Melanoma Academy Scholar Award – HT942526MRPMASA
- Letters of intent due 22 September 2026
- Up to USD$770,000 over 3 years
- Supports the addition of new Scholars to a virtual academy providing intensive mentoring, national networking, collaborations, and a peer group for early-career melanoma investigators.
- Investigators must be within 7 years of their first faculty appointment or equivalent
- Requires a Career Guide who is an experienced melanoma researcher and/or clinician with melanoma funding.
- Career Guide can be at a different institution
- Preliminary data not required
- Clinical trials not allowed
- studies involving non-melanoma skin cancers not allowed
- Must address at least one of the focus areas
- Apply here
- Document – Program Announcement – HT942526MRPMASA_GG
Survivorship Research Award –HT942526MRPSRA
- Letters of Intent due 22 September 2026
- Up to USD$1.02M over 3 years
- Supports studies in preservation of function; quality of life; symptom and/or treatment toxicity management; resilience; support for psychosocial issues related to a melanoma diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship; etc.
- must integrate at least one melanoma survivor, family member and/or care partner or a melanoma-community supporting organisation within the project team who will provide advice and consultation
- Proposed studies focusing exclusively on animal models or considering survival only without consideration of quality of life, overall health, and/or function are not responsive to this funding opportunity.
- Clinical trials allowed
- Apply here
- Document – Program Announcement – HT942526MRPSRA_GG
Focus Areas
- Identify, understand, and mitigate risk factor determinants and develop biomarkers for melanoma.
- Develop new technology for the detection, diagnosis, and monitoring of melanoma that can distinguish lesions and/or individuals at higher risk for progression from lesions and/or individuals requiring only surveillance.
- Define the mechanisms of: melanoma initiation, response and/or resistance to adjuvant and/or neoadjuvant therapy, response and/or resistance to cellular-based therapies, progression, recurrence, emergence from tumor dormancy, or metastatic spread. Studies may include the role of the tumor microenvironment and/or microbiome in these processes.
- Develop new preclinical models that faithfully represent disease evolution observed in humans, from melanomagenesis through progression. New models may represent cutaneous melanoma or any rare melanoma subtype.
- Address unmet needs across the entire cancer research spectrum for rare melanomas, which includes studies of biology, etiology, prevention, early diagnosis and detection, prognosis, treatment, or survivorship. Although the FY26 MRP will accept applications addressing uveal melanoma, the MRP particularly encourages applications that address other uncommon presentations of melanoma.
- Address the psychological and social impacts of a melanoma diagnosis, symptom trajectories, adverse effects of treatment and other outcomes affecting melanoma survivors and their family members/care partners.
- Address the physical impacts of symptom trajectories; acute and late-occurring adverse effects of treatment, including lymphedema, toxicities, reproductive and sexual health issues and side effects that may not manifest until after treatment ends; role of diet, exercise and other lifestyle factors on treatment outcomes and/or quality of life; etc.
