Research funding

Funding the Research That's Changing Lung Cancer Care

LCFA funds two grant programs that move lung cancer discoveries from bench to bedside: for the researchers and physicians leading that work, and the supporters who make it possible.

Grant opportunities

Why We Award Grants

Through your support, LCFA funds two distinct grant programs — each aimed at a different stage of a researcher’s career, and each turning your gift into real progress against lung cancer.

The LCFA/IASLC Early Career Researcher (ECR) Grant gives physician-scientists just starting their research careers $200,000 over two years to pursue translational lung cancer research. These awards help researchers set up and staff a lab and amass the data needed to attract follow-on funding from major sources such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The Clinical Trial Principal Investigator Grant Program (CTPI) funds $150,000 in protected research time for junior faculty physicians already leading national clinical trials. Trials that turn research into new standards of care.

Your gift doesn’t just fund projects. It funds the people , early-career scientists and practicing physicians alike, who are closest to the patients lung cancer research is meant to help.

Group shot of 4 former LCFA/IASLC Grant Awardees

2026–2027 LCFA/IASLC GRANT CYCLE

Apply for the 2026–2027 Early Career Researcher Grant

Full-time junior faculty physician-scientists conducting translational lung cancer research can apply for $200,000 over two years through the LCFA/IASLC Translational Thoracic Oncology Research Grants. Applications open October 15, 2026, and close January 14, 2027.

See Eligibility & Apply

OUR LONGEST-RUNNING GRANT

LCFA Early Career Researcher Grant Impact

25 Grants Awarded Currently

4.8M LCFA Funded Research Grants

$60M in Follow-on Funding

2 MERIT Award Researchers

13X Return On Investment in Early Career Researcher Grants

How Your Gift Multiplies Impact

For the ECR grant, LCFA pursues funding partnerships with industry and organizations like the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer to maximize the reach of that investment.

CTPI, our newest grant program, is funded solely by LCFA — every dollar comes directly from gifts like yours, with no outside sponsor.

Either way, we know the value of early, significant funding: it lets researchers amass the data and momentum that attracts further support from major sources like the National Institutes of Health.

Follow our Early Career Researchers

View all Researchers

  • Jaime L. Schneider, MD, PhD

    Thoracic Medical Oncology / Cancer Metabolism

    Understanding how alterations in cancer metabolism drive lung cancer development, progression, and resistance to targeted therapies.

    Jaime L Schneider MD PhD

  • Jared Mayers, MD, PhD

    Pulmonary, Critical Care, & Microbial Metabolism

    Investigating microbial metabolic contributions to cancer development and acute infections in the low biomass lung environment.

    Jared Mayer MD PhD

  • Jonathan Villena-Vargas, MD

    Thoracic Surgeon

    Characterizing T cell PD-1 response in the tumor-draining lymph nodes of early-stage NSCLC patients