To spur development of daring technologic improvements in cancer treatment and detection in the 21st century, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) created the Unconventional Innovations Program (UIP). This program seeks to stimulate development of radically new technologies in cancer care that can transform what is now impossible into the realm of the possible for detecting, diagnosing, and intervening in cancer at its earliest stages of development. The program began in 1999 and is targeted to invest $50 million over a ten year period.

UIP has taken a new management approach to the development of technologies that target quantum improvements in existing technologies or entirely new approaches, rather than incremental improvements to the state of the art. UIP management actively recruits the interest and involvement of investigators from disciplines that have not traditionally received support from NCI in taking on the defined technology challenge.

For more information on UIP research activities, please click on links in the left navigation bar. For more information or to speak with a UIP staff member, please contact us.