Four leading ovarian cancer research charities from four countries are funding a new AI Accelerator Grant in partnership with Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab to supercharge the next cancer research breakthrough.
[May 8, 2025] – Today marks World Ovarian Cancer Day and the launch of the Global Ovarian Cancer Research Consortium — a first-of-its-kind alliance uniting four leading ovarian cancer research organizations across the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Together, the Consortium is announcing its inaugural initiative: a game-changing $1 million grant, with an additional $1 million in compute support from Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, to address the global challenge in ovarian cancer survival rates. Globally, 324,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 207,000 women die from the disease each year. The Consortium’s groundbreaking AI Accelerator Grant is a bold new effort that will ignite a wave of innovation in AI-powered ovarian cancer research — bringing hope, and potentially life-saving breakthroughs, to women around the world.
The Consortium, formed in 2024, brings together leading ovarian cancer organizations – Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance in the United States, Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (Australia), Ovarian Cancer Canada, and Ovarian Cancer Action (United Kingdom). Their mission: to combine forces, resources, and determination to accelerate progress where it’s desperately needed. Now, with the support of Microsoft’s technology and expertise, the Consortium is poised to rewrite the future of ovarian cancer care.
Progress in ovarian cancer research is lagging dangerously behind other diseases. It’s predicted that by 2050 the number of women around the world diagnosed with ovarian cancer will rise over 55% to 503,448 and the number of women dying from ovarian cancer is projected to increase to 350,956 each year. AI is already revolutionizing cancer diagnoses—from breast to brain, skin to thyroid—with stunning advances. But ovarian cancer has yet to feel the full power of this transformation. That changes now.
Audra Moran, President and CEO of Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA), said:
“For far too long, survival rates have barely budged, and women around the world continue to face devastating odds. We cannot afford to wait another decade for meaningful progress. At OCRA, we believe that artificial intelligence could hold the key to accelerating the breakthroughs we so desperately need—from earlier detection to better treatment options which is why we envisioned a grant of this global magnitude and scope specifically for AI. Attending the HHMT Forum gave us the opportunity to work with four outstanding global partners and we are thrilled to join forces with them and along with OCRA’s longtime collaborators at Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab to bring the power of technology to bear on one of the most urgent women’s health challenges of our time.”
Researchers will be asked to form teams that will include a representative from each of the four countries to compete for the new grant.
Microsoft is generously partnering on this grant to donate up to $1m of in-kind Azure compute credits to the successful project through Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab-partnership with OCRA. Microsoft’s cloud computing power will enable the successful applicants to accelerate progress against ovarian cancer.
“New discoveries are needed to find lifesaving treatments for ovarian cancer, a cancer that tragically still has a low survival rate. Equipping leading researchers around the globe with powerful AI tools and computing resources will help accelerate their critical work, hopefully leading to breakthroughs that save women’s lives. Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab is proud to support ovarian cancer research through this grant.” said Juan Lavista Ferres, Microsoft Chief Data Scientist and Director of Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab.
To learn more about the grant, visit https://ocrahope.org/research/information-for-researchers/grant-programs/.
OCRA is the largest global organization dedicated to fighting ovarian and gynecologic cancers while supporting patients and families. Since 1994, OCRA has invested $128 million in research, helped secure $3.8 billion in federal research funding, and supports 95,000 individuals annually. Learn more at www.ocrahope.org.
