After the success of our first ever Strictly Research Grants in 2016, of which there were 4 awarded, we are delighted to announce that we have a number of these exciting and engaging grants of up to £10,000 up for grabs again in 2017.
What is Strictly Research? Think Strictly Come Dancing meets Dragon's Den, as researchers pitch their ideas to a live panel and our audience votes for the winning project! Researchers looking for funding will pitch their research ideas to you and a scientific panel, and you will then use voting cards to choose who you believe should be funded - the project & researcher with the most votes will then be crowned winner and receive full funding for their project!
Last year's Strictly Research projects are up and running and in the early stages of planning and putting regulatory procedures and ethical approvals in place for the research to push forward. Click here to read about all four fantastic projects that we funded thanks to your donations.
Kenneth Rankin was last year's winner of the Strictly Research Sophie’s Award, and will receive additional funding to present his work at a conference in the UK. His project aims to improve outcomes for Ewing sarcoma and osteosarcoma patients. Newcastle and Durham University are investigating a drug that will be used for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. This drug is called a 'Theranostic Nanoparticle (TNP)', and once activated it can specifically destroy cancerous cells while reducing the toxicity to healthy cells. Our hope is that this drug could be developed into the next treatment option for osteosarcoma in the future.
This year, we are inviting applicants to offer novel proposals for original pieces of pilot laboratory or surgical research that will answer scientific questions in the field of primary bone cancer. Want to be part of the audience that will make decisions about the future research that your donations fund? Make sure you book your free place at the Bone Cancer Conference on the 22nd July 2017.
In keeping with our ‘Strictly’ theme, applications will be assessed by our ISAP panel and successful applications will be put forward to present their ideas. Candidates will be invited to pitch their project proposals in front of a panel of judges and a lay audience and will be asked to produce a poster, suitable for lay audience, to be displayed throughout the day. Both the panel and the lay audience will score the proposals and the highest scoring applications will be awarded on the day.
Interested candidates should contact us at research@bcrt.org.uk to request an application form, which should be completed and returned to the same address by 5pm on March 1st 2017.