PRECISION Challenge

Answer oncology’s hardest questions, powered by Tempus’ foundation model.

Overview

The PRECISION Challenge opens Tempus’ multimodal data, foundation models, and compute to the research community. Tempus and external advisors define high-value challenges in precision medicine, and multidisciplinary teams apply to solve them with staged funding and expert support.

Start with a simple expression of interest

The PRECISION Challenge is designed for academic and clinical investigators and their teams, including computational biologists, bioinformaticians, biostatisticians, and data scientists. The strongest candidates pair a focused, hypothesis-driven question with the computational capability to work with multimodal data in Lens Workspaces. Detailed eligibility requirements are provided with each RFP.

  1. Choose an RFP that fits your team’s expertise.

  2. Express interest through a short form. We email you the full application package and the RFP-specific requirements.

  3. Submit your response: a research plan (up to 3 pages) with specific aims, rationale, and approach; a short description of your team and data-science expertise; and your plans for further development.

  4. If selected, begin work with a Proof of Concept Grant ($25,000) and compute in Lens Workspaces.

  5. Meet your milestones to unlock a Level-Up Grant ($75,000) and additional rounds for validation and publication, with monthly check-ins with Tempus experts throughout.

Express interest→

A new way to advance precision oncology, together

Oncology research is no longer bottlenecked by scientific hypotheses alone, but by immediate access to high-fidelity data and the computational power required to interpret it. The PRECISION Challenge is a national program that opens Tempus’ foundation model work to the broader research community. Tempus, with a group of external advisors, defines specific, high-value clinical and technical challenges. Multidisciplinary teams from around the world apply to solve them using Tempus’ data, models, and compute.

Ezra Cohen, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Oncology at Tempus.

With the PRECISION Challenge, we are opening Tempus' capabilities,

and allowing the broader research community to access the vast investments we have made in building our foundation model. We will embark on this effort collaboratively to address the fundamental questions in oncology that, before now, were impossible to address.

— Ezra Cohen, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Oncology, Tempus

An ecosystem built to accelerate discovery

$25,000

Proof of Concept Grant for early-stage development and feasibility testing.

$75,000

Level-Up Grant for advanced development, clinical performance, model lock, and reproducibility.

Each phase includes a $5,000 compute allocation. Additional rounds of funding support validation studies and publication, tied to milestones.

Abstract blue data points refracted through glass.

Data

Structured access in Tempus’ Lens environment to our proprietary, de-identified library of clinical, molecular, and imaging data, one of the world’s largest multimodal repositories.

Gloved hand pointing at a data visualization on a backlit screen.

Models, tooling & compute

A suite of Tempus foundation models, agentic tooling, and scalable compute in the Lens Workspaces environment, designed to accelerate biological discovery from multimodal real-world data.

Scientist in lab coat and black gloves working with advanced laboratory equipment.

Staged funding

A Proof of Concept Grant of $25,000 supports early-stage development and feasibility testing. A Level-Up Grant of $75,000 supports advanced development, such as demonstrating clinical performance, achieving model lock, or validating reproducibility. Additional rounds support validation studies and publication.

Bright blue and white light specks glow on a dark blue background.

Expertise

Monthly check-ins with Tempus subject-matter experts across oncology, molecular science, and data science.

Choose a challenge. Bring your approach.

All eight Requests for Proposals for the inaugural cohort are listed below, grouped by the kind of work each one calls for. Every RFP stays on the page. Each RFP defines the clinical problem, the Tempus data available, and the evaluation framework.

BIOMARKER & MODEL DEVELOPMENT — 4 RFPS

RNA Pathway Activation Signatures as Biomarkers of Targeted Therapy Response

DNA sequencing can miss patients with functionally activated pathways. Build RNA pathway-activation signatures that surface additional responders and refine expected response in mutation-positive patients. Uses paired DNA (xT) and whole-transcriptome RNA (xR).

H&E-to-Spatial Molecular Mapping

Spatial transcriptomics reveals the tumor microenvironment but is too costly for routine care. Build models that predict spatially resolved gene expression and cell types directly from standard H&E slides, benchmarked against 10x Visium HD / Atera.

Predicting Transcriptomic & Molecular Features from Liquid Biopsy (ctDNA)

Liquid biopsy captures mutations but not the richer transcriptomic state of a tumor. Infer pathway activation, immune contexture, and resistance signatures from ctDNA alone. Uses liquid biopsy (xF) cfDNA benchmarked against matched tissue RNA (xR).

Resistance mechanisms

Characterizing mechanisms of acquired resistance to targeted therapies, using multimodal genomic, transcriptomic, and clinical data to identify resistance biomarkers that are difficult to detect through a single modality alone.

LANDSCAPE & OUTCOMES — 4 RFPS

Serial monitoring on targeted therapies

Pan-cancer analysis of serial solid-to-liquid biopsy testing to characterize emergent variants and clonal evolution, including detection of resistance alterations or signals warranting treatment intensification.

PanLivMet

Comparing the genomic and transcriptomic landscapes of liver metastases across primary tumor types, and the implications for site-specific precision oncology.

Driver mutation outcomes by cancer type

Understanding how the clinical outcome impact of driver mutations differs in canonical compared with non-canonical tissues, to identify tumor-agnostic mutations and the contexts in which a mutation should be targeted.

Rare cancer biology & drug repurposing

Studying the molecular biology of rare cancer patients who lack actionable biomarkers, and using those profiles to identify repurposing opportunities for therapies already approved in other indications.

Express interest→

Key dates

  • Applications open: November 2, 2026

  • Application deadline: December 9, 2026

  • Awardee notification: within four to six weeks of the application deadline

  • Project duration: approximately six months per phase, with staged milestones

Frequently asked questions

Terms & Conditions

Your institution owns the intellectual property you generate. All work happens inside Lens on a model-to-data basis, so the data never leaves the environment, and only approved aggregate-level outputs can be exported. Everything provided under the Program is for research use only.

Read full Terms & Conditions→

Express your interest

Start with our short form. We will email you the full application package and the RFP-specific requirements. Every submission is reviewed, and shortlisted investigators are invited to submit a full application.

For more information, contact your local MSL or email us at precision-challenge@tempus.com