For Researchers

The Bone Cancer Research Trust is aware of the immediate and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on research activities. We would like to reassure the research community that any disruptions to research activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be taken into consideration when assessing an individual applicant’s record of outputs, research achievements, and career progression in current and future grant rounds.

To demonstrate our commitment, we are co-signatory of a COVID-19 cross-funder memory statement co-ordinated by the Academy of Medical Sciences.

We strongly encourage those who have been adversely affected by disruptions caused by the pandemic to continue to apply to our schemes, in the knowledge that historic impacts will be considered when assessing new applications by our Independent Scientific Advisory Panel and, and peer reviewers will be advised to do the same.

Be assured that all information will be kept strictly confidential.

How applicants might have been affected:

• Changes in personal circumstances
• Changes in Clinical responsibilities, e.g., working on the front line
• Impact on access to facilities, normal work environment or furlough
• Impact on research, e.g., ability to produce preliminary data, develop collaborations or acquire training and experience.
• Impact on publications or other outputs, e.g., panel memberships, presentation invitations, conference participation
• Any other way in which the pandemic has affected the applicant, their career, or their ability to deliver their research.

The COVID-19 cross-funder memory statement can be downloaded here

Advice for applicants completing the COVID-19 Impact statement can be found here.

The Bone Cancer Research Trust supports innovative and creative research that has the potential to make an impact into the lives of primary bone cancer patients.

Funding is available for researchers at all career stages, working at an institution in the UK, co-applicants and collaborators may be based elsewhere.

For international calls, eligibility is extended to principal investigators working at any institution, not just the UK.

We fund research into all forms of primary bone cancer; some funding calls are limited to specific types of primary bone cancer.

Following consultation with our patients, their families and supporters; quality of life or epidemiology-based projects are not currently being considered.

All our funding calls are announced on our website, social media channels and by direct mailing to our database of researchers.

IDEA GRANTS

• Small value grants, up to a value of £35,000.
• Ideas grants can be used to collect preliminary data for a larger application, or to demonstrate the validity of a hypothesis/study.
• Available for bursaries for undergraduates to undertake a research project.

INFRASTRUCTURE GRANTS-Support for sample collection

• Funding is available for surgical centres to support the collection of patient specimens and to prepare and store samples to be sent to active, ethically approved research projects.
• The level of funding available varies depending on the size of the centre and number of patient samples collected by the centre.
• Once awarded, continuation of funding up to 5 years will be reviewed yearly; renewal will depend on the success of the previous year in collecting and sharing samples for research.
• The perceived outcomes should lead to a significant advance in our understanding of primary bone cancer and therefore, have a positive impact into patients’ lives.

RESEARCH PROJECT GRANTS

• Up to the value of £250,000.

• Large project grants can be used to further substantiate studies for which some preliminary work/consolidated hypothesis/demonstrated interest already exists.
• We particularly welcome applications focusing on the rarer forms of Primary Bone Cancer, or applications that demonstrate a strong element of collaboration.
• These grants should not be used to support PhD studentships.
• Research can be done in any area of laboratory and medical/surgical research from discovery to implementation.
• The projects must demonstrate clear relevance to primary bone cancer.
• The perceived outcomes should lead to a significant advance in our understanding of Primary Bone Cancer and therefore, have a positive impact into patients’ lives and may lead toward collecting evidence that may substantiate the development of a clinical trial.

STUDENTSHIPS

• Up to a value of £150,000.
• For committed Primary Bone Cancer researchers that wish to acquire a PhD qualification.
• The principal investigator or candidate may apply.
• The grant will fund up to 4 years of study, however, we expect students to submit their thesis within the funded period.

EARLY CAREER FELLOWSHIPS

• Up to the value of £500,000.
• For committed post-doctoral candidates that want to establish themselves as leading bone cancer researchers.
• Funding can be used to substantiate studies for which some preliminary work/ consolidated hypothesis /demonstrated interest already exists, forming the base of and contributing to future project/programme applications.
• The applicant must apply.
• The grant will fund up to 5 years of support.

CLINICAL/TRANSLATIONAL GRANTS

• Up to the value of £500,000.
• These grants support research that has reached a point of development and are ready to be progressed from the laboratory to patients.
• Collaboration between at least 2 Institutions is expected.
• The award is granted to a UK based institution.

CLINICAL TRIALS SUPPORT SCHEME

• Funding up to £100,000 to provide additional support for ongoing clinical trials. The trial may be observational or interventional and can be oncological or surgical.
• This additional funding may be used to support:

• aligned biological studies
• additional arms or research questions (observational or interventional)
• toxicology studies
• A small proportion of the grant may also be used to support infrastructure costs.

The funding is available for UK applicants and the proposed research or study must take place in the UK; however, the parent clinical trial may be taking place in the UK or internationally.

RESEARCH PROGAMME GRANTS

• Up to the value of £1m.
• These large collaborative grants support a programme of research aiming to bring a step-change in the treatment of primary bone cancer.
• Applications are welcomed from a multi-disciplinary and collaborative team from the UK and international institutions and must demonstrate a clear line of sight to patient benefit.
• Awards are made to a UK institution acting as a hub, with different work packages being delivered at different national or international research centres.

PRIMARY BONE CANCER CONSORTIUM FUNDING SUPPORT

• Up to £240, 000 to support the setting up of or continuation of primary bone cancer consortia that will facilitate both biological and clinical research, with the ultimate aim of improving outcomes for patients.

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

• Up to the value of £3000.
• We provide funding to enable researchers to learn new skills through short-term laboratory visits.
• Funding is also available to attend conferences where new research findings are presented.
• Available to all Primary Bone Cancer researchers based at a recognised UK institution. There are no limitations based on career development stage; however, applications from early stage career researchers are particularly encouraged.

RESEARCH MEETINGS

• Up to the value of £10,000.
• To sponsor and help with the organisation of national primary bone cancer research meetings, with the aim of promoting collaboration and setting priorities in primary bone cancer research.

If you require any further information or have any queries regarding our grant programme or the grant types we fund, please contact member of our research team.

Research fuding since 2006

To date, Bone Cancer Research Trust has committed over £11 million to research; our current portfolio includes the following types of research awards:

Table 1: Bone Cancer Research Trust research awards

Since 2006, and to the end of 2024, we received and assessed 423 research applications, involving approximately 800 expert peer reviewers in the UK and across the world.

Locations

We fund research at institutions across the UK. In 2019, we introduced our first International Explorer Grant, the outcome of this funding call was announced in the Summer of 2020 and finally started in 2021, with more funding now awarded internationally. Figure 1 indicates the number of research projects we have funded across the different UK regions since 2006 to the end of 2024.

Figure 1: BCRT award by UK region 2006-2024.

We have also awarded a number of grants to researchers based internationally and across Europe, including 5 in the USA, 4 in Germany, Italy, and Spain, 3 in France and the Netherlands, 1 in Turkey, Austria and China and and 5 multi-national grants.

Primary bone cancer research area and types of primary bone cancer

The Bone Cancer Research Trust supports research into all forms of primary bone cancer. Figure 2 breaks down the projects we have funded b primary bone cancer type.

Most of our awarded grants aim to find a cure for primary bone cancer, we also support projects that investigate the causes of primary bone cancer and support improvements to the care options for our patients. Figure 3 indicates the percentage of funding dedicated to each of those categories.

Figure 2. BCRT awards (%) by type of primary bone cancer 2006-2024

Figure 3. BCRT awards (% spent) by research category 2006-2023

Application success rates

To the end of 2024, we have maintained an overall success rate of 50%.

In the early years since our charity was established, percentages of success were high; however, we also received less applications for awards accordingly.

Table 2: Number of applications received vs funded 2006 – 2024

Since adopting our 2017-2022 and 2022-2024 Research Strategies, we have seen an almost exponential increase in the number of applications received for funding. This is a positive sign and evidences a growing community of primary bone cancer researchers. The below graphs include all applications received and funded up to the end of 2024 as well as the evolution of success rates.

Figure 4: BCRT research applications received and funded - 2017-2022 and 2022-2032 Research Strategies

Figure 5: BCRT research applications - success rate evolution (%) 2006-2024

Skills Development Grants

Since their start in 2022, our Skills Development Grants have grown in popularity, they are designed to support Early Career Researchers to:

• Learn new skills through short-term laboratory visits.
• Attend conferences where new research findings are presented, allowing them to expand their connections and establish collaborations.

Figure 6: BCRT Skills Development Grants - 2022-2024

The Bone Cancer Research Trust is proud to be a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), the national membership organisation of leading medical and health research charities

AMRC membership is the hallmark of quality research funding. To be accepted into the AMRC membership, charities must demonstrate that they follow the AMRC's rigorous standards in peer review, and therefore, providing supporters with reassurance that their money is being spent on only the highest quality research.

Membership also helps our research money go further:

• Funding from AMRC members that is awarded via open competition is eligible for the Charity Research Support Fund (CRSF). This means that for every pound BCRT fund another 20p is invested in universities. This means that BCRT funding can be spent purely on research and the CRSF can allow the maintenance of labs, lighting and heating – the full economic costs of conducting research.
• The AcoRD agreement ensures that AMRC members only pay the direct research costs of clinical research in the NHS. The Department of Health will meet all costs for local trial co-ordination and management, data collection, and regulatory fees.

By working with member charities and partners, the AMRC aims to support the sector’s effectiveness and advance medical research by developing best practice, providing information and guidance, improving public dialogue about research and science, and influencing government policy.

The AMRC has released a 'Manifesto in Focus' series of reports which further explains their manifesto and provides a roadmap of routes to support charitable research for the new government. We are delighted to support these activities to improve patient care across the UK.

As a member of the AMRC, we support their statement on the use of animals in research and their statement on supporting research in universities.

The role of our Independent Scientific Advisory Panel is to evaluate all grant applications, and recommend to the Board of Trustees the grants that are suitable for funding.

The panel is comprised of experts who review all our grant applications for relevance, scientific merit, cost and suitability of the applicant. They also conduct interviews for Studentship and Fellowship applications.

The Bone Cancer Research Trust are committed to funding research in a fair and transparent manner, supporting research of the highest quality and most likely to succeed. To do this, we must ensure that those involved in funding decisions do so in an independent manner and do not have conflicts of interest that might see them benefit personally or academically from a funding decision. Therefore, we have developed a conflict-of-interest policy to maintain our position as a transparent funder and to protect those who freely provide their time to our charity from any accusations of bias. The Bone Cancer Research Trust Conflict of Interest Policy for ISAP members can be found here. The Bone Cancer Research Trust Terms of Reference for SAP members can be found here.

Members of the Independent Scientific Advisory Panel

Chair: Professor Steven Clifford

Professor Clifford is Chair of Molecular Paediatric Oncology and directs the Newcastle University Centre for Cancer. He co-leads the Childhood Brain Tumour Research team, with major interests in understanding the biological basis of embryonal brain tumour development (principally medulloblastoma), and translating these findings into improved clinical treatments.

Clifford also plays leading roles in national (CCLG, NCRI) and international (SIOP-Europe, ITCC-Brain) research networks and clinical trials in medulloblastoma and is passionate about training the next-generation of cancer researchers and clinicians.

Prof. Clifford is Chair of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) CNS tumours group. He sits on steering committees including the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group executive and ITCC-Brain committee, and on advisory panels for organisations including The Brain Tumour Charity (SAB Chair), Cancer Research UK, The Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, The French National Cancer Institute (INCa) and The Singapore Medical Research Council. He is a Trustee of the JGWP charitable foundation and 'Children with Cancer in Malawi', a charitable outreach programme for children’s cancer care in Africa.

He was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2021), and awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (2022), in recognition of his achievements in translational paediatric oncology.

Mr Piers Gaunt BSc MSc

Senior Statistician, UK Clinical Trials Unit, Birmingham.

Piers Gaunt is a Senior Biostatistician within the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit in the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of Birmingham. He obtained an MSc in Medical Statistics from the University of Leicester prior to joining the CRCTU. He is responsible for the design and analysis of several trials within the CRCTU in various cancer types including soft tissue sarcoma, lung, skin and head and neck.

Mr Gaunt has a keen interest in efficient clinical trials methodology, encompassing adaptive trial design and, when he has time, statistical programming in Stata. In addition to his trials work Piers participates in teaching a number of statistical Small Group Teaching sessions to Clinical Oncology and Medical students and has also lectured on other courses within the university. He is fully committed to working to improve patient outcomes with an emphasis on survival and quality of life using efficient statistical methodology.

Dr Paulo Ribeiro BSc MSc PhD

Senior Lecturer and Group Leader, Bart's Cancer Institute.

Dr Ribeiro completed his undergraduate studies in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, where I studied Microbial Biology and Genetics. He then entered the Gulbenkian PhD Programme in Biomedicine at the Gulbenkian Institute, which included one year of classes and laboratory rotation. This allowed him to undertake his doctoral research at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, supervised by Prof Pascal Meier, in the characterisation of the role of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins in the regulation of cell death and innate immunity.

In 2009, he joined Dr Nicolas Tapon's laboratory at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, where he studied the mechanisms regulating tissue growth, namely the Hippo tumour suppressor signalling pathway.

In August 2013, he joined Bart’s Cancer Institute in the Centre for Tumour Biology. His research group uses the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism and his research has three major areas of focus: role of ubiquitylation in the regulation of tissue growth; role of reversible ubiquitylation in tissue invasion; and modelling tumour heterogeneity

Professor Thomas G P Grünewald MD.

University of Heidelberg, Germany

Professor Thomas Grünewald graduated in medicine from the University of Würzburg (Germany) in 2007, after completing clinical rotations in Germany, Japan, USA, UK, and Argentina. He obtained his M.D. with summa cum laude in clinical biochemistry in 2008 and started his clinical training in paediatric oncology at the Department of Paediatrics of the TU Munich (TUM). In 2012, he obtained his Ph.D. with distinction in Medical Life Science and Technology from TUM. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institut Curie in Paris, in 2014, he was appointed resident physician and principal investigator at the Institute of Pathology of the LMU Munich. From 2016 to 2020, he has been leading the Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology funded by the German Cancer Aid. In 2018 he completed his habilitation and obtained the venia legendi for ‘Experimental Pathology’. In 2020 he was appointed head of the division of Translational Pediatric Sarcoma Research at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Hopp-Children’s Cancer Center (KiTZ) in Heidelberg. Since 2021 he holds a full professorship at the Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg. In parallel, he continues his residency in pathology at the Institute of Pathology of the Heidelberg University Hospital.

His research aims at elucidating the interplay of germline variation and somatic mutation especially in Ewing sarcoma and examines, how somatic driver mutations interfere with developmental pathways to promote tumorigenesis, tumour heterogeneity and drug-resistance.

Dr Nathalie Gaspar

Paediatric oncologist, Institut de Cancérologie Gustave Roussy, France.

Dr Nathalie GASPAR, MD, Ph, is a paediatric oncologist at Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (Villejuif, France), head of the adolescent and young adult (AYA) unit and chair of the AYA programme of the institute (SPIAJA programme), since 2009. She is in charge of bone sarcomas, cancers with peak incidence in the AYA population, from biology to clinical care. Dr Gaspar is also paediatric head of the French bone adult and paediatric sarcoma group, GROUPOS. She is actively involved in early new drug development in France and in Europe, through her participation to the clinical trial committee of the Innovative Therapeutics for Child and adolescent with Cancer (ITCC) consortium and through her action as co-chair of the Fostering Age Inclusive Research (FAIR) trial initiative of the multi-stakeholder ACCELERATE platform.

Professor Didier Surdez

Head of Tumour Research Balgrist University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland

Didier Surdez, PharmD, PhD.

Didier Surdez studied pharmacy and graduated in 2001 at the University of Basel (Switzerland). He then moved to Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL (Switzerland) where he obtained is PhD in 2007. After a post-doctoral stay in Olivier Delattre's laboratory, in 2014, he was appointed as senior scientistt at the Institut Curie in Paris. In 2021, he moved to the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and is now Head of Tumour Research at the Balgrist University Hospital where his research focuses on the genetic vulnerabilities of bone sarcomas and on the identification of therapeutic vulnerabilities against these cancers.

His research on Ewing sarcoma has highlighted key EWSR1-FLI1 targets (PRKCB), vulnerabilities (PARPi) and secondary alterations (STAG2) in this cancer. Since 2012, he has been actively involved in the EE2012, rEECur and Combinair3 clinical trials. To address key questions around tumour heterogeneity, plasticity and to identify novel therapeutic strategies, he has established over 80 PDX models of paediatric solid tumours.

Dr Olivia Rossanese

Director, Cancer Therapeutics Unit Head of Division, Cancer Therapeutics.

Reader in Molecular Therapeutics, The Institute of Cancer Research, London.

Olivia Rossanese, PhD, FRSB

Dr Olivia Rossanese is a cancer biologist and drug discovery professional with experience leading and contributing to drug discovery and target validation programmes within both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. She started her drug discovery career at GlaxoSmithKline, contributing to the discovery of both dabrafenib and trametinib, FDA approved drugs currently in use for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. In 2010, she joined Vanderbilt University, establishing and leading a cell biology and molecular pharmacology team to support a newly formed academic drug discovery group. She joined ICR in 2015 as Head of Biology in the CRUK Cancer Therapeutics Unit and Team Leader in Molecular Therapeutics, where she has been Project Leader / Lead Biologist on several drug discovery projects, including APOBEC3B, BCL6, and KDM4. In 2020, Olivia became Interim Director and Head of Division of Cancer Therapeutics and was official appointed to both roles in May 2022. She has been a member of the CRUK Drug Discovery Leaders group, CRUK DDC Small Molecule Expert Review Panel, and the CRUK CDD New Agents Committee. She is currently a member of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Panel College, MRC AZ Centre for Lead Discovery, Open Targets Scientific Advisory Board, and chairs the Worldwide Cancer Research Scientific Advisory Committee.

Dr Apostolos Tsiachristas

Dr Apostolos Tsiachristas is a Research Fellow at Green Templeton College and an Associate Professor in Health Economics at the University of Oxford.

Apostolos has a joint post at the Department of Primary Care and the Department of Psychiatry to lead a programme of research that focuses mainly on the economic evaluation of new models of care and financial incentives in healthcare, particularly for people with mental health conditions and multi-morbidity.

He also leads the Oxford Mental Health Economics and Policy (OMHEP) group, holds honorary research position at the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (UK GOV), and acts as a scientific consultant for the World Health Organization on topics related to health financing.

Dr Tsiachristas’ work has influenced health policy and clinical guidelines, for example, the Early Intervention in Psychosis Programme of NHS England, and the Cervical Cancer Screening Programme of Public Health England.

Prior to his current position, Apostolos undertook research at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and consultancy work at Aarts Public Economics in The Hague.

Dr Phil Green

Having suffered from osteosarcoma at 17 years of age, resulting in a left mid-thigh amputation, I am honoured to work as GP Advisor for the Bone Cancer Research Trust, being the UK’s largest primary bone cancer charity. I advise on the medical content of patient literature, the promotion of medical education to enable earlier diagnosis and the clinical trials funding strategy as the patient representative on the ISAP Group. In conjunction with this role, I have authored a BMJ Learning Module on primary bone cancers and a chapter in the medical textbook ‘An Orthopaedics Guide for Today’s GPs’.

I am a Member of Sarcoma Patients EuroNet (SPAEN) and patient advocate representative on two trial management groups for large international areas of research.

My day job is working as a General Practitioner in Leicestershire and in addition to fulfilling my duties in Primary Care Medicine over the last 19 years, my scope of work has evolved into a broad spectrum of service provision for my patients. My interest in medical education is linked to my work as GP Associate for the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Training Hub. My main responsibility is to oversee the development of NHS England's GP/Nurse Fellowship Scheme which involves recruiting newly qualified GPs and nurses onto the program, with a view to retaining them within a resilient workforce at a time when the profession is loosing many of its most experienced practitioners.

I have a number of diverse interests and pastimes, enabling me to achieve a successful work-life balance. Sport is my main passion, both as a participant and spectator. I play golf and attend a gym regularly, and combining my love of rugby and travel I managed to embrace the opportunity to follow the British and Irish Lions’ successes in New Zealand in 2017.

Funding Remit

The Bone Cancer Research Trust are dedicated to improving the outcomes for patients with primary bone cancer. One of the main ways in which we aim to do this, is by funding cutting edge research. Our funding is dedicated to projects that are genuinely centered around improving knowledge of this disease, with a clear line of sight to patient benefit and with good prospects of being published in high impact journals.

We fund research into the causes of the disease, research looking at cures and treatments and also research looking at care and quality of life; funding basic ideas through to translational research projects. Please download our full funding remit policy to learn more (Updated March 2023).

Resubmission Policy

At the Bone Cancer Research Trust, we do not allow the resubmission of any previously unsuccessful proposals, unless you have been explicitly invited to resubmit.

Details of any requirements for resubmission, as requested by our Independent Scientific Advisory Panel, will be described in detail in the application and review feedback. You can download our resubmission policy here (updated March 2023).

Acceptable Costs

The Bone Cancer Research Trust is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities and will fund direct costs of research only. We have developed guidance to aid applicants when completing the costings section of their application.