Deadline: 15-Sep-2025
The Alternatives Research & Development Foundation is pleased to invite applications for its Research Challenge: Focus on Childhood Cancer to support research that improves the understanding or treatment of childhood cancers while demonstrating that non-animal approaches can be valuable tools for biomedical progress.
The Alternatives in Research (AiR) Challenge program supports innovative biomedical research that advances human health using non-animal research methods.
The program aims to broaden the understanding and appreciation of alternative methods and expand their use in biomedical research.
Scope
- Projects should be clearly and specifically focused on childhood cancer—either the most common types of cancer that affect children or rarer types. Proposals that address cancer broadly but do not focus on childhood cancers specifically will not be considered responsive.
- Projects should explicitly address the dual aims of the program’s goal to improve knowledge or treatment of childhood cancers and demonstrate the value of non-animal approaches for biomedical research.
- Non-clinical or pre-clinical research projects focused on developing non-animal methods/models, novel applications of existing non-animal methods/models, or validation efforts that substantially increase the confidence in existing non-animal methods/models.
Funding Information
- Grant amount: maximum award per project: $210,000
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants:
- Only non-profit, tax-exempt (510(c)(3)), non-governmental, educational and/or research institutions based in the US are eligible to receive AiR Challenge funds.
- Applicants must have a PhD or MD (or equivalent degree) at the time of LOI submission.
Ineligibility Criteria
- Proposals will not be considered if they:
- Use intact, non-human vertebrate or invertebrate animals
- Use monoclonal antibodies produced by in vivo methods.
Evaluation Criteria
- Scientific and technical merit
- Significance and innovation
- Potential to improve understanding or treatment of childhood cancer
- Potential to demonstrate the value of non-animal approaches in this field and/or replace animals in research
- Experience, training, and qualifications of the research team.
For more information, visit Alternatives Research & Development Foundation.