Request for Applications: Health Equity Research Grant

Despite major advances in ovarian cancer research over the past 20 years, addressing health disparities is an area in which significant progress has yet to be made. OCRA believes that every ovarian cancer patient should have the opportunity to attain the best possible care and treatment outcomes, and that their socioeconomic status, geographic location, or racial or ethnic background should not impact the likelihood of reaching those goals.

The objective of this grantmaking program is to support research projects that promote equity, inclusivity, and evidence-based approaches to overcome the barriers faced by marginalized communities with a focus on ovarian cancers and/or related gynecologic cancers. For the purposes of this grant, marginalized communities are defined as groups that have historically struggled with equal access to care due to gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability status, and language barriers. They encourage researchers that are from groups underrepresented in sciences to apply, but this is not a requirement of the grant.

Research Areas

• Research Projects may encompass a wide range of research areas, including but not limited to:
  • Identifying and addressing social, cultural, and economic factors that contribute to health disparities in ovarian cancer
  • Improving access to quality care, diagnostic tools, and treatment options for underserved communities affected by ovarian cancer
  • Exploring the impact of racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, or geographic disparities on disease progression and survival rates
  • Investigating the genetic and molecular factors influencing ovarian cancer disparities and potential therapeutic approaches

Funding Information

• Support of up to $100,000USD annually for two years ($200,000 USD total) will be awarded to the institution in which the recipient will conduct the research.
• The Health Equity Research Grant will have a start date of March 1, 2025.

Eligibility Criteria

• Principal Investigators at all stages of their careers are eligible to apply. Applicants must have either their PhD, ScD, MD or other doctoral degree at the time of application.
• There must be a clearly defined research project with aims related to health equity with a focus on ovarian cancers and/or related gynecologic cancers. Projects looking for funding for community programs without a defined research component are not eligible for this grant.
• The selection committee will consider most favorably applications that are creative, original, that seek to understand or reduce health disparities in ovarian cancer.
• The primary review criteria will be the likelihood that the investigators can leverage this funding to explore ideas specifically related to reducing health disparities, with long-term impact for the field. The ideal project would provide resources to promote the generation of data, which would be capable of performing high-impact research and competing successfully for additional funding, and the authorship of impactful scientific publications. The proposed projects may be new research projects or may be part of ongoing research.
• International applicants are welcome to apply.
• Investigators whose proposed projects do not have a health equity research focus in ovarian cancer or other related gynecological cancers are not eligible for this grant.

For more information, visit OCRA.