Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award
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Sponsors website
(Please see eligibility requirements below
because Stanford policy has stricter requirements.)
Pre-proposal deadline: June 2, 2008
Complete pre-proposal materials as well as the completed SU-42 or SU-42FL forms be submitted to your institutional representative (i.e., Research Process Manager-RPM) at least 5 working days prior to the sponsor's deadline--internal deadline date: May 27, 2008)
Number of applicants: unlimited
Amount of funding
The awards will provide $450,000 in direct costs during a three year award term and a maximum of 5 awards will be granted each year. No indirect costs will be covered.
Program:
Advances in cancer research often originate from innovative thinking and ingenious approaches. Yet, securing funding for these truly out-of-the box ideas remains a challenge, especially to newly minted, independent junior scientists. With that in mind, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation is proud to announce an exciting new award program, the Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award.
This award is specifically designed to provide funding for extraordinary early career researchers who have an innovative new idea but lack sufficient preliminary data to obtain traditional funding. The research supported by the award must be novel, exceptionally creative and, if successful, have the strong potential for high impact in the cancer field.
- Applicants (including non-U.S. citizens) must be conducting independent research at a U.S. research institution.
- Basic and translational/clinical projects will be considered. Applications will be accepted from all scientific disciplines provided that the proposed research meets the selection criteria (see below).
- Applicants with a background in multiple disciplines are especially encouraged to apply.
Joint submission from collaborators working in different disciplines will be considered. (The collaborators will share the $450,000 award.)
- Applicants must commit a minimum of 80% of their time to conducting research.
- Applicants may apply no more than two times.
- Applicants must demonstrate that they have access to the resources and infrastructure necessary to conduct the proposed research.
- The department must guarantee the Investigator is conducting the proposed research independently.
- Applicants must belong to the following categories--
Assistant Professors (tenure-track) or equivalent within the first three years of obtaining their initial Assistant Professor position (cut off date: June 1, 2005). [The sponsor's requirements state "tenure track". Stanford Clarification: However, per a call to the sponsor, our faculty members with assistant professor UTL and MCL appointments are eligible. If an MCL faculty member is selected as one of the applicants, then the institutional letter must explain the rigorous appointment process as well as the institution's commitment to the applicant.]
Stanford clarification #1: Stanford policy does not permit individuals in Clinician/Educator line [i.e., Clinical Instructors, Clinical assistant professors], or Clinical Fellows to apply for funding.
Stanford clarification #2**: Instructors** and Senior Postdoctoral Fellows** (such as Whitehead, Beckman, Cold Spring Harbor fellows) "who are pursuing a period of independent research before taking a faculty position" would be eligible consideration for PI waivers under the career development exception. Please work with your department's Research Process Manager (RPM) **Per call to the sponsor: However, such individuals "should have an exceptional record of research accomplishment, dedicated laboratory space, and the support of their institutions and/or research advisor". In other words, per the sponsor, they should be "super stars".)
Other Funding:
Since the goal of the Innovation Award is to fund high risk/high reward research that lacks sufficient preliminary data to secure traditional funding, only limited scientific overlap with other funding will be allowed when the award is granted.
During the course of the award, award recipients are encouraged to seek additional funding to expand and further develop their projects.
Selection criteria
Applications will be evaluated based on the following:
--The applicant's capacity to conduct bold, exceptionally creative research.
--The novelty and potential for breakthrough innovation of the proposed research.
--The likelihood that, if successful, the proposed research will lead to significant advances that will impact the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, or basic understanding of cancer.
--The applicant's lack of resources to pursue the proposed research.
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