Melanoma Research Alliance Grants – Overview
The Melanoma Research Alliance is the funding arm of the American Cancer Society (ACS).
These grants are aimed at funding innovative and high-impact cancer research performed by hundreds of aspiring scientists and expert healthcare professionals, especially those in the early parts of their careers.
These cancer research grants are offered to educational and research institutions all over the United States.
Aim of Melanoma Research Alliance Grants
The Melanoma Research Alliance, under the guidance of the ACS, funds various types of research activities related to cancer.
For instance, the Extramural Discovery Science (EDS) team is formed to review and fund research programs at eligible research institutions in the US that can help cancer patients and their loved ones.
The main aim of the grant department is to identify the most creative aspiring investigators from across the US.
The department supports the investigators who are engaged in the most innovative cancer discovery research by using an independent, rigorous, highly competitive and completely anonymous peer-review process.
The grant department is committed to maintaining a cancer research portfolio that has all types of cancers and covers the cancer research continuum, apart from being aligned with the department’s research priorities.
The main priority is to focus on health equity with special emphasis on solving the social determinants of health that result in cancer health disparities. The priority also includes funding innovative solution-centric health equity research.
Melanoma Research Alliance Grants
The focus of Melanoma Alliance Research Grants
The main focus of Melanoma Alliance research grants is to fund research studies that concentrate on four distinct points:
1 – Discovery Research
This involves experiments pertaining to cells, animals, people, and genes to find new or improved understanding of an action, process technique, health behavior, technology or model to improve care.
2 – Research continuum
This includes the entire scope of research, called “bench to bedside”. The research can be performed at a research lab, in clinical trials, with healthcare providers and healthcare systems as well as within communities.
3 – Social determinants of health
These include studies conducted to identify non-medical factors that influence health and health care services. These include the condition and environment in which people are born into, live, work, play, and age.
Basically, these are factors that affect a wide range of health, quality of life and functioning along with outcomes and risks as well as the economic, social and political systems that shape the conditions of daily lives.
4 – Structural/Systemic racism
The grant studies may also focus on normalized cultural, historical, political and institutional practices that govern society and benefit Caucasians and are disadvantageous for people of color.
These can include educational systems, housing policies and employment practices that reinforce and perpetuate inequalities among racial groups.
Top 3 Melanoma Research Alliance Grants
Here is a list of the new and most popular grants offered by the American Cancer Society through the Melanoma Research Alliance for 2022:
1 – Discovery Boost Grants (DBG)
The Discovery Boost grants (DBG) are meant to support high-risk, high-reward exploratory cancer research across the research continuum.
These include research where investigators are focused on developing research methodologies, leading pilot tests and establishing feasibility.
The grantee expects the research’s preliminary data to have the potential to secure additional grant funding to advance their research and open new and highly innovative areas for cancer research.
The eligibility criteria for this grant require applicants to be working at a US-based eligible non-profit organization or an academic institution, besides having an independent faculty appointment.
Successful applicants can receive awards amounting to US$ 100,000 for up to 2 years of direct research costs, including 20% allowable indirect expenses.
To find out more details about this melanoma research grant, you can visit the official website at https://www.cancer.org/research/we-fund-cancer-research/.
2 – Institutional Research Grants
Institutional research grants are awarded to academic institutions as block grants. This provides the seed money required for newly independent investigators to start cancer research projects.
The aim of this grant is to support junior faculty in beginning cancer research projects so they can obtain preliminary data that will allow them to compete effectively for national research grants.
The eligibility criteria for this grant require applicants to be working at a US academic institution or an eligible non-profit organization.
The applicant should have attained the rank of Associate or Full Professor with a track record of mentoring junior investigators and medical publications.
Besides this, the applicant should have leadership and administrative experience as a director, or deputy director of a research program, research center or research department.
Under this grant, successful applicants can receive around US$ 120,000 for up to 3 years to cover direct costs only. Besides this, applicants can also receive 3 pilot grants of US$ 40,000 each for one year-periods.
To know more about this research grant from the Melanoma Research Alliance, you can visit the official website at https://www.cancer.org/research/we-fund-cancer-research/apply-research-grant/grant-types/institutional-research-grants.html.
3 – Diversity in Cancer Research Institutional Development Grant (DICR IDG)
The Diversity in Cancer Research (DICR) program by the American Cancer Society aims to enhance diversity in the cancer research workforce by improving the number of under-represented minorities in the bio-medical field.
The DICR offers the Institutional Development Grant (IDG) to enhance the competitiveness of faculty at minority-serving institutions.
This is to help and support faculty development and retention when they apply for nationally competitive grants.
The eligibility criteria for this grant require applicants to be instituted that are 4-year degree-granting institutes.
These include accredited medical schools, colleges, and universities within the United States who are designated federally as Minority-Serving Institutes (MSI).
Apart from this, individual applicants should be full-time faculty at a federally-designation MSI, have the rank of Associate or Full Professor, with a track record of extramural cancer research funding, mentoring junior investigators and publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Under this funding scheme, a total budget of US$ 2.63 million has been assigned for a 4-year project period to support 26 trainees and junior faculty members. For additional information, you can visit the official website at https://www.cancer.org/research/
Conclusion
The American Cancer Society (ACS) offers numerous types of funds and grants to promote better research in cancer.
These grants are meant to boost the competitiveness and research efforts of investigators who are actively involved in finding new and innovative ways to combat the threat of cancer.
Reference links
https://www.businesswire.com/news/
https://www.cancer.org/research/
See Also
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Grants
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