EOI: Advancing Cancer Equity Fund

Are you passionate about improving equity in cancer care for underserved communities in Victoria? The VCCC Alliance invites you to apply for the Advancing Cancer Equity (ACE) Fund.

The ACE Fund provides early support for innovative, scalable projects that enhance the safety, accessibility, and effectiveness of cancer care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, and regional and rural populations.

Funding of up to $60,000 per project is available, with two projects to be supported, starting from July 2026 for up to 18 months.

This competitive funding opportunity is open to staff from VCCC Alliance member and associate member organisations. Projects should demonstrate clear community need, align with the VCCC Alliance’s Health Equity Program and Cancer Equity Framework, and foster collaboration across organisations.

Advancing Cancer Equity Fund

The Advancing Cancer Equity (ACE) Fund is designed to support smaller-scale, proof-of-concept projects that often face significant barriers to traditional funding. These projects are designed to lay the groundwork for larger health equity research efforts, ultimately driving a cultural shift across the cancer care sector.  Our goal is to select projects that are not only innovative and scalable, but also directly aligned with the Health Equity Program’s overall objective of increasing the cultural safety, accessibility and effectiveness of cancer care services for:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
• People from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds, and
• Regional and rural communities

The ACE Fund supports, celebrates and showcases individual health equity initiatives in cancer to create a critical mass of positive change. This includes proposals that address challenges in equitable access to screening, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, cultural safety and inclusive clinical research, including but not limited to issues raised and discussed as part of the Cancer Equity Framework.

Further, there is a particular focus on proposals that do one or more of the following:

• Identify one or more of the priority groups who are the focus of the research (eligible list provided in the application)
• Contribute to the existing research and practice knowledge base on equity issues in cancer care and control
• Produce research that can be applied, adopted, or scaled up by health services across Victoria
• Employ innovative use of existing data sources or identify and use new data sources in program design and evaluation
• Take a comparative and/or interdisciplinary approach to understand equity issues
• Foster collaboration through two or more members and/or associate members of the VCCC Alliance. 

How to apply

If you would like to play a pivotal role in advancing health equity in cancer care, we would love to hear from you.

Expressions of Interest open on 1 February 2026 and close at 5.00pm on 27 February 2026.

Download and read the full ACE Fund guidelines before applying. EOIs should be submitted using the form below.

Download the guidelines

Download the EOI form

Please submit your EOI, including your name, role, organisation, and any questions, to:

Dr Lesley McKarney, Senior Manager Health Equity, VCCC Alliance
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0481 173 207

Shortlisted applicants will be invited to a brief interview before final funding decisions are made.