Grant Program

Applicants may request funding up to $100,000 for one year. Grants may be renewed for one year at the request of the investigator and at the recommendation of the Medical Advisory Council Chair. Grants in excess of $100,000 may be conditionally reviewed and approved with the approval of the Medical Advisory Council chair, provided all other requirements are followed. Current members of the International DIPG/DMG Registry or SIOPe DIPG/DMG Registry, as defined below, may apply for an increased grant funding of $200,000 for one year (note special requirements listed in section 4 below). Any funding requests above the limits above or for multi-year projects requires pre-approval by the Chair of the Medical Advisory Council no less than 2 months prior to grant consideration.

Criteria for Participation in Registry and Subsequent Access to Collaborative Funds: (Pertains to investigators and the institutions they represent.)

1. Institutional Approval (e.g. Non-human subjects research determination and HIPAA waiver granted/IRB approval)
2. Data submission (i.e. deceased pt. records yr.2000-present)
   • Includes clinical records, imaging and tissue (if available) for central review and digitization
   • 50% submitted within 6 months of institutional approval
   • 100% submitted within 1 year of institutional approval
   • Distributing Registry recruitment material (e.g. brochures) in clinic to DIPG patients and families
3. Institutions who submit data would be able to publish their own cohort within one year of submission. Thereafter, they can publish their cohorts at any time; however, the Registry reserves the right to include those cohorts as part of its cohort for publishing.
4. If an institution waives the one-year limit (#3 above), they are eligible to request funding for a grant up to $200,000 (standard limit is $100,000)

Approved grants are expected to be implemented within 6-months of acceptance and no grant shall be contingent on other external funding unless explicitly approved in writing by the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Council of The Cure Starts Now. It is the purpose of The Cure Starts Now to avoid a duplication of funding for the same work across all foundations due to a limitation of resources. To that end, any solicitation of foundation, industry or other third-party funds aimed to complete the study goals after CSN funding has been approved for such study goals will result in a review by the CSN, and such third-party funding solicitation may result in a revocation of grant proceeds unless such action is approved in advance by the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Council of The Cure Starts Now. Considerations will be made for multiple grant solicitations that represent separate expense line items or an expansion of an existing research project with the prior approval of the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Council of The Cure Starts Now.

Funding is for direct costs related to the research project. Examples of direct costs include personnel, salary, supplies, equipment and patient care expenses. Support for salary must not exceed percentage of effort related to the research. Institutional costs may be considered, but it is recommended that justification be provided in the budget of the grant. A total of 10% or less of institutional and indirect costs is recommended. Indirect costs may not be in excess of grant limits. In cases of limited funding, indirect costs may be excluded from funding recommendations. Travel costs are excluded from funding in this grant application, but investigators may request additional support from The Cure Starts Now to travel to meetings to present research funded by the Foundation. These requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Additional allocated funds are available as part of the DIPG/DMG Collaborative program administered by The Cure Starts Now. Although it is not a requirement to file a duplicate application and the Medical Advisory Council will automatically select the appropriate category based on the answers supplied, applicants for DIPG.com Symposium grants are strongly encouraged to detail a multi-institutional collaboration in their answer to Section 5.a.

Grant Process

Grant applications will be accepted for one funding cycle each year. The deadline for receipt of the application is June 1. Electronically uploaded submissions through Snapgrant.com shall be required as of May 25, 2018. Incomplete applications will not be considered. At the discretion of the Medical Advisory Council Chairman and based upon research needs, special grant cycles may be considered outside of June 1.

Applications will be reviewed and final determination on funding will be made within three months with funding to begin immediately. If internal review has not yet been performed or the study cannot begin within 6-months of grant approval, funds will be withheld until such time that The Cure Starts Now Foundation is notified that the program has been formally approved and will be implemented. If program approval is not received with 6 months and the program is not implemented, it shall be the sole discretion of the Medical Advisory Council Chairman to either deny, modify or delay grant funding to the institution.

Grant applications will be judged on a peer-reviewed basis. The steps in the grant determination process are:

• The Medical Advisory Council for The Cure Starts Now Foundation will initially review the applications for merit based on criteria listed below.
• When necessary, grant applications will be sent to physicians or investigators in the particular field of interest for an intensive review of the scientific merit.
• The Medical Advisory Council will then take the peer review assessment of scientific merit and make further assessments of the grant’s adherence to additional criteria listed below. The Medical Advisory Council will then rank the applications and make recommendations to the Board and the Strategic Advisory Council. The Board will make final determinations regarding funding of grant applications. All decisions by the Board are considered final.

A progress report must be submitted by the investigator(s) on annual intervals and at the end of the funding period. Failure to submit a progress report will exclude the investigator from any future funding from the foundation. Additionally, upon approval of funding by The DIPG Collaborative/The Cure Starts Now, the institution receiving funding must supply a letter acknowledging the grant and amount as well as a link to their website containing further information about the study for the education and coordination of affected individuals and families. A link to this website as well as the answers submitted in abstract form will be posted on The Cure Starts Now website.

Grantees are stipulated to both the principal investigator and the institution. Any transitions, acquisitions, relocation or other change in the grantee parties must be approved by The Cure Starts Now or the grant funds remaining must be returned within 30 days of change.

Funding by The DIPG/DMG Collaborative, The Cure Starts Now, and all participating foundations must be specifically acknowledged in all presentations and publications that involve research funded by the foundation. ALL granting organizations must be stipulated in all written and publicly presented materials with the entire membership of the DIPG/DMG Collaborative and/or The Cure Starts Now, depending on applicable grant. Failure to specify support appropriately may result in future grant opportunities denied and may result in cancellation of the awarded grant. Our goal is to share research and information, so it is mandatory that any and all study results will be shared promptly with the scientific community and not be kept strictly for proprietary purposes. Failure to promptly and fully share any and all study results with the DIPG and broader scientific community may result in a pause and/or complete discontinuation of any funding yet to be disbursed under such research funded by the foundation. Consideration for a limited delay, not to exceed 30 days, in reporting of results will be given to unpublished data that is the subject of a patent application or for journal publishing. For clarity, any and all data that is included in a filed patent application must be made available immediately following the filing of such a patent application. Any and all submissions to publications must also be submitted to The Cure Starts Now in advance of release and shall be made available to The Cure Starts Now Foundation and the DIPG/DMG Collaborative Foundations 30 days following proprietary release in a periodical or journal in full form (not abstract) for the purpose of education of patients, families and donors to the Collaborative.

Submissions to The Cure Starts Now Foundation for grant approval should not be construed to be confidential information and the submitting organization agrees to release The Cure Starts Now Foundation from any and all liability from the discussion, Internet posting or consideration of all documents submitted. If requested in writing by the applicant, posting of application answers to section 1 and 2 will only be posted for public view at www.thecurestartsnow.org, www.dipg.org and associated sites. All other responses and submissions will still be shared with members of the Medical Advisory Council and partnering foundations.

Grant Eligibility and Criteria

Applicant Eligibility:

• Must be an MD, DO, PhD, DrPH or equivalent
• Must be a member of a non-profit organization or a valid medical/scientific organization
• Must be up to date with any previous funding through The Cure Starts Now, which includes progress report submissions

Grant applications will be assessed based on the following criteria:

• Scientific Merit
  What is the hypothesis and does the study adequately answer and address the hypothesis? Does the study use valid research and statistical methods?
• Disease Impact
  Does the study propose an intervention or clinical tool that will reduce the morbidity or mortality from or potentially find a cure for pediatric brain cancer?
• Innovation
  Does the research study propose a novel approach or represent advancement in current treatment of pediatric brain cancer?
• Feasibility
  Is the study likely to meet its goals during the funding period? Can the research findings be translated into clinic practice? Are the research findings likely to result in a direct change in morbidity or mortality of pediatric brain cancer in the near future?
• Expertise of Investigator(s)
  Do the investigators have the expertise to meet their research goals?

The Medical Advisory Council and its members utilize a modified NIH scoring system to evaluate and score each grant application. Members score each study on a 1-9 scale for each of the criteria listed above (1 being considered as meeting qualifications and 9 considered deficient). In addition, they provide an overall Priority Score that is used for ranking each of the studies. An average of the Priority Scores for each of the studies is calculated, and then the average scores are ranked highest to lowest. The Council will then make recommendations to the Board and Strategic Advisory Council based on these scores.

Grant applications will require the following information:

Category: Clinical, Translational, Informational
Cancer Type(s)
Affiliation: e.g., The Cure Starts Now or DIPG Collaborative
Grant Amount

Lay Summary

• Describe your grant using layman's terms for funders that typically don't have a medical degree.
• This field is limited to 800 words.
• The first 200 words of your summary will comprise the abstract of your grant.

Executive Summary
This is a summary of the hypothesis, goals, background, clinical significance, design and methods of the proposed study. This summary is not to exceed 2000 words. This summary will aid our reviewers in determining if the study generally meets our three criteria for funding. These criteria include:

1. Scientific Merit
2. Feasibility
3. Expertise

Description of Research Proposal
This is a detailed description of the research project. This section should not exceed 10,000 words in length. Details that must be included in this section and must be listed in the following order:

1. Hypothesis proposed and anticipated results
2. Specific aims
3. Background and rationale for the proposed research project
4. Research design
5. Use of human or animal subjects
6. Disease impact and innovation
7. References

Budget
This section should not to exceed 2000 words and should include budget information and justification. All amounts should be listed in US Dollars. The following categories must be included:

• Personnel costs
• Salaries and wages
• Fringe benefits
• Supplies
• Equipment
• Patient care costs
• Other expenses (descriptive line item list)

Funding is for direct costs related to the research project. Examples of direct costs include personnel, salary, supplies, equipment and patient care expenses. Support for salary must not exceed percentage of effort related to the research. Institutional costs may be considered, but it is recommended that justification be provided in the budget of the grant. A total of 10% or less of institutional and indirect costs is recommended. In cases of questions on funding, NIH guidelines on caps may apply.

Collaborations and Conflicts of Interest

• Include biographical information for any investigators, co-investigators and any known key personnel that will be working on the research project. If the study will be a collaborative effort between investigators, this should be outlined here and the co-investigator should include his or her information along with a designated official from their institution. Biographical information should be in NIH biosketch format. The biosketch should include a description of any other studies for which the investigator(s) is currently being funded or is involved with.
• P.I. must include a statement in this section that discloses any potential conflicts of interest regarding the research project or its funding by The Cure Starts Now. A potential conflict of interest is a situation in which a reviewer or individual involved in a funding decision, a family member, a friend, or other associate is in a position to gain or lose personally or professionally by the foundation’s funding of the program.

Optional Supporting Documentation (Single PDF Upload)

W-9 (if based in the US)