William G. "Bill" Bankhead Jr., and David Coley Cancer Research Program

The William G. "Bill" Bankhead Jr., and David Coley Cancer Research Program is administered by the Florida Department of Health as part of the state's Biomedical Research Advisory Council grant programs. The Biomedical Research Advisory Council advises the State Surgeon General regarding biomedical research priorities, program budgets, evaluation, peer review standards, grant awards, and dissemination of research results. The Bankhead-Coley program is established under section 381.922, Florida Statutes, and is intended to advance progress toward cures for cancer through a competitive, peer-reviewed grant process. Its statutory goals include significantly expanding cancer research capacity in Florida, improving research and cancer treatment through greater participation in clinical trial networks, and reducing the impact of cancer on disparate groups. All awards remain subject to the availability of appropriated funds and spending authority provided by the Florida Legislature. Bankhead-Coley applications must demonstrate a close relationship to advancing progress toward cures for cancer or dramatically improving cancer morbidity and mortality. Eligible areas of research focus include prevention and treatment, screening, obesity and cancer, cancer and cancer-treatment-related morbidities, technology transfer feasibility, and research supporting Investigational New Drug or Investigational Device Exemption development. Department priorities include reducing mortality and morbidity, improving screening accuracy and detection, studying resistance to front-line treatments in recurrent disease, research focused on sarcomas or leukemia and other blood cancers, and examining relationships among obesity, cancer, treatment responsiveness, and treatment-related morbidities. Preference is given to applications addressing lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, melanoma, or pediatric-specific cancers. Projects should foster collaboration among institutions, researchers, and community practitioners when possible. Bankhead-Coley applicants may request funding through Clinical Trials or Socio-Behavioral Interventions, High-Risk High-Reward Clinical Research, Discovery Science, Emerging Therapeutics and Technologies, High-Risk High-Reward Discovery Science, New Investigator Research, Non-Typical Clinical Trials or Socio-Behavioral Research, Research Infrastructure, Equipment, or Bridge mechanisms. Maximum awards range from $100,000 to $1,500,000 depending on mechanism, and maximum project durations range from six to 48 months. Clinical Trials or Socio-Behavioral Interventions and Research Infrastructure each have maximum awards of $1,500,000. High-Risk High-Reward Clinical Research is capped at $750,000; Discovery Science and Emerging Therapeutics and Technologies are capped at $600,000; High-Risk High-Reward Discovery Science and New Investigator Research are capped at $300,000; Non-Typical Clinical Trials or Socio-Behavioral Research is capped at $250,000; and Equipment and Bridge grants are capped at $100,000. Research Infrastructure applications receiving exceptional scientific merit may receive preferential funding. Allowable grant costs must be reasonable, necessary, directly related to the project, and compliant with applicable expenditure requirements. Allowable direct costs can include salaries, fringe benefits, tuition support tied to the project, supplies, qualifying equipment, laboratory services, patient-care and animal-care costs, IRB and IACUC fees, consortium or contractual expenses, certain Florida Department of Health data fees, domestic travel, participant incentives, and consultant expenses. Consultant costs may not exceed 10 percent of the total proposed budget. Indirect costs may not exceed 15 percent of total direct costs requested. Disallowed costs include Florida Department of Health personnel salaries, construction or remodeling, international travel including Canada, vehicles, entertainment, employment subsidies, dues and membership fees, lobbying, meals other than allowable travel costs, malpractice insurance premiums, and specified legal, visa, green card, or similar processing expenses. The FOA does not state a required applicant matching or cost-sharing contribution. Applicants must be Florida-based universities or established research institutes, and the FOA's definitions also describe eligible institutions as Florida universities or research hospitals, Florida-based Veterans Administration hospitals, or established research institutes in Florida. An established research institute must be a Florida-based nonprofit organization legally registered with the Florida Department of State, maintain a physical Florida location, and have a stated purpose including scientific, biomedical, or biotechnological research or development. Grant-funded activities, personnel effort, and expenditures generally must occur in Florida. The Department may approve an exception when a necessary service is available only outside Florida and represents less than 10 percent of the total award. Each project must designate one Corresponding Principal Investigator who is employed by the applicant organization, meets the institution's PI requirements, and is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Co-Principal Investigators are allowed, but only one Corresponding PI may be designated. Scientific overlap, financial overlap, duplicate projects, and personnel commitments exceeding 100 percent are prohibited. A Letter of Intent is required before a full application may be submitted. The LOI must identify the Bankhead-Coley program, PI contact information, research personnel, lead institution, collaborating institutions and personnel if applicable, proposed research title, research priority, grant category, general audience abstract, and keywords. The full application requires general project information, a general audience abstract, scientific abstract, health impact narrative, cancer-relatedness explanation, collaborator information, biographical sketches, consultant documentation when applicable, specific aims, applicable human-subject and vertebrate-animal information, recombinant DNA information when applicable, survey instruments when applicable, a Budget Summary and Budget Narrative, applicable Florida Department of Health data letters of support, and a Work Plan. The Work Plan must contain measurable outcomes, activities, timelines, responsible personnel, milestones, and performance metrics. Uploaded application documents generally must be submitted in PDF format and comply with the specified formatting, size, signature, and submission requirements. Applications first undergo administrative review for timely receipt, mandatory eligibility requirements, completeness, and potential scientific or budgetary overlap. Qualified applications proceed to peer review by reviewers with appropriate scientific and methodological expertise. Peer reviewers assess significance, investigators, innovation, approach, environment, and health impact, as well as the strength of the cancer relationship and concerns regarding budgets or protection of human or animal subjects. Applications scoring within the top 30 percent during the individual review stage proceed to peer review panel consideration. The Department and Biomedical Research Advisory Council then conduct programmatic review using peer review results, funding availability, program goals, and stated preferences to develop funding recommendations for the State Surgeon General. Funding decisions are final. For the published competition, emailed questions were due November 30, 2025, the required Letter of Intent was due December 16, 2025 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time, the application was anticipated to open December 22, 2025, and applications were due January 12, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Programmatic questions are directed to research@flhealth.gov, and the FOA lists 850-245-4585. The cover lists an award period of July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026, while the budget instructions separately state an anticipated start date of July 1, 2026; this inconsistency should be verified with the Department before relying on a project start date.

Align the proposed project directly with Bankhead-Coley's cancer research purpose, stated research priorities, and preferred cancer types; clearly demonstrate advancement toward cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, cure, or reduction in morbidity and mortality; make the health impact on Floridians explicit; emphasize significance, investigator qualifications, innovation, approach, environment, and health impact because these are scored review criteria; provide measurable and time-bound Work Plan milestones and performance metrics; avoid scientific, financial, and effort overlap; ensure every applicable compliance question and required upload is complete; keep indirect costs at or below 15% of direct costs and consultant costs at or below 10% of the proposed budget; submit early because late applications will not be considered.