Rally Foundation Opens 2025 Collaborative Pediatric Cancer Research Awards Program
The Collaborative Pediatric Cancer Research Awards Program is a joint initiative of various US-based charities including the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research, Arms Wide Open Childhood Cancer Foundation, Kids Join The Fight, The Truth 365 and Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer.
Within the framework of this programme, grants are available for research in the following areas related to cancer in children, adolescents and/or young adults up to age 24:
- Innovative approaches to research that could lead to advanced studies or clinical trials.
- Basic science studies that are likely to lead to a new discovery.
- Under-studied cancer types.
- Quality of life, survivorship and palliative care studies.
- Personalised, targeted, alternative or integrative research proposals.
- Data utilisation through data standardisation, collection, storage, analysis and sharing.
The programme includes the following award categories:
- Postdoctoral and Clinical Research Fellow Grant – maximum $50,000 per year for one or two years.
- Independent Investigator Grant – maximum $50,000 per year for one or two years.
- Consortium Grant – up to $100,000 per year for one or two years.
- Outside the Box Grant – up to $100,000 per year for one or two years.
Principal Investigators (PIs) do not need to be US citizens or located at a US institution. The PI’s institution may be a hospital, university, or private laboratory.
Eligibility criteria vary according to the category of grant sought:
- Postdoctoral and Clinical Research Fellow Grant – Eligible applicants are clinical fellows in paediatric haematology/oncology and/or postdoctoral research fellows conducting paediatric cancer research. Fellow Grants are intended for MD, DO, PharmD or PhD fellows conducting research after the first year of their fellowship.
- Independent Investigator Grant – Eligible applicants are investigators at all academic ranks with a MD, DO, PharmD and/or PhD degree.
- Consortium Grant – Eligible applicants are investigators at all academic ranks with a MD, DO, PharmD and/or PhD degree applying on behalf of a consortium of three or more institutions collaborating on a grant-supported research project.
- Outside the Box Grant – Individuals conducting paediatric cancer research as clinical fellows in paediatric haematology/oncology and/or postdoctoral research fellows, after the first year of their fellowship. Eligible applicants are investigators at all academic ranks with a MD, DO, PharmD and/or PhD degree.
For the purposes of these grants, a young investigator is defined as a researcher no more than five year post fellowship; an independent investigator is defined as a researcher who is more than five years post fellowship.
The key application dates for the 2025 grant cycle are:
- Letter of Intent opens: 12 August 2024.
- Letter of Intent deadline: 13 September 2024 (15:30 EST).
- Full Application opens: 31 October 2024.
- Full Application deadline: 6 January 2025 (15:30 EST).
The Foundation expects to announce funding decisions in April 2025, with selected projects to begin in July 2025.
(This Bulletin article was the subject of a ResearchConnect news alert.)