CFAs: Worldwide Cancer Research Grant Program

Their vision is to see a day when no life is cut short by cancer. They believe that this can only be achieved through research.

Goals

• Their goal is to support research that seeks to answer the difficult questions in cancer biology. What they are looking for in an application:
  • Starting new ideas
    • They are looking for innovative research that takes intellectual risks. To them, that means helping researchers turn their bold idea into reality. And if there’s a risk of failure, they are willing to take it, if the rewards for success are worth it.
  • Exciting and creative
    • They are looking for ideas that excite them. The ones that make them go, “I wish I had thought of that”. They are looking for proposals with a creative approach to answering fundamental questions that could change how they think about cancer. Often these are ideas that other funders may overlook.
  • Scientific quality
    • They want to see the most exciting and creative new ideas, but they are also responsible stewards of their supporters’ donations. They need to see robust scientific reasoning and appropriate solid methodology to back it up. The aims of a project should be feasible with the time and resources requested, and with the expertise of the research team.
  • Transformative impact
    • They support blue-sky thinking in research and want to direct funding towards projects that could transform an area of cancer research or one day have a major impact on the lives of people with cancer. While impact on cancer patients is a priority for them and their supporters, they recognise that important discoveries take time to bear fruit and that it may be many years before the research leads to lives saved or improved.
  • They award grants to support fundamental or translational research into the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer. They do not prioritise any field of research; they welcome research projects with a strong scientific hypothesis that draws on epidemiological, behavioural and clinical data to provide a starting point for a new avenue of research. Multidisciplinary or discipline-hopping projects are encouraged where this helps stimulate innovation.
  • They do not support clinical research, including clinical trials, patient care, nursing or healthcare delivery research. Neither do they support other types of applied cancer research, such as policy, public health or psychosocial research.

Funding Information

• The maximum budget permitted is £275,000, but it should be noted that most of their 3-year grants have a budget of about £200,000.

Costs Covered

• Grants cover the direct costs of the project, including research consumables, the salaries of research staff working directly on the project, travel to conferences or to visit collaborators, and any essential services or small pieces of specialist or unusual equipment.

Eligible Projects

• They will consider applications in which human samples or data are used as an essential part of a basic/translational research project if the following conditions are satisfied:
  • Clinical costs cannot be requested in the budget or charged to a Worldwide Cancer Research grant. This includes costs of patient or volunteer recruitment, patient expenses, the salaries of purely clinical staff, such as research nurses, honorariums or consultancy fees for clinical collaborators. It is also not acceptable to include costs for the clinical investigation, diagnosis or follow-up of patients involved in the research study.
  • Projects that rely upon a large number of human samples or extensive clinical data must have this resource available through existing biobanks, databases or cohorts. Projects will not be accepted that would involve a considerable effort to recruit patients or volunteers for samples or data; Worldwide Cancer Research-funded projects must focus on conducting hypothesis-led research and not on infrastructure development. This applies equally to all types of research, including epidemiological studies.

Eligibility Criteria

• Their project grants are awarded to the Host Institution. The Host Institution is responsible for ensuring all requirements of their grant terms and conditions and policies are complied with by the Principal Investigator (PI) and others involved with the delivery of the research.
• The PI is the person with the main responsibility for writing the application and designing and directing the research project. The PI is also responsible for ensuring all requirements in this handbook are complied with and must follow their grant terms and conditions in execution of the award supported by the Host Institution.
• The PI must be employed at a recognised, non-profit research institution. Honorary contracts and emeritus positions are usually acceptable. Researchers at commercial, for-profit organisations, e.g. biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, cannot apply for a grant. It is also not permitted for a research institution to transfer Worldwide Cancer Research grant funds to a commercial organisation except for payment for specific services, items and reagents used in the project. This includes transferring money to spin-out companies from the laboratory or institute.
• Individual scientists from commercial organisations can be named as collaborators if they provide specific expertise or reagents to the project. The nature of their involvement must be made clear. Scientists from commercial organisations cannot be co-applicants.
• The PI is usually a PhD-qualified, tenured or tenure-track research group leader with at least three years of post-doctoral research experience. Other suitably qualified persons, e.g., medical doctors, with appropriate research experience may also apply as the PI.
• Applicants at a post-doctoral or equivalent level are eligible to apply as PI when they are not yet independent investigators, however they must name their group head as coapplicant on the grant.

For more information, visit Worldwide Cancer Research.