Strategies to Improve Guideline Concordant Care and Clinical Trial Access for Lung Cancer Patients in the United States

AstraZeneca, in collaboration with Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, and EveryGrant powered by Conquer Cancer, is offering a Quality Improvement grant opportunity focused on improving guideline-concordant care and clinical trial access for lung cancer patients in community and rural care settings in the United States. Conquer Cancer serves as the primary administrator for application review and evaluation, while AstraZeneca provides grant funding directly to selected recipients. The program responds to documented disparities between community and academic oncology settings, including lower adherence to evidence-based care pathways and lower clinical trial enrollment. The program seeks scalable, community-focused models that increase adherence to recommended testing and treatments and expand equitable access to and enrollment in clinical trials. Projects may address guideline-concordant lung cancer care, clinical trial access, or both. Examples include using electronic health records, artificial intelligence, and other technology to improve adherence to testing and treatment recommendations and identify potential clinical trial participants; establishing or enhancing multidisciplinary care teams; developing patient-centered approaches such as mobile health tools to support adherence, understanding of clinical trial options, and shared decision making; and implementing decentralized clinical trial models that extend access beyond traditional research hubs. Applicants are strongly encouraged to incorporate established lung cancer care guidelines and quality improvement models. Clinical research projects, interventional trials, translational, correlative, or basic science studies, medical technology device studies, and physician educational programs are outside the scope of this opportunity. A total of $480,000 is available through the program. Individual projects may request up to $480,000 for a 24-month period, and AstraZeneca reserves the right to adjust approved project budgets. Institutional overhead and indirect costs are permitted but may not exceed 25 percent of the total requested budget. Total project costs, including overhead, cannot exceed $480,000. The RFP does not state a required cost share or matching contribution. Eligible organizations include community clinics, academic institutions, healthcare systems, hospitals, and other cancer care delivery organizations in the United States. Organizations specializing in community or rural lung cancer care are highly encouraged to apply. Individuals and private practices cannot receive grants. Cross-organizational collaboration is encouraged when projects target eligible community or rural populations. The Principal Investigator must be an oncologist with at least five years of experience and must be an employee or contractor of the applicant organization. The investigator and/or organization must ensure that lung cancer patients constitute at least 15-20 percent of the patient population. The required organization letter of support must confirm the PI's current organizational position and verify this patient-population requirement. Applications must be in English and submitted online through the EveryGrant application portal, where applicants must create an account before submission. Applications sent by mail, email, or fax are not accepted. Applicant organization information is required for funding consideration, and incomplete applications will be administratively disqualified. Required application materials include Principal Investigator information and a biosketch; project information consisting of a project title, project description or abstract, lay abstract, and at least one specific aim; a Quality Improvement Proposal of no more than three pages using 12-point font and 1-inch margins; an anticipated project timeline submitted as a PDF; a document identifying project participants and collaborators and their roles; a budget using the portal budget form; an organization letter of support; and applicant organization information. Optional supporting documents may be provided when essential and directly relevant. The Quality Improvement Proposal must address goals and objectives, assessment of need and baseline data, target audiences, project design and methods, innovation, scalability and sustainability, and evaluation and outcomes measurement, including plans for data collection, analysis, and dissemination. Applications are reviewed by an external committee of subject matter experts, including medical oncology, radiation oncology, and quality improvement expertise as appropriate. Evaluation considers the project's anticipated impact, feasibility within the two-year grant term, scalability and transferability of interventions, cost-efficiency, sustainability beyond the funding term, and the experience and capability of the investigator and team. During review, applicants may be contacted for clarification. Eligible applicants will receive a feedback report with comments from the external review panel, and all applicants will receive an email notification regarding their application status. The RFP was released May 29, 2026, and proposals were due July 24, 2026 at 11:59 EST. Award notification is anticipated in September 2026. No recurring annual or other repeating application cycle is stated in the RFP. Questions about the opportunity may be submitted in writing to Andrew L. Smith at andrew.smith@conquer.org, Lynn Kayali at lynn.kayali@astrazeneca.com, and Ilker Arslan at Ilker.Arslan@astrazeneca.com. Approved recipient organizations must execute a written grant agreement with AstraZeneca, which will onboard approved proposals using its standard research agreement template.

Align the proposal with established lung cancer care guidelines and quality improvement models; provide quantitative baseline data or a clear plan to obtain it; define measurable patient and practice outcomes; demonstrate impact and feasibility within 24 months; explain scalability, transferability, cost-efficiency, and long-term sustainability; clearly establish the investigator and team's experience and capability.