Solving Kids’ Cancer has developed a fair, robust, and transparent grant award process in line with the principles laid out by the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC).

We engage in two distinct research funding mechanisms:

• An annual Competitive Funding Call
• Adhoc Exceptional Funding Requests

Each application will be subject to rigorous scientific review guided by the charity’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and the nature of any grant made will depend on funds available through Solving Kids’ Cancer’s own reserves, or those made available through strategic collaborative partnerships.

The management of all grants awarded will be governed by an individual Project Grant Agreement (agreed and signed by both parties), which will determine the release of funds based on key milestones being met for the research study.

Competitive Funding Call

In September each year Solving Kids’ Cancer will issue a Request for Applications (RFA) inviting researchers to submit their ideas to us as part of a Competitive Funding Call process. The nature of the RFA will be decided and agreed between Solving Kids’ Cancer, its SAB, and any potential funding partners.

The RFA may be completely open, or it may be more targeted through the stipulation of requirements that must be met in any application, such as:

• Addressing the needs of certain patient groups
• Involving a particular kind of therapeutic intervention
• Having a specified geographical footprint

Proposals will be peer-reviewed by experts, reviewed by the SAB, and also by patient experts nominated by Solving Kids’ Cancer. Following this, and taking all reviews into consideration, a recommendation regarding funding will be made by the SAB to the Executive and Board of Solving Kids’ Cancer. Where a funding call has been made with one or more partners, the Secretariat of the Solving Kids’ Cancer SAB will then arrange a call between all funding partners, seeking to gain a consensus view on which project (if any) to award funding to.

Exceptional Funding Request

This is an irregular, ad hoc invitation for a researcher or collaborative group of researchers to submit a proposal to the charity for funding consideration. It will be initiated either by the SAB directly or as an unsolicited approach that may be considered by the SAB.

It could result from an initiative instigated or cultivated by Solving Kids’ Cancer itself, a project that Solving Kids’ Cancer has had prior sight of, or perhaps even held discussions about with researchers. Or it may simply be something that is brought to the attention of the charity to inquire whether it would be willing to receive a funding request for consideration.

Review Process

Each application for funding will be subject to a rigorous scientific review process, and as part of our commitment to ensure the patient voice is at the heart of all our research funding, the views of patient experts will also be taken into consideration. An overview of the review process is shown below:

Solving Kids' Cancer is an accredited member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC). As well as being a hallmark of exceptional research funding, this will enable grant awards made by Solving Kids’ Cancer to be supplemented by central government funding (NIHR and Research England), meaning every penny invested in research through our charity will provide maximum possible benefit.

Contact

If you have any questions about our research funding operating procedures, please send them to [email protected].