🪴 Oliver’s Note - AI is coming to cancer research
If you haven't come across the Cancer AI Alliance (CAIA) yet, it's well worth taking a look - it (or efforts like it) may change cancer research and also serve as a model for initiatives focused on other diseases.
CAIA is a pioneering research collaboration is set to revolutionize cancer discovery with an AI-driven platform designed to accelerate breakthroughs by tenfold. This initiative has already secured $65 million in philanthropic funding and in-kind support, underscoring its potential impact.
The collaboration includes prestigious National Cancer Institute-designated centers such as Dana-Farber, Fred Hutch, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Johns Hopkins, with backing from tech giants like AWS, Deloitte, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Slalom.
Together, they are developing an innovative platform that facilitates seamless collaboration among leading researchers. By harnessing advanced AI, the platform enables rapid analysis of extensive de-identified cancer datasets, employing a federated AI learning framework to ensure secure and private data analysis while aggregating insights across centers.
This approach allows AI models to learn locally from each center's secure data, generating summaries without compromising individual clinical data. The aggregated insights strengthen AI models, uncovering patterns that could lead to improved health outcomes, especially for those with rare cancers.
Eight unique projects are already underway, addressing some of oncology's toughest challenges. In the coming year, the initiative plans to expand its research models and invite more participants, potentially setting a national standard for collaborative cancer research. This strategic shift emphasizes collective strength, aiming to unlock innovation in cancer care.
Committed to the highest regulatory and ethical standards, the collaboration ensures security, privacy, and compliance, driving the future of cancer research with the ultimate goal of saving more lives by enabling AI models to learn from millions of clinical data points.
There are of course many efforts across academia and the private sector to apply AI to cancer and other biomedical research areas - as always, it's hard to predict where the breakthroughs will come. But this effort strikes me as very well organized and includes some of the real powerhouses both in cancer research and in AI. It is an exciting effort, well worth watching, in my opinion.
HappyHolidays! ❄️ Grant & Growth is taking a winter break - it will be back on January 13th with a refreshed look - wishing you all a restful holiday season and great start to 2026!
🗓️ Upcoming Grants
Standard NIH Due Dates
For new R01 submissions these are Feb 5, June 5, Oct 5
For R01 renewal, resubmission or revisions these are Mar 5, July 5, Nov 5
For more information check out the NIH Standard Due Dates page.
👆🏼I update this online database’s contents every month to give you the freshest summary from the funders’ website. Do you have a favorite funder that is not included? Any feedback on the tool itself? Reach out at [email protected].
🦋 Growth Mindset - a new tool to help you integrate your life and work
A key focus in my work with clients, and in my own life, is mastering the art of accomplishing necessary tasks without succumbing to burnout. Recently, I've faced this challenge head-on. Leaving my government job was undoubtedly the right decision, propelling me into a more unstructured phase of life. It became essential for me to set clear boundaries.
Careers that feel like a calling often blur the lines between work and personal life, making traditional time management and the elusive concept of "work-life balance" irrelevant. Instead, the focus should be on integrating these aspects seamlessly.
My new tool, The Scientist's Energy Audit, provides a groundbreaking framework to replace the unrealistic ideal of balance with a strategy for sustainable, impactful research.
Through a four-quadrant analysis of your weekly activities, this tool empowers you to clearly see where your energy is invested. It enables you to safeguard the high-energy tasks that propel your career while systematically optimizing or eliminating low-impact activities that contribute to burnout.
Beyond mere time management, the handout introduces the Enough Line exercise, helping you set tangible benchmarks for a productive week and break free from the constant feeling of being behind.
This resource ultimately allows you to cultivate a career where creativity and rigor are sustained by genuine recovery, integrating your professional goals with a healthy personal life without sacrificing one for the other.
As a subscriber of my newsletter, I would like to offer you a time-limited code that allows you get your copy for free: FREESEA.
🏆 Success Tools - the best task manager I have ever used, and I have used a few 😉
I'm always seeking a killer tool to stay organized, and I want more than a to-do list. A key requirement is an easy way to make a task from an email. With the recent AI explosion in productivity tools I have tried a bunch, but settled on one that is not every AI heavy but really focuses on what I need: Sunsama.
And don’t just take my word for it - Wirecutter agrees!
Sunsama is a sleek task manager and time-boxing app that takes you through daily and weekly routines to help you plan each day and each week, and then check in to see how it went. And adding emails as tasks is a breeze.
I kick off my day by crafting a comprehensive calendar view in Sunsama, seamlessly integrating my meetings and daily tasks, each time-boxed according to my estimated durations. Sunsama immediately notifies me if I've overcommitted, based on my desired wrap-up time, allowing me to effortlessly reschedule tasks. It empowers me to set weekly goals and link individual tasks to these objectives. With task tagging, I maintain organization and gain insights into how my efforts are allocated. The built-in timer helps me track task durations, often revealing my tendency to underestimate time requirements, and supports the Pomodoro technique. While the timer is active, a floating window keeps me focused. For the first time in ages, I end my day with a genuine sense of closure. There's always more to tackle, but I have clarity on my accomplishments and a plan for what remains. I feel truly productive, not just busy. It's transformative. Why not experience it yourself?
Use this link for a free trial (if you sign up I get credit from Sunsama).
🗞️ Science & Policy Updates
Common Forms for Biographical Sketch & Other Support
In a recent notice (NIH Notice NOT-OD-26-018), NIH announced the implementation of common forms for biosketch and current and pending support.
New Common Forms: NIH is adopting federal "Common Forms" for Biographical Sketches and Current and Pending (Other) Support. These new formats are mandatory for all applications, RPPRs, and Just-in-Time submissions with due dates on or after January 25, 2026.
Mandatory Use of SciENcv & ORCID: All senior/key personnel must use SciENcv to prepare and certify their forms. Additionally, users must obtain an ORCID iD and link it to their eRA Commons account.
Prohibition on Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs (MFTRP): Individuals who are party to an MFTRP are ineligible to serve as senior/key personnel. Both the institution and the individual must certify compliance with this ban.
Biosketch Structural Changes: The biosketch will now consist of two parts:
Common Form: Covers professional preparation, appointments, honors, and products (up to 5 closely related).
NIH Supplement: Covers the Personal Statement and Contributions to Science.
Current & Pending Support Updates: Effort must now be reported in "person months" (not calendar/academic). Supporting documentation (e.g., foreign contracts) is no longer part of the SciENcv PDF and must be uploaded as a separate attachment.
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Send an email to me at: [email protected]