How we fund research
Our research
The Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust is proud to have worked hard to develop a fair and transparent research grant award process. We have done this to make the most effective use of our resources by supporting the best possible research in line with the principles of peer review which have been set out by the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC).
The process by which we decide which research to fund is called peer review. It allows charities to support the best possible research. The peer review process is carried out according to five principles: Accountability, balance, independence, rotation and impartiality. You can find out more about this on the AMRC website.
Funding call
Each year, usually in September, the Trust will issue a request for applications to invite researchers to submit their research proposal ideas.
Sometimes the funding round may be open to all projects but at other times it may be targeted by a number of requirements that need to be met by the application for example, research into a particular tumour type or specific treatment.
The application process
Each eligible application received that requests £30,000 of funding will be sent for written expert review. It will then undergo detailed scientific review guided by the charity’s Research Advisory Panel (RAP).
The panel has a minimum of 5 members at any one time including experts in the fields of paediatric oncology and medical research. We also we aim to have at least one parent or patient (young person) expert on our board at any time.
The final decision on which project to fund will then be made by the Trustees of the Trust after taking into account the recommendations of the Research Advisory Panel; the amount of funds available and any other relevant information.
Once funding is awarded, the grant management is carried out using a Project Grant Agreement that has been agreed and signed by both parties. This document will be used to assess when key milestones in the project have been met to determine the release of subsequent funds to the researchers.
Exceptional funding requests
Very occasionally, there may be an irregular invitation for a researcher or group or researchers to submit a proposal to the charity for funding consideration at a different time of year. This may be because something has been brought to the attention of the charity to inquire as to whether it would be willing to receive a funding request or may be because the research is in an area that the charity has as a key priority or has been involved with in the past.
In these situations, there may occasionally be funding requests outside of the usual funding round. If this occurs, applications would still undergo the same rigorous scientific review process.
