Call for Research Proposals in Solid Cancer

The Cancer Biology Research Center, Tel Aviv University, Call for Research Proposals from The Dubrovsky Family, Research Fund for Solid Cancers

Dear researchers, clinicians, TAU faculty members,

In 2024, the Cancer Biology Research Center (CBRC) will award three Research Grants for an amount of 600,000 NIS each for 2 years.  

The current program, totaling 300,000 NIS/year each, will support individual research grants in the field of solid cancer malignancies. These grants can be submitted by one or two principal investigators.

The grants will cover two years of research (up to 600,000 NIS total) commencing in March 2024.

The Research Grants will support basic and translational research relevant to the causes, mechanisms, diagnosis, treatments, and prevention of solid cancer malignancies. Collaboration between basic and clinical research is an advantage. However, entirely clinical applications, such as intervention studies, clinical trials, or healthcare delivery research and many substantially clinical applications will not be considered. Similarly, basic research with no clinical horizon, e.g. lacking apparent translational aspects within 5-6 years or so from its completion, will not be considered.  

We encourage the submission of proposals for high-risk/high-reward research that could ultimately lead to critical discoveries or major advancements that will drive the field of oncology research forward. The proposed research should be hypothesis-driven based on strong scientific rationale and should serve as a catalyst to expand or disrupt current thinking and/or approaches in cancer.

Eligibility: The submitting principal investigator(s) (PI) must be a Tel Aviv University faculty member. Collaborating investigators (CI) may be from other institutions in Israel or abroad. However, only Tel Aviv University faculty members will be funded, as the budget will be administered by the TAU Research Authority upon submission of ethics approval (IRB and/or IACUC). The program encourages collaborations between clinicians and basic scientists. The research must be conducted in Israel at TAU or at the TAU-affiliated medical centers. An investigator may submit only one application as a PI. An investigator may be named as a CI in several applications but may receive funding for only one project.

Applicants should submit proposals following the guidelines below. The deadline for proposal submission is 15th November 2023 at noon. Submission email should include in the subject line: "The Dubrovsky Family Research Grant" and name of PI Inquiries regarding the proposals and full proposals should be submitted electronically to Dr. Judith Ben Porath: judithbp@tauex.tau.ac.il.

Guidelines For Submission of Grant Application

The proposal and all additional documents should be submitted in English as a single PDF file. The proposal should not exceed 5 pages, excluding the itemized budget, other sources of funding for the proposed project, CV of the PI and the CI (NIH format up to 5 pages), and a list of publications.

Required fonts are Arial 11 or Times New Roman 12. The text should be typed on A4 format, with 1.15-line spacing, leaving 2.5 cm margins on all sides. The proposal should be constructed as follows:

• Project Title (only one line, up to a maximum of 100 characters, not including spaces) on page 1.
• Principal Investigator (name, academic position, and affiliation); CI (if exist) (name, academic position, and affiliation) on page 1.
• Abstract (not exceeding 300 words) on page 1.
• Significance (not exceeding 300 words).
• Scientific Background.
• Specific aims. Please describe a discrete, hypothesis-driven project, achievable within the duration of the grant and with the support requested.
• Experimental design (outline).
• Preliminary results.

In a Separate Document (same PDF file):

• References (up to 30) - Single line spacing is allowed for the list of references.
• Itemized budget and budget justification. Equipment will be supported up to 100,000 NIS and should be purchased during the first year of the project. Sub-contractors budget cannot exceed 30% of the budget.
• CV of all the investigators (PI, CI) named in the application (NIH format up to 5 pages). Please use the template file provided. Please indicate the contribution of the investigators to the suggested project.
• Letters of collaboration on the specific project (if relevant).
• Other sources of support for the proposed project (existing or pending). Please include details of all current funding and grants awarded but not yet started, and pending applications that overlap with the submitted project. If there is an overlap, please explain what percentage of the research is non-overlapping with the other project.
• Available research resources. Lab space and availability of the infrastructure required to carry out the proposed research (not exceeding 300 words).
• Including/Excluding Reviewers: At the time of submission of the application, an applicant should include in a cover letter, separate from the submission file, five experts in the field as suggested reviewers. Suggested reviewers should not have co-authored a paper with the PI during the last five years, and should not have other common grants or ongoing research collaborations. In addition, an applicant can exclude up to three potential reviewers. Acceptable reasons include main competitors, commercial sensitivity, etc.

Only proposals submitted on time in the requested format will be accepted for review.

Review process: Each application will be reviewed by an external Scientific Review Panel. The application will be evaluated for its (1) scientific content and rationale; (2) qualifications, experience, and productivity of the applicant; (3) the relationship of the research to solid tumors (which must be clearly defined in the application). (4) The translational applicability of the application, and (5) collaboration between basic scientists and clinicians.

• Deadline for proposal submission: 15th November 2023 at noon.
  Funding of selected projects will begin in March, 2024
• —Proposals should be submitted electronically
  with subject line indicating "The Dubrovsky Family Research Grant" and name of PI to:

Dr. Judith Ben-Porath, Operations Manager - Cancer Biology Research Center (CBRC), Tel-Aviv University, 03-6407322, judithbp@tauex.tau.ac.il

Proposals not written in accordance with the requested format will not be considered.

Upon submission, an electronic confirmation of receipt will be sent by Dr. Judith Ben-Porath.

Sincerely,

Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro

Director, CBRC Tel Aviv University