Irish Cancer Society - IACR Scholarship Programme 2024: Translational & Clinical Research

Introduction

The Irish Cancer Society has partnered with the Irish Association for Cancer Research (IACR) to co-fund the Irish Cancer Society – IACR PhD Scholarship Programme 2024: Cancer Survivorship Scholarship.

Through the public's generous support, the Irish Cancer Society funds research in line with our mission to ensure fewer people get cancer and those that do have better outcomes. We always keep people affected by cancer at the heart of everything we do. 

The Irish Association for Cancer Research (IACR) is an All-Ireland non-profit organisation for cancer researchers across all disciplines, which aims to advance cancer research across Ireland. The IACR also aims to advance cancer research across the island of Ireland, to improve patient survival through cancer prevention, earlier diagnosis and new and optimised treatments to ultimately reduce the burden of cancer. 

Therefore, the purpose of this funding call is to offer excellent graduates from across the island of Ireland, the opportunity to undertake postgraduate training in cancer research, with a focus on translational & clinical cancer research.

This call will be open to graduates of a relevant background (e.g., biomedical, life science, dentistry, pharmaceutical, medical or translational research etc.), with a project focusing on translational or clinical research. This Scholarship is available for any HRB-approved host institution across the island of Ireland (both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland).

During the programme, the Scholar will undertake general and cancer-specific training while participating in a structured PhD programme, and will have the opportunity to gain experience at an international research institution through a mobility element. Please see the guidance document and the FAQ document below for more information on cancer survivorship research and project eligibility.

Project Eligibility

This scholarship is specifically intended to fund research that is aligned with the Society’s Strategy (2020-2025) and Research Roadmap. 

Proposed projects must be in either: a) translational biomedical research or b) clinical trials/clinical research. Translational or clinical projects may also address strategic priorities. These areas are described below in greater detail:

a.         Translational biomedical research can be defined as ‘bench to bedside’ or patient-focused biomedical research, the aim of which is to translate existing knowledge about cancer biology into techniques and tools that will accelerate progress towards patient treatment. Research in this area will build upon basic biological discoveries and improves their translational potential through pre-clinical studies. Much of the outputs of translational research naturally merge into trials, the next area of focus. 

Please note, applications in drug design, SAR (structure–activity relationship) analysis, drug screening or basic biomedical research will not be considered at this time.

b.         Clinical trials are organised investigations in people to examine the benefits of new approaches to treatment and care. For example, looking to see if a new medicine can improve survival for a particular form of cancer. As well as funding these drug-based trials (so called IMP trials), the Irish Cancer Society is also interested in funding non-drug based trials (non-IMP trials) in areas such as diagnostics, technology, radiotherapy, surgery, psycho-oncology, exercise, nutrition, and combinations of these.

c.         Strategic priorities is a crosscutting theme, which seeks to specifically foster and grow research into areas of high unmet need in cancer. For example, cancers which have not benefitted from the huge strides in outcome seen in some malignancies (metastatic disease, rare cancers and cancers with poor response or outcomes); the unmet needs of children, adolescents, and young adults affected by cancer; tackling misinformation and disinformation in cancer; addressing the needs of under-represented groups of people (e.g., Travelling community, ethnic and language minority communities, migrant communities, communities with socio-economic or mental health challenges, or any other socially excluded group). 

Please note, projects focused on the needs of underserved communities are recommended to apply for the Irish Cancer Society Underserved Communities in Cancer Research Scholarship.

Funding and Duration

The total value of the Irish Cancer Society-IACR Translational & Clinical Scholarship 2024 is €180,000. This budget should cover the costs for stipend, fees, running costs, equipment, training, dissemination and travel, mobility placement, and PPI. For more detailspertaining to the budget, please see Appendix 1.

The scholarship will last 3 to 4 years at a full-time capacity or at a part-time capacity, over a maximum of 6 years. 

Please note the following budget stipulations that are specific to this Scholarship Call: 

• PhD stipend is funded at a minimum rate of €22,000 per year.
• A minimum provision of €1,500 must be allocated to support Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in the proposed research project.
• Funding of €5,000 is ring-fenced for a mobility element (Section 1.6).
• A Translational Lab-Based Consumables Ringfenced Budget of €40,000 is available for this call only, to be used for budgeting of wet-lab materials and consumables.
• Costs for attendance at the IACR Annual Conference must be included for each year of this Scholarship in the Travel and Dissemination budget. Costs for presentation of research from this scholarship must be included for at least 1 year (e.g., poster printing).

Detailed budget guidelines are available in Appendix 1 and the Application Guidelines for this award, available to download below. 

Submission and Key Dates

Applicants must email grants@irishcancer.ie with a complete ‘intention to submit’ form, by 3pm Wednesday 13th March 2024. The template for this form can be found below.

All applications must be submitted through the Irish Cancer Society Gateway Grant Tracker online system, by registering at the following address: https://grants.cancer.ie

Table 1: Timeline for the Translational & Clinical Cancer Research Scholarship Call

Please note: The above dates are provisional and subject to change at the discretion of the Irish Cancer Society.

Please note: the purpose of the intention to support form is to allow us to anticipate the number of full applications that we will receive, and to aid the Society in selecting the most appropriate peer reviewers. This form is not peer-reviewed or used in the decision-making process for this award. 

For any queries relating to this call, please contact grants@irishcancer.ie