Eligibility

All applicants and co-applicants must hold an academic appointment at a Canadian university or accredited institution.

Candidates in postdoctoral training are not eligible.

Research associates are not eligible.

Staff scientists are not eligible.

There must be only one main applicant for the purposes of this award. This person will also administer any grant awarded. All other applicants are considered co-applicants.

Research must be performed using proteins or cells of human origin unless a compelling case can be made for another organism. Clinical studies are not eligible.

Research categories eligible for this competition are:

  • Screening of an approved compound library provided by the Cancer Research Society. The selected library is the Pharmakon collection from MSDiscovery. This collection includes 1760 compounds in 22 plates. Plates contain 125 uL of compounds at 10 mM in DMSO. Please do not include the library in your budget.
  • Computer-assisted or in silico screening followed by pharmacological validation of FDA-approved, off-patent, repurposed compounds
  • In cellulo or in vivo validation of an FDA-approved, off-patent drug with demonstrated drug repurposing potential

The Cancer Research Society will only fund projects using off-patent drugs in order to accelerate drug development and bring high-quality, affordable treatments to cancer patients.

Yes, you can apply if you fulfill all eligibility criteria mentioned above.

Letter of intent

Yes. The number of letters of intent a researcher may submit as a main applicant is limited to one (1).

The filename of your letter of intent must be structured as follows: Last name_First name_ LOI_REP 20XX. For example, Smith_John_LOI_REP2018.pdf.

Please indicate this filename in the subject line of the e-mail you will send to grants@src-crs.ca

Application

The Mac Preview App changes many of the field properties of the form, which prevents the proper uploading of data. The budget field in particular, is affected. Also, the pre-set settings of various text fields appear to be modified by Preview.

In addition, many forms filled out with Preview cannot be read anymore with Acrobat software, the field text becoming invisible.

Mac users should use Acrobat Standard or Pro to fill out their form as detailed in our instructions.

The Description of Proposed Research format should be formatted as follows:

  • Maximum of 4 pages
  • Paper size: 8.5” x 11”
  • Minimum margins of 1 inch (2.54 cm) all around
  • Font type: Times New Roman
  • Black font, no smaller than 12pt
  • Single-line spacing
  • Condensed font type is not acceptable

A maximum of one (1) letter-size page (8.5” x 11”) of preliminary data may be included in this section. Figures and their accompanying legends must be legible when printed with the “Actual size” option on 8.5” x 11” paper. Margins may be less than 1 inch all around.

Reviewers may refuse to evaluate applications with figures that are too small for easy reading after printing.

Applications with different settings for Description of Proposed Research or Tables and Figures will be rejected.

No. For this competition, the same or an overlapping application, cannot be submitted to other funding agencies while it is under review at the Cancer Research Society.

Failure to comply with this rule will lead to the cancellation of an awarded grant. Where applicable, a grantee may be required to reimburse paid installments for a grant obtained which was not in compliance with the Society’s rules.

No. Applicants cannot update their award notices and publication lists after the submission of their full application.

Panel reviewers will use the following criteria for the review of an application:

  • scientific merit of the project;
  • proof of concept and demonstration of feasibility;
  • originality of the research plan;
  • potential impact on cancer patient;
  • budget relevance:
    • The budget must be appropriate to the proposed project.
    • No monies are allowed for travel or equipment;

 Cancer Research Society decisions are final.

Certificates

Biosafety Certificate: All projects involving work with potentially biohazardous materials require a biosafety certificate. These include 1) cell lines of all origins, 2) living animals, 3) human samples and 4) potentially pathogenic nucleic acids. We expect all researchers working in a wet lab to provide this certificate. Please contact your institution’s biosafety department for details.

Animal Care Certificate: All projects involving the use of living animals require an animal care certificate.

Human Ethics / Human Stem Cells
Every project involving human or human stem cells requires the approval of the Research Ethics Board of the principal investigator’s institution.

New requirement for Human Bio-specimens

Use of Human Bio-specimens. The Cancer Research Society is committed to ensuring that high quality bio‐specimens are used in the research that it funds. For this reason, the Cancer Research Society requires that

  1. all retrospective (old) bio‐specimens used in the Cancer Research Society‐funded research have come from Canadian Tissue Repository Network (CTRNet) or Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments Act (CLIA) ‐certified or -registered bio‐repositories.
  2. all prospective (new) bio‐specimens to be used in the Cancer Research Society‐funded research will be added to registered or certified bio-repositories in accordance with the standards set by the CTRNet and/or the CLIA of the Unites States.

Description of the CTRNet registration and certification program for biobanks can be found here.

Required certificates may follow the application’s approval for funding but must all be received before the payment of the first installment.

The award will be revoked if the Grantee and co-applicants fail to comply with these rules.