Recruitment of Rising Stars (RRS)

CPRIT's Recruitment of Rising Stars award recruits outstanding mid-stage investigators to academic institutions in Texas who have shown extraordinary accomplishment in their first years of independent research and promise continued, enhanced contributions to cancer research. CPRIT encourages PIs new to cancer research who propose creative hypotheses, investigators with high-impact basic science programmes that could be translated toward clinical investigation, researchers developing methods in the life, population-based, physical, engineering or computational sciences for unsolved problems in cancer, patient-oriented clinical trial leaders, and leaders of cancer prevention and control research. The award provides up to $3,000,000 in total costs over five years (indirect costs up to 5%), may include PI salary but not laboratory construction or renovation, and requires an institutional commitment of at least 50% of the award; requests of $1,500,000 or less from emerging research institutions are considered separately. Recruits receive the title CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research. Nominations under RFA R-27.1-RRS are received from 23 June 2026 to 21 June 2027 in review cycles; the next cycles close on 20 November 2026, 20 January 2027, 22 February 2027, 22 March 2027, 20 April 2027, 20 May 2027 and 21 June 2027.

Applications are submitted by a Texas-based not-for-profit research institution on behalf of a specific PI nominated by its president, provost, vice president for research or appropriate dean; a PI may be nominated by only one institution. At submission the PI must hold a doctoral degree (MD, PhD, DDS, DMD, DrPH, DO or DVM), hold a tenure-track or tenured appointment at the rank of assistant, associate or full professor (or equivalent), and must not reside in Texas; the PI is expected to be at the level of a late assistant or early associate professor, must devote at least 70% effort to research and must reside in Texas during the appointment. A PI who accepts a position at the recruiting institution before the Scientific Review Council meets is not eligible. Co-investigators are not allowed.