Irish Cancer Society Translational Research Scholarship Programme 2020

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Background

The objective of the Irish Cancer Society Translational Research Scholarship Programme is to offer excellent science, medical, nursing and other allied healthcare graduates the opportunity to undertake postgraduate training in translational biomedical cancer research*.

Translational research can be defined as “bench to bedside” or patient-focused research, whereby the aim of the research is to translate existing knowledge about cancer biology into techniques and tools that will accelerate progress towards patient benefit.

For the translational research scholarship programme, we will only accept translational research projects (T0.5 and/or T1 phase) **. Applications where the research is predominantly at T0 phase with some proposed aspects of the project being T0.5 phase will not be accepted.

In the EOI application form applicants will be asked to describe how the research is translational (T0.5 and/or T1 phase) as opposed to discovery research (T0 phase). As part of this, applicants will also be asked to describe the ultimate long term end goal of the research in terms of having an impact on patients.

• *Please note, applications in the areas of prevention, survivorship, drug design, SAR (structure–activity relationship) analysis, or drug screening will not be considered at this time.
• ** Please see Section 2.3 of Guideline for Applicants document and the FAQ documents for more information. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that the project fulfils the project eligibility criteria for this scheme. If you are uncertain about your project’s eligibility, please contact us (details provided below) in advance of preparing your application.

Funding

The total value of the Irish Cancer Society Research Scholarship covering stipend, fees, materials and dissemination will be up to €36,000 per year for a maximum of four years.

A mandatory provision of €1,000 is available to support Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in the proposed research project*.

Additionally, mobility funding of up to a maximum of €7,000 for travel to a national or (preferably) international research institution in furtherance of advancement of the research project aims, over the course of the programme (must be used in the first 3 years of the scholarship), must be included in the application. If the mobility funding has not been utilised by the end of year 2, a revised mobility plan will be automatically requested as part of the 2nd Year Annual Report. The purpose of this mobility element is to allow the applicant an opportunity to spend time working in varied research environments to maximise project impact and to aid the individual in their career development prospects.

A further fund will also be available in Year 3 & 4 of the scholarship to contribute towards dissemination of research in a high impact journal. This funding is separate to the travel and dissemination budget which must be detailed in the budget section of the application. The successful scholar will need to apply for this dissemination funding support at least three months in advance of the planned publication. Each application (scholar mobility element and dissemination awards respectively) will be reviewed before a funding decision is made. Further details of the dissemination fund will be provided at the full application stage.

Please note that full details of budget guidelines will be provided at the full application stage of this funding award.

• * Please note that the €1,000 available for PPI may be supplemented with funds from the annual €36,000 budget. However, the annual €36,000 budget may not be supplemented with the PPI fund.

Submission

All applications must be submitted through the online grant management system by 3.00pm, Thursday 20 February 2020.

Grant management system- https://grants.cancer.ie  

Key dates