Call for planning grants 

Aim
Barncancerfonden (The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation) calls for proposals for planning of research relevant for clinical development of childhood oncology. The overall purpose of these grants is to contribute to improved treatment protocols for the different childhood cancer diagnoses, as well as an equal treatment and rehabilitation in Sweden.

Description of the call
Planning grants may be allocated to health care planning groups where fundamental and clinical researchers from the different children’s oncology units in Sweden are assembled. Possible grants include the development of health care programs and/or treatment programs, quality assurance, or a coordination of fundamental research and treatment studies. Applications with an indirect relevance for childhood oncology may also be granted. Larger, more specified projects within the health care planning groups, should be applied for in the general call for project grants within the same round of calls. Planning grants may be funded for a period of 1 to 3 years. In exceptional cases, research projects will be financed for a time period of four or five years.

Grant applications submitted to Barncancerfonden are awarded by a peer review process. Submitted applications are evaluated by independent research committees with respect to the research question, methodology, feasibility/merits of the applicant(s), relevance for children with cancer in Sweden, 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 who has, or intend to locate, the principal activity in Sweden. The individual scientist is the main applicant and scientifically responsible for the project.
• Funding for international projects may be granted under the prerequisite that the main applicant is situated in Sweden  
• The main applicant should hold a Swedish doctoral degree or an equivalent foreign degree and be active in the field of childhood cancer. This includes, for example, medical doctors, researchers, counselors, psychologists, and nurses. 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:

• All co-applicants must confirm their participation before the application can be submitted
• The main applicant is responsible to inform all co-applicants about this
• The main applicant fills in the co-applicant information
• The co-applicant confirms participation via an e-mail generated from the system after the co-applicant is registered
• Co-applicants that have not confirmed their participation must be deleted by the main applicant before the application can be submitted

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 Swedish university, hospital or institute, alternatively another Swedish organization with research as its main purpose in collaboration with a university, hospital or institute.

Instructions for applying
A complete application includes: 

• a filled-in web form  
• a project description uploaded as an attachment in PDF file format.  

The project description may not exceed 6 A4-pages including references (12 ppt Times New Roman, single-space, automaticline 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 fulfil if the project is fully financed (and all project years applied for are 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 has 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 the required permits and / or approvals are obtained for the project or sub project. 

The project description should contain the following headings:

• Aim and goals; present the overall aim and the specific goals of the research project. 
• Background; a summary of your own and other’s research, as well as previous findings in the research field.  
• Preliminary results; describe your own experiments and preliminary studies in the field of research
• Work plan; summarize the project and present a timetable. Describe theories, methods and implementation.  
• International and national collaboration: short description of collaboration with foreign and Swedish researchers and research groups or clinical partners.   
• Ethical considerations 
• The five most relevant publications for the project (published by the applicant)
• Literature references of importance 

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. Incomplete or late applications will not be evaluated.

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 should specify the form of work and include a description of the planned activities, the planned treatment protocols and development work as well as a detailed budget. Withdrawal of working time for investigations should be specified.

The application may be written either in English or in Swedish with the following exceptions:
•The popular science title must be written in Swedish. 

•The project title must be written in English.

•The popular science description must be written in Swedish.  

•The summary must be written in English.

Barncancerfonden aims to fully finance some of the granted proposals. It is therefore of utmost importance that the budget and justification of requested financial support is reasonable.

Special terms
• Barncancerfonden has some restrictions regarding parallell grants. Refer to the separate document "Policy for parallell grants from BCF" on the web page of Barncancerfonden under Apply for research grants.

•Refer to "Eligible costs" for approved costs for the grant form. The document is found on the web page of Barncancerfonden under Apply for research grants.

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

Contact
For questions, please contact:

forskning@barncancerfonden.se

It is also possible to write to:

Kristin Mattsson, Research coordinator
073 - 866 53 34