Applications open for Paediatric Cancer Types “Fight Kids Cancer” Program

Deadline: 18-Oct-2024

The European Science Foundation (ESF) is inviting applications for the Fight Kids Cancer (FKC) Program to address the lack of research dedicated to paediatric cancers by sustainably providing support to the best European research.

The funds will support the best early phase clinical trial projects and translational research projects aimed at accelerating therapeutic innovation for children and adolescents with cancer.

The core drivers underpinning the FKC programme are the following:

• The FKC call originates from parents’ and patients’ non-government organisations (NGOs) that are keen to steer research towards areas that will effectively benefit young patients by focusing on:
  • improving their survival rate
  • improving their quality of life during and after the treatment
  • improving the knowledge on cancer causes and resistance to treatment
• In this context, each project supported by the programme is expected to show a strong potential of having impact on the lives of childhood cancer patients.
• The FKC programme and call aim at promoting trans-European collaborations. FKC provides an efficient ‘one stop shop’ for funding that allows to:
  • Accelerate: research teams can start working faster without waiting for the fragmented funding approval from several national funding organisations
  • Streamline: the administrative workload for research teams will be simplified due to a single application and follow-up process
• The stability of the FKC programme over the years and the recurring nature of its annual calls will nurture greater productivity in the paediatric oncology scientific community.

Objectives

• The Fight Kids Cancer programme aims to deliver innovative and impactful research relevant to paediatric cancer, as well as to strengthen the development of pan-European research initiatives. In this, the programme ambitions to foster closer working ties between basic translational and clinical researchers. Specifically, this should encourage collaboration among the leading academic laboratories and practitioners, and lead to novel innovative projects.
• FKC has four main objectives:
  • To realise real impact on young patients: Improve their survival rate and reduce toxicity to restore young patients to full health after treatment
  • To advance cutting-edge science to further the knowledge of paediatric malignancies
  • To support improved interdisciplinary research, methods, and collaborations for tackling the issues of today
  • To strengthen collaboration and the development of scientific capacity across Europe
• The FKC call for projects aims towards overcoming the structural lack of research dedicated to paediatric cancers by ensuring a recurring endowment that will be granted to the best European research projects every year. An additional ambition is to foster closer working ties between clinicians and translational researchers.
• Philanthropy integration 
  • FKC aims at being a strongly integrated programme with positive and constructive relations between the research community and the funders. Funded project teams are expected to collaborate and interact with the funding organisations. This includes participating in selected organisations’ activities, supporting their communication endeavours towards donors, sharing their expertise in research for example through conferences.

Types of Projects

• Projects are expected to propose research on either Early Phase Clinical Trials or Translational Research Projects. The focus of this call is exclusively on paediatric brain tumours. Applicants to both categories are encouraged to address innovative interventions or approaches towards novel treatment (such as innovative therapies including immune-oncology, platform trials, artificial intelligence, imaging, radiotherapy, surgical approaches).
• The two types of projects are:
  • Early Phase Clinical Trials to evaluate innovative therapies for children and adolescents with cancer. The key elements of the proposals are:
    • (Demonstrated) availability of investigational drug(s)
    • Designs of early phase clinical trials that rapidly and efficiently assess the innovative agents
    • Enrolment of patients must commence no later than 12 months from the start of funding
    • Trial to be conducted and financed in at least 2 European countries
    • Study of the impact on the quality of life of the studied treatment regimen is strongly encouraged
    • Immune oncology approaches are welcome
    • Platform trials are welcome
    • Co-funding of early phase clinical trial projects is possible, however precise details, justification and timelines must be provided
  • Translational research projects addressing childhood and adolescent cancers. Proposals are encouraged on:
    • Projects identifying novel targets or mechanisms of action
    • Projects that may result in innovative new therapies or better models of disease
    • Projects that are ancillary to ongoing/completed clinical trial
    • Projects that leverage and advance paediatric tumour models
    • Multi-disciplinary or multi-institution collaborations are strongly encouraged
    • A clear pathway to a clinical trial should be included
  • High-risk/high return proposals will be considered. The Funders will favour projects that give access to the paediatric population to novel technologies

Funding Information and Project Duration

• For this call, the following limits on funding and project duration apply:
  • Up to 5 million euros for early phase clinical trials projects (up to 5 years)
  • Up to 2 million euros for translational research projects (up to 4 years)

Geographic Focus

• Legal entities established in the following countries will be eligible to receive funding through the FKC call:
  • Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

Eligibility Criteria

• The lead institution must be an eligible research organisation located in an eligible country.
• Other project partners can be from related fields of expertise, providing they operate as not-for-profit.
• Partners from countries not listed as eligible may participate to projects, provided they are not delivering a core component of the project upon which major activities are dependent. Such partners should commit to cover the costs associated to their participation in the project.
• Funding is aimed at supporting new research projects.
• An individual cannot be named as the lead investigator on more than one competing proposal (whether early phase clinical trial or translational research); however, it is allowed for an individual to lead one proposal and be named as a partner on a separate proposal.
• For translational research projects, although this is not a formal requirement, multi-disciplinary or multi-institutions collaborations are strongly encouraged.
• Criteria for both Early phase clinical trials and Translational research:
  • Proposal is written in single-spaced typescript in Arial 11, on A4 sized paper with margins of at least 15mm. References, Gantt chart and tables should be no less than Arial 9.
  • The proposal is submitted by an eligible participant (or a consortium of eligible participants).
  • If one participant requesting FKC funding is not eligible, the whole proposal will be rejected.

For more information, visit ESF.