Clinical project grants for childhood cancer research

Purpose

Barncancerfonden (The Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund) calls for proposals for research projects of pronounced clinical character relevant for pediatric oncology. The purpose of the call is faciliate clinical research and to implement evidence-based health care or treatment methods in Swedish clinics.  

Terms and conditions for the call
Clinical project grants include preclinical and phase I and phase II studies. This includes epidemiology, registry research, diagnostics and treatment, and health care research including psychosocial research and to implement or to investigate how to implement new health care or treatment methods in the clinic. Projects that aim to study general implementation processes will not be funded within this call.

Barncancerfonden finances research projects for a time period of one to three years. In exceptional cases, research projects will be financed for a time period of four or five years. Barncancerfonden supports research projects that can be expected to benefit children with cancer in Sweden. This includes both scientific research to improve care and increase survival rates, as well as research on complications, late effects and rehabilitation. The relevance for childhood cancer should be clearly stated in the application. In addition, funding may also be granted research projects that have the potential to aid next of kin or survivors of childhood cancer in Sweden.

Costs to apply for include monitoring costs, operating costs, small-scale equipment, publication costs, travel costs and salary costs.  

Grant applications submitted to Barncancerfonden are subjedcted to a peer review process. Submitted applications are evaluated by independent research committees with respect to the criteria: research question, methodology, feasibility/merits of the applicant(s), relevance for childhood cancer, and when applicable the scientific report.

Within the call, applications for a new project or a continuation of a previously funded project are accepted. A continuation project is an extension of a project previously funded by Barncancerfonden. Reasonable modifications in the project approach are acceptable. An application for a continuation project must be submitted no later than two years after the project period of the original project was concluded. The application is otherwise regarded as a new project. A continuation grant based on an ongoing project may be applied for if the latter is finalized after the current call but prior to the next consecutive call for the same type of grant. The project number for the previously approved project must be stated in the application.

Eligibility to apply
• Funding is applied for by an individual scientist that has, or intend to locate, the principal activity in one of the Nordic countries. The individual scientist is the main applicant and scientifically responsible for the project.

• Funding for international, non-Nordic, projects may be granted under the prerequisite that the main activity of the main applicant is in Sweden.

• The project must have active participation from a scientist based in Sweden (main or co-applicant).

• The main applicant must hold a Swedish doctoral degree or an equivalent foreign degree. The co-applicant does not need a PhD degree.

Co-applicants
After the imposition of the The General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, also known as GDPR, Barncancerfonden has changed the handling of co-applicants. The following applies:

About the grant
The grant is a block grant unless otherwise stated in the decision letter.

Administration
The grant is to be administered by a Nordic university, hospital or institute, alternatively another Nordic organization with research as its main purpose in collaboration with a university, hospital or institute.

Application period
Refer to the web page of Barncancerfonden. Please note that the call closes at 14:00 on the last day of the application period. Incomplete or late applications will not be evaluated.

Application documents
A complete application is submitted via the application system. Note that the application may not be submitted if mandatory information is missing. Attachments must be in PDF file format (maximum 2 MB). Additions or revisions after closure of the call are not accepted. The application system opens two months prior to the last day for application. A complete application includes: 

The project description may not exceed 6 A4-pages including references (12 ppt Times New Roman, single-spaced, automatic line break). 

The project description may be written either in English or in Swedish and should contain the information needed to evaluate the aim, originality and feasibility of the project.  

The project should have an overall aim and a number of specific goals. The aim may be visionary but the goals should be written as specific as possible. All project goals should be possible to fulfill if the project is fully financed (and the entire project period described in the application is granted). It is therefore of utmost importance that the application has a reasonable budget with respect to the proposed research. The project goals should be directly comparable to the final report where the progress and results from the project will be described.  

The project description should give a clear representation of its position in a national and international context. Do not refer to appendices since these are not considered.  

The project description should also specify if the project involves ethical issues and if these needs specific ethical considerations. The project description must also indicate if other permits and approvals are required for the project. The main applicant is responsible for ensuring that he required permits and/or approvals are obtained for the project and all its parts.

The project description should contain the following headings:

Confirmation of the application
The application must be confirmed by the main applicant and the head of department, director or equivalent in order to be valid. The main applicant confirms the application in connection to submission. Note that this must be done before the closure of the call. The day after the call has closed, an email with a request to confirm the application is sent to the head of department, director or equivalent you have stated in the application. Confirmation must be done no later than 7 days after the call has closed.

Application period
Refer to the web page of Barncancerfonden. Note that the call closes at 14:00 the last day for application. Applications cannot be submitted after the closure of the call. 

Organization of the application
Instructions on how to fill in the application form is found in the top right corner on each tab.

The application may be written either in English or in Swedish with the following exceptions: 

• The popular science description must be written in Swedish.  

• The summary must be written in English. 

Special terms

General terms
Refer to the separate document ”General terms” in the application system.

Retrieval of grants
Refer to the separate document ”How to claim your allocated grant” in the application system. 

Contact
Questions about the call:

forskning@barncancerfonden.se

or

Kristin Mattsson, Research coordinator
Send e-mail to Kristin
073 - 866 53 34