Since the Bone Cancer Research Trust was formed in 2006, we have awarded over £9.4 million to research focused on improving outcomes for primary bone cancer patients. To date, we have funded 191 research grants and continue to expand our research network, encouraging more researchers to focus their expertise on primary bone cancer.
Open funding calls
Unrestricted academic PhD studentship 2025
The Bone Cancer Research Trust is committed to improving outcomes for patients with all types of primary bone cancer and place a high importance on supporting the development of young researchers.
We are therefore pleased to announce a funding call for a PhD Studentship to commence in 2025.
Applications for funding of up to £150,000 are invited to support a 4-year academic PhD studentship, demonstrating a clear line of sight to patient benefit irrespective of how long this may take. The project may focus on any or multiple forms of primary bone cancer.
The focus of the research may include a wide variety of perspectives, including biological, translational, surgical, functional outcomes, clinical, epidemiological, psycho-social and health services research.
Part funding for projects already in progress will not be considered.
Funding is available to researchers working in a UK institute. However, international collaboration is encouraged when appropriate.
Proposals should clearly describe background evidence to support the project, including figures, data and publications. Planned experiments should be outlined in clear work packages, detailing how these experiments will answer the hypotheses posed. It is important that proposals demonstrate how the research may lead to impact for patients.
Patient involvement in the development of applications will be expected. The Bone Cancer Research Trust has a Patient and Public Involvement Panel, who may be contacted to support your application. Please email us at research@bcrt.org.uk.
All costings will be fully scrutinised and so clear justifications should be included.
The deadline for applications is 5pm on Monday 28th October 2024, with funding anticipated to be awarded by March 2025.
Chondrosarcoma Restricted Grant
The Bone Cancer Research Trust is committed to improving outcomes for patients with all types of primary bone cancer and believe the best way to do this is to fund high impact, innovative and collaborative research.
There has been limited progress in the treatment of the commonest bone sarcoma chondrosarcoma, with surgery remaining the mainstay of treatment and no standard of care for systemic treatment. Patients receive life-altering surgeries and are often left with poor functional outcomes, impacting on their quality of life. New targeted, systemic treatments and improved local management are urgent priorities.
To address this, the Bone Cancer Research Trust held a symposium, inviting all interested parties to participate in mapping out progress to date, hurdles and opportunities in chondrosarcoma care and research. The community highlighted the following areas of priority for chondrosarcoma and as such, we particularly welcome applications for funding of up to £500,000 to address one or more of the following, that will lead to a step change in the understanding of the disease or the care of patients.
- The role of biopsy and issues with accurate grading of chondrosarcoma.
- The potential of radiomics and imaging data to inform future research.
- The use of biological material to understand the biology of chondrosarcoma and develop novel treatments.
- The development of novel models of chondrosarcoma.
- The development of a national infrastructure to underpin future research and bring together the UK chondrosarcoma community.
- The quality of life and rehabilitation of chondrosarcoma patients.
We are particularly interested in multi-disciplinary, collaborative proposals, which may be hypothesis driven and generating projects, or projects that build infrastructure to underpin future research.
If an infrastructure building project, proposals must clearly describe the questions and research that this resource will go on to answer and support and an indication of where future applications for further funding may be submitted to support this research. They should include a clear rationale as to why this infrastructure is necessary to deliver improvements for patients and how this may be sustained beyond the scope of this funding.
If a hypothesis driven and generating project, applicants must describe background rationale, including references and preliminary data and must explain how the described experimental design will answer the questions posed in the project and how research may lead to patient benefit.
We are keen to receive proposals combining surgical, translational and biological questions, focused on both improved survival rates and functional outcomes for patients.
Funding is available to researchers and/or clinicians working in an academic or clinical institution in the UK, however, international collaboration is encouraged where appropriate. All costings will be fully scrutinised and so clear justifications should be included.
The Bone Cancer Research Trust is committed to funding research that may lead to patient benefit and ask that all applicants consider the needs of patients when developing their proposal. Applications should demonstrate a clear line of sight to patient benefit, irrespective of how long this may take.
Patient involvement in the development of applications will be expected. The Bone Cancer Research Trust has a Patient and Public Involvement Panel (PPIP), who may be contacted to support your application. Please email us to find out more about how to engage with the panel.
The deadline for applications is 5pm on the 30th September, with awards being made in March 2025.
To request an application form, please contact the Research Team.
Skill development grants
Through this funding scheme, the Bone Cancer research Trust helps UK based primary bone cancer researchers, at all levels in their careers, to travel nationally or internationally, to present their results at internationally recognised research conferences, whilst interacting with other researchers and establishing networks of collaboration.
The funding also enables researchers to travel to international or national laboratories, to carry out a research project or develop a specific skill that can then be applied at their institution of origin.
ELIGIBILITY
All primary bone cancer researchers based at a recognised UK institution. There are no limitations based on career development stage, but applications from early career researchers are particularly encouraged.
WHAT IS FUNDED
Funding for each application is limited to £3000 and should be in line with distance of travel and length of stay.
- Conference attendance: funding will cover registration, accommodation and travel costs.
- Laboratory stays: funding will cover travel, accommodation and research expenses to visit a collaborating research group.
This is a rolling scheme; applications may be submitted at any point and will be considered by the Skills Development Grants committee at BCRT.
More details can be found here.
To obtain an application form, please contact us.
Clinical Trials Support Scheme
The Bone Cancer Research Trust are committed to improving outcomes for patients with primary bone cancer and believe the best way to do this is to fund high impact, collaborative research. We are keen to support all stages of research, from pilot projects, through to more substantive research and have developed this funding call to meet these needs.
Funding of up to £100,000 is available to provide additional support ongoing clinical trials. The trial may be observational or interventional and can be oncology 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.
Proposals should clearly describe the funded trial, including the value of the funding already secured, start date and duration of the funding award and details on data sharing, IP and T&Cs. The proposal should describe the background evidence, including figures and previous publications, that have been used to support the submitted project, how the described design will answer the questions posed in the proposal and how the additional support will give added value to the current trial. The input from patients on the design and development of the proposal should also be described.
Costings submitted will be fully scrutinised and so applicants should fully justify all costs included.
This is a rolling scheme, applications may be submitted at any point and will be considered at the next available meeting of BCRT's Independent Scientific Advisory Panel.
To discuss the scope of this scheme or the possibility of applying for funding over £100,000 and to obtain an application form, please contact us.
Hear about funding calls
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