The Office of Foundation Relations is pleased to share this open call for funding from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.
UCSC Contact: Caroline Rodriguez | caroline@ucsc.edu
Funder: Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
Opportunity: Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award Overview
Deadline: July 8, 2024
**Due to the 80% commitment to research requirements, check with your Chairs before applying.**
Overview
The Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award is designed to provide support for the next generation of exceptionally creative thinkers with “high-risk/high-reward” ideas that have the potential to significantly impact our understanding of and/or approaches to the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer.
The Innovation Award is specifically designed to provide funding to extraordinary early career researchers who have an innovative new idea but lack sufficient preliminary data to obtain traditional funding. It is not designed to fund incremental advances. The research supported by the award must be novel, exceptionally creative and, if successful, have the strong potential for high impact in the cancer field.
Award Amount & Terms
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The Stage 1 award will be for two years, $200,000 per year ($400,000 total) with the opportunity for up to two additional years of funding (up to four years total for $800,000).
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The Award cannot be used for indirect costs or institutional overhead.
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The Innovation Award funds are intended to be flexible and can be used for a variety of scientific needs including the Investigator’s salary, salaries for professional and technical personnel, special equipment, supplies and other miscellaneous items required to conduct the proposed research.
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Concurrent Funding
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Since the goal of the Innovation Award is to fund high-risk/high-reward research that lacks sufficient preliminary data to secure traditional funding, the applicant should not have funding for this proposed project. During the course of the award, award recipients are encouraged to seek additional funding to expand and further develop their projects.
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Eligibility
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Applicants are expected to commit a minimum of 80% of their time to conducting research.
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Institutional nominations are not required and there is no limit to the number of applications that can be received from a particular institution.
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Applicants (including non-U.S. citizens) must be conducting independent research at a U.S. research institution.
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The applicant must have received an MD, DO, PhD, or MD/PhD degree(s) from an accredited institution.
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Basic and translational/clinical projects will be considered. Applications will be accepted from all scientific disciplines provided that the proposed research meets the selection criteria.
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Applicants with a background in multiple disciplines are especially encouraged to apply.
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Joint submission from two collaborators working in different disciplines will be considered. (The collaborators will share the award.) Each collaborator must meet the eligibility criteria.
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Applicants must belong to one of the following categories:
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Tenure-track Assistant Professors within the first five (5) years of obtaining their initial tenure-track Assistant Professor position (Cut-off date: July 1, 2019).
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Clinical Instructors and Senior Clinical Fellows (in the final year of their sub-specialty training) holding an MD, MD/PhD, DO who are pursuing a period of independent research before taking a tenure-track faculty position. Such individuals must have an exceptional record of research accomplishment, dedicated laboratory space and the support of their institution.
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Distinguished Fellows with an exceptional record of research accomplishment identified by their institution to pursue an independent research program and who have dedicated laboratory space. These candidates are markedly distinct from traditional postdoctoral fellows. Examples: Whitehead Fellows, UCSF Fellows, Cold Spring Harbor Fellows.
[Ad Hoc Assistant Professors, Research Assistant Professors, Research Associate Professors, Research Scientists and Postdoctoral Fellows are not eligible. If you are unsure about your eligibility for this award program, please contact the Foundation’s Award Programs at awards@damonrunyon.org]
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Applicants may apply no more than two times.
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Applicants must demonstrate that they have access to the resources and infrastructure necessary to conduct the proposed research.
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The department must guarantee the Investigator is conducting the proposed research independently.
See here for additional eligibility information.
Timeline
- July 8, 2024 Application Deadline
- October 2024 Notification of Finalists
- November 13, 2024 Finalist Interviews
- January 1, 2025 Funding Begins
Special Instructions
Please notify the Office of Foundation Relations if you are interested in applying to this opportunity (fr@ucsc.edu). Please submit a proposal intake form prior to UCSC’s internal Institutional Deadlines. For support developing your proposal, please contact the Research Development Specialist assigned to your unit or send a request to resdev@ucsc.edu.
Call Sent: June 21, 2024
The Office of Foundation Relations is a unit of University Advancement. The FR team creates and maintains mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with private organizations, matching grant initiatives with educational and research programs and centers. FR supports faculty and staff to identify and approach these and other private foundations for funding, to assist in strategic positioning of the grant application, and to facilitate funder campus visits. For a list of recent funding opportunities, please visit the FR website. FR Calls for Funding