Quest for Cures: Progression Funding

• This grant round is open to researchers who have been named Principal Investigator on a previous Quest for Cures grant award. (Programme grants we awarded before the Quest for Cures grants were developed may be eligible as a rare exception)
• Grants awarded under the Clinical Biomarkers funding scheme are specifically ineligible for this funding.
• The previous programme grant must have finished within 12 months of submission, or have less than 12 months of funding remaining at submission.
• All grant applications must focus on at least one of the research priorities highlighted in our research strategy
• The award is open to international researchers but applications including a UK collaborator will be looked on favourably
• Teams should be formed of researchers across at least two institutions
• Teams should be comprised of both established and promising researchers from multidisciplinary backgrounds
• The principal applicant must hold an employment contract beyond the period of the grant
• If the principal applicant does not hold an academic or research position, the application must include a co-applicant at the Lead Institution who does
• A researcher may serve as principal applicant on only one proposal per grant round
• The collaborating teams should have the relevant expertise of laboratory and clinical researchers to demonstrate how discoveries will be translated and taken forward to patient benefit

Applications to this grant round should encompass a significant body of work that builds on the foundations set by the previous grant. It should not simply prolong funding of the same projects.

Innovative and transformative research

• The proposal should investigate new aspects, not covered in the original programme grant, with a strong scientific and clinical rationale
• The proposal should demonstrate the capacity to revolutionise treatments and/or clinical decision making
• The proposal should demonstrate the capacity to develop new approaches or the translation of technologies for the use in the diagnosis, management or treatment of brain tumours
• We encourage proposals that include aspects of high-risk, high reward approach to addressing the key questions preventing progress in brain tumour research

Collaborative and multidisciplinary emphasis

• The application should outline the strengths of the collaborative team and indicate how the proposed work will achieve scientific and/or clinical goals that could not be realised by the individual components of the team
• The application should highlight any new avenues of research involving experts who currently work outside the brain tumour research field
• In order to substantially develop the line of research, we expect that the proposal will include researchers not on the original Quest for Cures application

Potential for patient benefit

• Applications should demonstrate a potential pathway for the proposed research to lead to patient benefit and the anticipated impact of this
• Because this is building on work started in the original programme grant, the research plan should include clinical application within two years of completion of this funding

Milestone and goal-driven approach

• The research programme must have detailed milestones which will be used for monitoring progress

Value for money and communication plans

• Applications to this grant round should demonstrate the progress and value for money of the previous programme grant
• The proposal should demonstrate how the requested funds are essential for the work and explain how the project represents value for money
• The proposal should include clear plans and mechanisms for sharing resources and information across the team, including existing resources and platforms