due Date: Wednesday, Sept 10th, 2025, by 11:59pm
- Award Notification: Thursday, October 30th, 2025
- Earliest Start Date: Monday, Dec 1st, 2025
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The Cancer Digital Insights (CDI) Working Group is a new initiative launched by the Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) in collaboration with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Its mission is to facilitate and advance cancer research at UIUC through the application of data science and AI/ML. The group focuses on developing computational methods and resources that generate novel biological or physical insights into the mechanisms and treatment of cancer, using unique datasets created or curated by members of CCIL and NCSA.
To support research aligned with the CDI mission, the group established the Cancer Digital Insights (CDI) Planning Grants. These one-time awards are designed to foster collaborations between faculty from CCIL and NCSA to implement cancer research projects leveraging data science and AI/ML. Each awarded grant will receive up to $40,000 in non-faculty project funding, up to 20K GPU-hours on DeltaAI compute, and additional support to help researchers navigate and utilize NCSA’s programs available to UIUC researchers. Awards will be prioritized to support innovative projects that align with the working group’s goals and that, within one year, can deliver results unlikely to be achieved without joint efforts of CCIL and NCSA. Projects should also demonstrate strong potential for community impact and future external funding. Planning grants are not intended to provide interim or incremental support for existing research programs or projects.
For more information, please view the Full 2025 Cancer Digital Insights Planning Grant RFP.
Eligibility
RESEARCH TEAM ELIGIBILITY
Each project team must include at least one member from CCIL and one from NCSA. Additional team members from UIUC and/or external institutions are welcome. Projects must demonstrate shared stakeholder involvement and substantive collaboration between CCIL and NCSA members.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR ELIGIBILITY
Each proposal must have two Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs): one who is a current CCIL affiliate and one who is currently an NCSA staff member. The Co-PIs will share both organizational and scientific leadership of the project. While each team may submit only one proposal, individual Co-PIs may participate in multiple proposals if each involves different collaborators.
PI Requirements
GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
- One Co-PI must serve as the submitting PI, responsible for the proposal submission and communication with CDI
- The submitting PI and their unit are fully responsible for any overages if the funding request is calculated incorrectly
- The submitting PI is responsible for consulting with the relevant offices and meeting all requirements
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation