Systematic application of novel culture methods now presents an opportunity to develop a large library of cancer models that can be made available as a community resource to investigators in academia and the biopharmaceutical industry. In response to the opportunity, the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Office of Cancer Genomics (OCG), in the Center for Cancer Genomics (CCG), together with international institutions, has established a consortium, the Human Cancer Models Initiative (HCMI). HCMI’s goal is to make available to the scientific community large numbers of “next generation” in vitro cancer models that are not encumbered with excessive intellectual property (IP) constraints. To support the US contribution to HCMI, OCG established four Cancer Model Development Centers (CMDCs). The other founding HCMI collaborators are Cancer Research UK (CRUK), Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI), and the Hubrecht Organoid Technology foundation (HUB).