How to use this website Welcome to the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) website on Cancer Research Training, Career Development and Education Opportunities. On this website there are grant opportunities for predoctoral candidates, postdoctoral candidates, junior faculty in independent research positions and established investigators. The NCI provides a continuum of opportunities as individuals proceed through these four stages of a career track. Strategically, there are four primary career tracks presented below: (1) a career track for basic scientists, who are primarily Ph.D.s; (2) a career track for medically trained doctors (e.g., M.D.s, other clinicians) who wish to pursue basic science careers; (3) a career track for medically trained, board-certified doctors who wish to pursue careers in patient-oriented research; (4) a career track for prevention, control, behavioral and population scientists; and (5) a few opportunities for individuals in the Transdisciplinary Sciences (e.g., physics, informatics). If you are a minority scientist or represent a minority-serving institution, you should explore "Minority Scientists / Institutions" and determine whether these special programs provide you greater opportunity for development than the four primary career tracks. To navigate through the information provided in this website under Research Training and Career Development Opportunities, you must first determine which of the choices best fits your professional status/research interests: Ph.D. in basic science; Health Professional (e.g., M.D.) in basic sciences; clinicians (M.D.s, doctorally degreed nurses, Pharm.Ds etc.) directly involved in patient-oriented research; or a doctorally degreed individual (i.e., Ph.D., M.D., Dr.PH) in prevention, control, behavioral and population sciences. By choosing (i.e., clicking on) one of these, you will be introduced to a career track that presents the four stages of a research career: predoctoral, postdoctoral, junior faculty independent position, and established investigator. Click on the grant mechanism that best fits your career stage. Some grant mechanisms are institutional (i.e., T32, K12 and R25) and others are for individuals (e.g., Howard Temin Award, K08, K07). The difference between an institutional award and an individual award is that an established investigator always applies for an institutional award and the institution selects the candidates for training or career development while an individual award is always applied for directly by the candidate. Clicking on a grant mechanism will take you to a brief description of the award. If this is for you, go to (i.e., click on) GUIDANCE AND ADVICE for a complete description of the award and for all of the information needed to prepare a grant application. If you are in areas of research that usually are not considered cancer research or that are highly transdiciplinary, click on Transdicsiplinary Sciences. There are other opportunities to explore on this website if you are interested in developing education programs rather than research training and career development or if you are interested in research training opportunities at the NCI in Bethesda, Maryland. These are self-explanatory. We urge you to explore this website thoroughly. If you determine that your needs are not satisfied by this website, go back to the Training Home Page and click on the Inquiries section of "Contact Us" and we will help you. We would also appreciate your comments and feedback on how to improve this website to serve you better; please feel free to click on Feedback in the "Contact us" section and share your observations and views. Thank you for visiting us.