Apply for funding | Antikankerfonds (NL)

Apply for funding

Do you have a cancer trial proposal that meets our 5 core criteria?

If so, don’t hesitate to apply for funding.

Our funding

Our foundation supports clinical investigators in multiple ways that may include financial support if your trial meets our five criteria, has high scientific merit and is in a cancer type of our current focus (see below). We accept co-funding, can consider applications from any country and can financially support any trial phase.

We accept spontaneous applications and regularly, we run Requests for Application with a specific scope.

Current Requests for Application (RFA)

NEUROBLASTOMA

One RFA is a Research Funding Award launched by the ACTION Consortium, an international collaboration that has the ambition to find innovative approaches to tackle neuroblastoma.

The call is focused on refractory and relapsed neuroblastoma, calling for innovative approaches to accelerating clinical trials, and evaluation of novel therapies. By pooling our resources to form the ACTION Consortium, this award will be one of the largest seen in the neuroblastoma field, standing at $2 million.

Founded by five non-profit organisations, Anticancer Fund (Belgium), The Evan Foundation (United States), Kindred Foundation (Canada), Solving Kids’ Cancer (United Kingdom) and Zoé4Life (Switzerland), the ACTION Consortium is a collective force committed to Advancing Clinical Trial Implementation and Optimisation in Neuroblastoma.

More information about this call in neuroblastoma

RARE CANCERS

Another important RFA is an international call for resarch proposals in rare cancer, a collaborative effort of Anticancer Fund and 4 peer European funds, FC AECC (Spain), Fondation ARC (France), Kom op tegen Kanker (Belgium) and KWF Dutch Cancer Society (the Netherlands). The ATTRACT-call is the first international call to scientists to accelerate drug development for rare cancers through cross-border clinical academic research. The call has an indicative budget of up to 12 million euros.

More information about this call in rare cancers

Spontaneous Application - How to Apply

Do not hesitate to apply for funding if you have a clinical trial proposal meeting our five core criteria in one of the following specific cancer domains:

  • paediatric solid tumours, including brain tumours and sarcomas
  • gynaecological cancers (excluding breast cancer)
  • adult brain tumours and brain metastases
  • hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers

To assess whether your clinical trial proposal would qualify for an official submission, we need:

  • a trial synopsis (max. 1 page)
  • an estimation of the budget you need
  • the amount and source of funding already secured for the trial

This information can be sent to apply@anticancerfund.org. We will rapidly inform you if your proposal is eligible for an official submission and you will then receive a submission form to be completed.

Our core criteria for funding

Patient-centred

  • The trial must serve patients’ interest and should be patient-centred. Applicants also need to demonstrate patient engagement in the design and execution of the trial.
  • Efficacy trials need to contain Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurements.

Industry is not interested

  • 2 possible situations:
    1. Either the intervention is off-patent or non-patentable, and no company is interested in developing and commercialising it in this specific indication.
    2. Or the commercial owner of the intervention (marketing authorisation holder for drugs) is not willing to provide full funding for the trial.
  • In both cases, the lack of interest from companies must be justified by the applicant and confirmed by the company for on-patent products.

Improving survival or cure rate

  • The ultimate goal of the intervention is to improve survival or cure rate, although not necessarily in the proposed trial.

Limited risk of trial execution failure

  • The leading clinical trial team has a track record of high-quality trials – preferentially investigator-driven trials – in the field relevant to the application. 
  • All interventional products should be available or production should be organised.

Low competition

  • When multiple trials are running in the same cancer and setting, rapid changes in the treatment algorithm and fierce competition for patients may occur. This increases the risk that the trial becomes irrelevant. Fierce competition impedes accrual in non-commercial trials. We want to limit the risk of facing these issues as much as we can.  
  • Authorised and/or upcoming interventions in the specific cancer type and setting are limited.
  • Patient participation in the proposed trial will not be impeded by other ongoing trials in the same cancer type and setting.

Our evaluation process

Every trial will be evaluated and then selected according to the same process

1. An internal evaluation is performed by the the clinical research team of the Anticancer Fund. We will check: 

  • If the 5 core criteria are met.
  • If the scientific rationale is sound and if contradictory data exist.
  • The level of competition in terms of trials and interventions in the proposed cancer and setting (horizon scanning).
  • If the budget requested is reasonable and reports other sources of funding already available. 

2. If your project meets all aspects above, it is then evaluated by two external reviewers, who are specialists in the cancer concerned by the proposal, by one patient representative, and by one biostatistician.  

3. Trials that are deemed excellent are then presented to our Board. In parallel, a feasibility assessment is performed.  

4. The official and final decision will be made by the Board, mainly based on two questions:  

  • Does the trial fit within our current strategy? 
  • Do we have enough budget to support the trial? 

Please be assured that even if we decide not to fund your trial, you will receive feedback that may increase your chances of receiving funding elsewhere. In addition, we can provide a list of other funding opportunities you may not be aware of.

Find out more about how we assist researchers here.

ACF strongly encourages Clinical Trial Transparency for the trials we support. Take a look at our Clinical Trial Transparency Policy here.

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.

Helen Keller, American author, political activist and lecturer

Questions?

You can send us an e-mail

Or give us a call

+32 2 268 48 16