Call for applications to the 2018 Stimulus Awards

Applications open on 19 September 2018 for the Irish Cancer Society's 2018 Stimulus Awards. Applicants will be invited to submit via the Irish Cancer Society's Grant Tracker web portal.

The Irish Cancer Society Stimulus Awards aim to provide early- to mid-stage cancer researchers, nurses, and allied health professionals with an opportunity to drive forward an existing research project which, if given an extra injection of funding, has the potential to be both highly competitive and impactful.

There are two Stimulus awards calls in 2018:

  • Biomedical Sciences Stimulus Award
  • Social and Allied Health Sciences Stimulus Award

Aims of the Biomedical Stimulus Award
Successful biomedical proposals will advance research capability in this area, both during and beyond the lifetime of the proposed project. It is expected that within 12 months of the completion of the stimulus funding period, the research project will have the capacity to be submitted as a competitive proposal to leverage sizable funding from external funding organisations.

Aims of the Social and Allied Health Sciences Stimulus Award
Successful social and allied health proposals will, within 12 months of the completion of the stimulus funding period, advance: a) research capability, and/or b) inform social, economic, and political policy, and/or c) cancer service provision at local and national levels, both during and beyond the lifetime of the proposed project. As such, the outputs from this grant should stimulate research development, changes in policy, or changes in service provision.

Funding
The maximum total funding available for each award is €30,000. The maximum funding period is 12 months.

Important dates
Applications open: Wednesday 19 September 2018
Closing date for applications: Wednesday 24 October 2018

Eligibility criteria
For full eligibility criteria, please see Applicant Guidelines appropriate to your background.

1. The Social and Allied Health Sciences Stimulus award is open to:

  • Academic researchers in the social or allied health sciences
  • Nurses and allied health professionals working with those affected by cancer

Academic researchers must:

  • Have a doctoral research degree
  • Have a minimum of two years research experience following their doctoral degree (time since date of thesis submission)

Nurses and allied health professionals must:

  • Be a qualified registered nurse or allied health professional
  • Have a proven track record in research, culminating in three or more first author publications

2. The Biomedical Sciences Stimulus award is open to:

  • Untenured postdoctoral scientists

Applicants must:

  • Have a doctoral degree
  • Have a strong commitment to progressing their career in cancer research
  • Not be tenured for a lectureship position at the time of applying for the Stimulus Award
  • Have between two and nine years research experience following their doctoral degree (time since date of thesis submission)

Application process
Applications will be accepted only through the Irish Cancer Society Grant tracker web portal. The application closing date is: 3pm Wednesday, 24 October 2018.

You may only apply for one stimulus award.

Selection process
The Irish Cancer Society is committed to putting patients, families, survivors, supporters and the public at the very heart of what we do. In keeping with this commitment, we are working to embed Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in all of our research processes.

The full application form, in addition to the lay research pitch will be reviewed by the Scientific Review Panel in the first instance. Following this review the top applicants will be short-listed. Ultimately, the lay research pitch of the shortlisted applicants will be subsequently reviewed by an external Patient Panel. The Patient Panel will have the final decision in selecting the successful recipient based on this lay research pitch.

Further information
Full grant award information will be available on the 19th of September at www.cancer.ie/research. For any queries please contact grants@irishcancer.ie.

Please note a webinar will be held to give further guidance on completing the application and the PPI process. Please email grants@irishcancer.ie if you are interested in attending this webinar on the 2nd October 2018.