The Last Mile Sarcoma Research Award
Request for Proposals
Overview
The Sarcoma Foundation of America (SFA) is pleased to announce a research funding opportunity to provide one-year grants in the amount of $150,000, to support all types of research in human sarcomas.
In support of our overall mission to fund research and increase awareness and advocacy for sarcoma patients and their families, the goal of the SFA grant program is to encourage research that results in improved therapeutic options for sarcoma patients.
Description
This grant mechanism is available for sarcoma researchers to provide funding to strengthen the resubmission of a R01 or R01-equivalent grant proposal (grants that are up to $500,000/year for up to five years), where the application is eligible for resubmission and the applicant is the project director and principal investigator on the application. The application must have scored in the 50th percentile or better, but outside the pay line.
Considerations in a funding decision will include the following: the innovation and impact of the research proposed, the financial circumstances and needs of the investigator, and the likelihood of success in moving the proposal’s score within the funding range following resubmission. If funded by SFA, the expectation is that the application would be successfully resubmitted to the initial evaluating organization within one year of the end date of the Last Mile Grant.
Applicants must submit the following: 1) the original proposal; 2) the review committee summary statement including all reviewer critiques; 3) a 1-2-page initial response to the critiques along with 1/2 page high level summary of the specific studies that will be pursued to improve the application’s likelihood of success upon resubmission; 4) NIH Biosketch(es) and up-to-date other support documents for the complete research team; and 5) a 1-page high-level budget and budget justification. The funds may not be used for salary support for the principal investigator(s), co-investigator(s), or consultants. The total amount requested must not exceed $150,000.
For each awarded grant, funding of up to $150,000 in total cost is available to cover equipment, supplies and other expenses in support of research within the period of performance. In addition, the following funding restrictions apply:
- No more than 10% of the total cost amount can be applied to indirect cost (e.g., $15,000 indirect cost toward the $150,000 total cost of the grant)
- The SFA does not permit funds to be used for Principal Investigator (PI) salaries. However, applicants are permitted to request money for the payment of salaries for non-faculty post-docs, fellows, and technicians, if applicable. No more than 50% of total cost can be used for salaries (e.g., $75,000 for the $150,000 award).
Review and Selection
Grant applications will be reviewed using a peer review method. Peer reviewers are members of SFA’s Medical Advisory Board immediately following the application deadline of February 3, 2025, at 5:00 pm ET. Applicants are estimated to be notified in mid-April, as to the award decision for their proposal. The funds awarded will be made available for research by June 2, 2025.
SFA’s grant review process is based on the same peer review system utilized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The merit grading is unbiased and based solely on the scientific merits of the proposal. The SFA Medical Advisory Board, composed of leading academic scientific sarcoma experts, reviews all grant applications (peer review) and ranks them through a scoring system. Scoring of grants is done individually by each medical expert and scores are added together to determine the final ranking of each proposal. Any reviewer with a conflict of interest is excused from voting on a specific proposal. The highest scoring grant applications are recommended for funding to SFA’s Board of Directors, who approve the final selection of grant awards. Selections for funding are based on scores from internal and external medical reviewers, available funding, and the predicted potential for the research effort to result in improved therapeutic options for sarcoma patients.
Report Deliverables
Grantees/PIs are required to submit a Final Report (research outcomes and impact) and Financial Report (list of cumulative expenditures) no later than two months after the end date of the period of performance. Please be aware that failure to provide these deliverables may adversely affect future funding to the organization and/or awards to the same PI. Instructions for the Final Report and Financial Report will be made available to awardees through our grant website: proposalCENTRAL.
Eligibility and Exclusions
- Applicants must be an MD, DO, PhD, or international equivalent with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed sarcoma research;
- Applicants must be within the first ten years of faculty appointment (beginning with instructor/assistant professor or the equivalent).
- Each proposal must identify only one lead PI. The PI is responsible for the overall grant management, coordination and research oversight to include the deliverables;
- Returning SFA PIs and organizational grantees must be in compliance with any/all previous SFA grant deliverables;
Application and Submission Information
Completed applications must be submitted by February 3, 2025, at 5:00 pm ET. Researchers must submit proposals electronically at proposalCENTRAL, an e-grantmaking website shared by many government, non-profit, and private grant-making organizations. The SFA does not accept applications via e-mail or paper applications.
First-time users are required to register and complete a professional profile in order to apply for an SFA research grant. If you have any questions about registration, how to apply, or other logistical application questions, please contact the proposalCENTRAL customer support at 800 875 2562 (Toll-free U.S. and Canada), or +1 703 964 5840 (Direct Dial International) or by email at pcsupport@altum.com.
The online SFA application consists of the following components:
Title Page (section 1) – Enter title of proposal/application and choose from one of the following research areas:
- Immunotherapy
- Omic characterization of sarcomas and definition of novel targets
- Omic patterns of sensitivity and resistance to existing agents
- Systemic therapy combinations
- Gene Therapy
- Other
Applicant/PI professional profile (section 4) – This section allows PIs to edit an existing profile as well as indicate expertise
Institution & Contacts (section 5) – Applicant’s institution is pre-loaded as Lead Institution. To change, select from list. Applicants are asked to select an Institutional Financial Officer/Signing Official.
Key Personnel (section 6) – List Personnel and Consultants who will be involved in the project performance.
Facilities Disclosure (section 7) – Identify the project location, hospital space, institutional equipment. Briefly comment on whether/how the scientific environment in which the work will be done contributes to the probability of success and whether the institutional support, equipment and other physical resources available to the investigators is adequate for the project proposed.
Abstract (section 8) – In addition to choosing a primary sarcoma subtype (and additional keywords if applicable), PIs need to give a summary, in 3,000 characters or less (including spaces), of the written research proposal. Applicants should prepare their abstract in language accessible to a general scientific audience and avoid jargon. Be sure to include all important objectives/aims as well as a brief description of the methods to achieve them. The relevance, significance and innovation of the proposal as it applies to the treatment of sarcoma should be included. Note: Instruction on the full proposal can be found under the Attachments section below.
Budget Period Detail and Summary (sections 9 & 10): Enter the allowable cost necessary and reasonable to complete the work described in the proposal during the period of performance.
- SFA grants are for a one-year period. Please use June 2, 2025, as the start date and June 1, 2026 as the end date of the project.
- The SFA does not permit funds to be used for PI salaries. However, applicants are permitted to request money for the payment of salaries for non-faculty post-docs, fellows, and technicians, if applicable. No more than 50% of total cost of the grant can be used for salaries (e.g., $75,000 for the $150,000 award). Applications requesting more than this amount for salaries will not be accepted.
- Applicants are required to provide a written justification for the purchase of any permanent equipment items over $500. This justification is limited to 500 characters (including spaces).
- No more than 10% of the total cost amount of the grant can be applied to indirect cost (e.g., $15,000 indirect cost toward the $150,000 total cost of the grant).
- Where possible, please provide specific descriptions for each line-item cost and how the amount was determined. Please use multiple line items under a budget category to identify specific costs, rather than combine all costs into a single line-item. If more room is needed, the budget justification box at the bottom may be used.
Other Support (section 11) – Please add all of your existing and pending Support.
- To add your entries, please click the “+” link and all entries previously saved in your Professional Profile will show. Please select the applicable support, and save. If the program allows for Key Personnel and they have granted you at least View access to their profile, you can select Other Support from their profile as well.
- To add new Other Support entries, click the “Create New Other Support” button. By default, this entry will be added to your profile, unless the option “Add to Profile” is not selected. If you have Edit or Admin access to your Key Personnel’s profile, you can add new Other Support entries on their behalf to this application and update their profile as well.
Organization Assurances (section 12) – It is the responsibility of the PI/grantee to obtain all necessary IRB and IACUC approvals prior to engagement in human subjects and vertebrate animal research, respectively.
- If the project involves vertebrate animal use, is the institution assured by the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) and is there an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval date?
- If the project involves human participant clinical research with prospective enrollment, collection of samples/data or use of samples/data with access to identifiers, does the institution have an FWA and is there an IRB approval date? Optional guidance to assess your project can be found here: https://grants.nih.gov/policy/humansubjects/hs-decision.htm.
Attachments (section 13)
1) the original proposal;
2) the review committee summary statement including all reviewer critiques;
3) a 1-2-page initial response to the critiques along with 1/2 page high level summary of the specific studies that will be pursued to improve the application’s likelihood of success upon resubmission; and
4) NIH Biosketch(es) and up-to-date other support documents for the complete research team;
Signature Page (section 15) – The Applicant/PI and the Signing Official at the Applicant’s Institution must e-sign the proposal before submission. The application will not validate without both e-signatures. The Signing Official must sign into ProposalCentral using their own credentials to complete this process.
Complete online application instructions can also be found at the following links:
How to Register your Institution with proposalCENTRAL (Grants and Contracts Officials Only)
How to Register as a proposalCENTRAL user
How to Create an Application using proposalCENTRAL
Acknowledgement and Publicity
Proper acknowledgment is critical for our ability to continue supporting sarcoma advocacy, awareness and research. Publications, press releases and other documents that cite results/outcomes from SFA grant-supported research is expected to include an acknowledgement of SFA grant support such as “The research described was supported by grant # [sample format] 2025 SFA Last Mile Research Award XX-25 from the Sarcoma Foundation of America.”
Given the typical delay in publishing in medical journals, we encourage other accessible and timely publishing options which describe/discuss the research and accomplishments to include: press releases, website content, publications, presentations, interviews, posters, abstracts, articles, or other communications with the appropriate SFA acknowledgement.
Contacts Related Notices
Questions about SFA research grants can be sent to sfagrants@curesarcoma.org.
Questions about registration, how to register/apply, error or system problems or other logistical application questions should contact the proposalCENTRAL customer support at 800 875 2562 (Toll-free U.S. and Canada), or +1 703 964 5840 (Direct Dial International) or by email at pcsupport@altum.com.
Please refer to our Grants FAQ for additional information.
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