Funding, News and Announcements

On behalf of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF), I am pleased to share information about the evolution of CBCF's research funding programs with you as an important member of the breast cancer research community.

The way that CBCF funds and administers research grants is changing. Until recently, CBCF has operated by using a blended allocation model of funding, providing multiple, non-directed regional grant opportunities along with one overarching, exclusively directed National Research Grant Program. These programs provided support towards pure and clinical research projects led by Researchers, Fellows (MSc, Phd, PDF, MD, AHP) and like-minded community organizations across Canada. This range of programs was being regionally managed, with varying guidelines, resources, systems, timelines and administrative practices to support the goals of each regional operation.

During the last twelve months, the Foundation has undertaken significant steps to reduce administrative costs and transition to a more efficient organization overall. Part of this plan included consolidating four separate regional operations into one single nationally led entity. As a result of this significant change, the current suite of CBCF grant programs will be replaced with one streamlined National Research Grant Program beginning this July.

The CBCF National Research Grant Program aims to support breast cancer research in Canada that demonstrates scientific excellence, relevance and innovation, and that has the potential to achieve a significant impact on breast cancer. The new Program will serve the entire country and takes into consideration feedback received from the research community, supporting a more efficient screening of applications.  By introducing a two-stage screening process and requiring a Letter of Intent (LOI) as a first phase of the competition, the number of full applications and the length of time it will take to review applications at this stage will be reduced. The LOI is a short document that outlines the intended research in enough detail for CBCF's Grant Peer Review Panel to determine which applicants should proceed to the second phase and submit a Full Application.

Key points about the new National Research Grant Program:

• The previous model of regional funding opportunities will be replaced by one National Research Grant Program that serves the entire country
• The funding limit for 2016-17  is $450,000 per grant over 3 years
• In 2016-17, CBCF expects to award 15-20 grants
• Grants may have a term of up to 3 years
• A new peer-reviewed Letter of Intent (LOI) process is being introduced
• The National Research Project Grant Program Call for LOI Applications will launch on or before July 25, 2016
• The deadline to submit an LOI is September 1, 2016
• Successful candidates will be invited to submit a Full Application, due December 15, 2016
• CBCF will continue its gold standard peer-review practice
• There will not be a CBCF Fellowship and Trainee Grant Program in the 2016-17 period, however, Fellows can be a part of the Project Team.

CBCF works with and through our external stakeholder community to achieve our vision of creating a future without breast cancer. We are confident that this new process will help us continue to achieve excellence in supporting breast cancer research projects and we will be evaluating this process as it unfolds.

I thank you in advance for your support and look forward to collaborating with you during this exciting transition. For more detailed information about the Call for LOI Applications, please visit the website here.