Limited Submission Opportunity: 2024 St. Baldrick’s Foundation Research Grants

Applications due Nov. 9

This is a joint competition for VU and VUMC investigators. All investigators should follow these instructions.

Vanderbilt (VU and VUMC combined) may submit Research Grant and Scholar (Career Development) Award proposals for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation spring grant cycle. Vanderbilt is limited to one submission per award program with the potential for a limited submissions policy exception, noted below. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a nonprofit organization raising funds for childhood cancer research. All projects must have direct applicability and relevance to pediatric cancer.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Adolescents and young adults
• Survivorship, outcomes and quality of life
• Supportive care
• Epidemiology and pediatric cancer predispositions
• Precision medicine
• Alternative and complementary therapies

There is particularly high interest in the following topics. (Research on these conditions may qualify for a limited submission policy exception allowing for one additional institutional proposal submission to any grant type, and therefore may receive priority.)

• Brain tumors – all types, including rare forms, especially atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor (AT/RT), diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG)/diffuse midline glioma (DMG), and glioblastoma (GBM)
• Burkitt lymphoma – all types, especially sporadic
• Complementary and alternative therapies
• Ewing sarcoma
• Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis
• Rhabdoid tumors

Grant types

Download full guidelines for each grant type here.

**Please note that you may only apply as a lead PI on one of the following grant types.**

Research Grants: These grants are for specific two-year research projects that are hypothesis driven and may be either laboratory, clinical or epidemiological in nature. Please submit a realistic budget for the project. Grants will be $100,000/year or less.

Scholar (Career Development) Awards: This award is meant to help develop the independent research of highly qualified individuals still early in their careers. This award is granted for three years, with an opportunity to apply for an additional two years of funding based upon the demonstration of significant accomplishment. Funding for years 1–3 will be up to $110,000 per year (up to $115,000 per year for years 4–5), to be used entirely for the scholar’s salary and fringe at the applicant institution.

Eligibility requirements

General applicant eligibility

• Research projects must have direct applicability and relevance to pediatric cancer. They may be in any discipline of basic, clinical, translational or epidemiological research.
• Applicants should hold a Ph.D., M.D. or D.O degree by the date the award becomes effective.
• No institutional overhead or indirect funding is provided under the terms of the grants.
• Baldrick’s funds may not be used for human embryonic stem cell research.

For Scholar (Career Development) Awards

• Applicants must currently hold (for no longer than seven years at the time the award begins), or will hold by start of the award, a title that is considered by the institution to be a full-time faculty position. (Contact LSO@vanderbilt.edu with any questions about eligible positions.)
• This is an early-career award. The Scholar award is intended to develop the independent pediatric cancer research careers of highly qualified investigators, not to support well-established or senior investigators.
• Scholars may receive funding from other sources to support their research. However, no other comparable or higher (monetary value) career development award may be held prior to or at the time the award begins. Scientific or budgetary overlap with other funded projects is not allowed.
  • In the event of comparable or higher (monetary value) career development funding after the LOI has been approved, the scholar must give up the remainder of their St. Baldrick’s award, unless otherwise approved by the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.
• Applicants holding or awarded R01s at the time of the LOI are not eligible to apply. Applicants cannot hold an NIH K-award at the time that they apply (institutional K12 funding is allowable).
• Applicants must have an appropriate sponsor who provides supervision, facilities and research support. If appropriate for the project, applicants may have more than one sponsor.
• Scholar awards are to be used entirely for the scholar’s salary and fringe at the applicant institution. Other personnel and/or non-personnel costs are NOT allowed on Scholar awards.
• The scholar must devote no less than 40 percent effort to the funded project.

Applicants should review full eligibility and budget requirements in their respective award’s guidelines, available for download here.

Internal selection process

Anyone interested in being considered as Vanderbilt’s nominee(s) must submit the following (in a single PDF) to LSO@vanderbilt.edu by 5 p.m. on Nov. 9, 2023.

1. Research plan (2-page max.)
   1. If your research will focus on any of the six high-interest areas listed above, please identify the area
2. Letter of support from department chair/center director

1. 1. Letter must additionally acknowledge that this grant does not allow indirect costs.** This statement can be used/modified within the letter: “The department recognizes that this grant does not allow indirect costs and will commit to covering any associated indirect costs per applicable school/institutional policy.”

3. NIH Biosketch or brief CV (5-page max.)

Please reference the grant type in the subject line of the email. Following internal selection, Vanderbilt’s nominee(s) will submit a letter of intent to St. Baldrick’s by Dec. 8, 2023.

**Process for cost-sharing typically coordinated at the departmental level and approved by department chair and/or dean. Please consult LSO@vanderbilt.edu for further guidance.