Grants-in-Aid

Expression of Interest CLOSED

Purpose

Cancer Council Victoria’s Grants-in-Aid program funds high quality research into the causes, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. We are committed to funding research projects tackling all cancer types to achieve our vision for a cancer-free future.

Applications will be assessed in a two-phase process consisting of an Expression of Interest and if shortlisted, applicants will be invited to submit a Full Application.

The submission process is now managed directly by Cancer Council Victoria and no longer via the NHMRC.

Key Dates

Please note: individual institutions may have earlier closing dates to allow for internal processing before submitting to Cancer Council Victoria by the specified deadline.

Available funding

Our Grants-in-Aid support cancer research for up to $100,000 per year for two or three years.

Additional funding is available for two Low Survival Cancer research projects and one mesothelioma project.  Low Survival Cancers are generally defined as those with a five-year survival rate of ≤50%. To be eligible for one of these specific funding grants, applicants must answer ‘yes’ to the relevant question in both the EOI and Full Application forms and provide details of the direct relevance to Low Survival Cancers.

Selection Criteria

Applications are assessed on the following three criteria in both the Expression of Interest (EOI) and Full Application phases.

For the EOI, all criteria are weighted evenly. For Full Applications, the criteria will be weighted as follows:

1. Quality/excellence of research including design and methodology (50%)
2. Impact and significance to cancer (20%)
3. Team track record, collaborative capacity and feasibility (30%)

As of 2020, the Standing Research Subcommittee provides all assessment of Grants-in-Aid submissions. The Medical and Scientific Committee   then reviews and ratifies awarding the grants. 

Eligibility

• Grants-in-Aid are awarded to research conducted in Victorian universities, hospitals and medical research institutes.
• The work to be funded must relate to the causes, prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer.
• Funding will not be granted to any researcher who is receiving or who is an applicant for funding from the tobacco industry or any of its agencies or subsidiaries.
• Relevance to cancer is the fundamental criteria for eligibility for Grants-in-Aid funding. The primary focus of the project must relate to the causes, prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer.
• Those projects applying to Low Survival Cancer specific funding must demonstrate a primary focus on a low survival cancer as defined below.

Limitations on funding for researchers and institutions

• The first-named Chief Investigator (CIA) must hold a primary appointment at an institution in Victoria. 
• Chief Investigator A (CIA) may only submit and hold one Cancer Council Victoria Grant-in-Aid as CIA. If the CIA currently holds a Grants-in-Aid that finishes after 31 December 2022, they cannot apply to this round. This includes those grants currently held with “a no cost extension”.
• Any Chief Investigator may only act as CI (B, C, D etc) on one submission in the 2022 round.
• No changes to the Chief investigators are to be made between the EOI and Full Application unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Cancer Council Victoria employees are eligible for inclusion on Grants-in-Aid project applications providing:

• The Cancer Council employee is not listed as Chief Investigator A (CIA)
• The project is led by another institution, and funds are awarded to and expended by another institution.

Low Survival Cancers

Low survival cancers are generally defined as those with a five-year survival rate of ≤50%. To be eligible for this specific funding grant opportunity, applicants must answer ‘yes’ to the relevant question in both the EOI and Full Application forms and provide details of the direct relevance to Low Survival Cancers. The following table provides a guide of cancer types defined as Low Survival.

Source: Victorian Cancer Registery

* Liver includes intrahepatic biliary ducts
** Gallbladder includes extrahepatic biliary ducts
*** Cancer of Unknown Primary is referred to as unspecified site in Victorian Cancer Registry data. Because of challenges categorising cancer of unknown primary the data set may not capture all cases of cancer of unknown primary in Victoria.

Research Plan

Expression of interest: Only headings 1 – 3 to be included in the expression of interest submission. Maximum length is 2 pages, including any images (figs and tables) using a minimum font size of Arial 11. Not including references.

Full application: All headings to be included in the full application. Maximum length is 5 pages in total including any images (figs and tables) using a minimum font size of Arial 11. Not including references.

1. Aims and Hypotheses 
Hypotheses to be tested should be clearly stated.

2. Methods / Design 
Include sufficient detail for methods and experimental design to be assessed.

3. Experimental Plan
Clearly outline the experimental plan that best fits your project design.

4. Key Activities and Milestones
To clearly demonstrate the expected progression of your project, list every milestone you expect to achieve and when you expect to achieve it, including employment of staff, ethics approval, development of study measures, data collection (eg expected recruitment numbers within each 6 monthly interval), data analysis, manuscript preparation etc.

Relevance to cancer

Relevance to cancer is the fundamental criteria for eligibility for Grants-in-Aid funding. The primary focus of the project must relate to the causes, prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer. You must include information on the relevance to cancer in your response, including how you might progress the results of your work and its translation into clinical practice.

The application will be considered insufficiently relevant if the relevance and significance to another disease is greater than to cancer, or if the research is of such a fundamental nature that its likely short or medium term impact on cancer control is low. 

Curriculum Vitae

Include the following information in all CV 's under the following headings. CV’s must be limited to 3 pages using a minimum font size of Arial 11. 

Qualifications
Provide a list of your qualifications. For each entry include; the name and location of the institution, the degree received (if applicable), the month and year of end date and the field of study.

Career Disruptions
Outline any career disruptions that you have experienced that impact the length of time between your PhD (or MBBS) being awarded and the closing date for applications.  

Personal Statement
Briefly describe why you are well-suited for your role(s) in this project. Relevant factors may include: aspects of your training; your previous experimental work on this specific topic or related topics; your technical expertise; your collaborators or scientific environment; and/or your past performance in this or related fields.

Positions and Honors
List in chronological order the positions you've held that are relevant to this application, concluding with your present position.

Contributions to Science
Briefly describe your most significant contributions to science that relate to this project. This section should also highlight your accomplishments, and those of your colleagues, as scientists. This information will be used by the reviewers in the assessment of each of your experience for a specific role in the proposed project, as well as to evaluate the research team as a whole.  

Publications (5 years)
List your publications from the last 5 years, particularly those that relate to the project.

Budget

1. Salary requests

Salary requests for CIAs will be permitted provided the CIA’s PhD (or MBBS) was awarded < 13 years ago at the closing date for applications.
Note:  In order to verify eligibility, applicants must include the date of the letter advising them of their PhD or MBBS qualification being approved. This is to be provided in the ‘Budget’ question of the Full Application form. Career disruptions will only be considered if applicants provide specific details of their situation.
Salary requests for CIB, CIC, CID etc will be permitted provided the salary is not being requested to support someone who is a group leader or head of laboratory.
All requests for salary must be justified. Applicants are asked to include this justification in Budget section of the Full Applications document. This detail is not required for the EOI.
No on costs are to be included in salary requests.

2. Other funding sources
You may seek funding from other sources for the same project, however, there must be no overlap or duplication of funded components. You will be required to decline or relinquish one of the grants (or part of) if you are successful in obtaining funding for duplicate components. Applications will be assessed on the activities for which you are seeking Cancer Council Victoria funding. The Research plan must clearly outline these activities and how they will benefit the larger project. Details of the other funding sought are to be provided including;

• State which funding body and opportunity you are applying to
• The aims and objectives included in the other application/s and
• The similarities and differences between the applications
• Provide a clear justification for requesting Cancer Council Victoria funding.

3. Funds spent outside Victoria
Cancer Council Victoria will fund collaborative research, provided that the Administering Organisation and majority of the research funded is based in Victoria. Any funds requested to be spent outside of Victoria must be justified.

Role of the Administering Institution

The Administering Institution guarantees that the infrastructure and research environment necessary to support the research will be available. The Administering Institution also provides the administrative framework through which applications are received and payments made.

Should the application be successful, the Administering Institution is required to enter into a funding agreement with Cancer Council Victoria. The conditions in the agreement cover the standard grants contract areas including acknowledgment, intellectual property, reporting requirements etc.

View application guidelines

Download full application form

Funding agreement

By applying for this grant;

• you and your Administering Organisation acknowledge that you have readCancer Council Victoria’s standard funding agreement (which can be found below); and
• you and your Administering Organisation agree to these terms for the purpose of applying for, and if successful receiving, your grant from Cancer Council Victoria.

View funding agreement

Contact

If you have any questions, please contact:   

The Grants Team 
Research Governance & Optimal Care Unit

03 9514 6200
Grants@cancervic.org.au  

Recipients

Projects commencing in 2022

A/Prof Jeffrey Babon, Prof Warren Alexander, Dr Nadia kershaw, Dr Jason Brouwer 
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
A new therapy for the treatment of Myeloproliferative Diseases (2022 -2024)

Prof Sarah-Jane Dawson, A/Prof Jessic Howell, Prof Alexander Thompson 
University of Melbourne 
Early Detection and Monitoring of Hepatocellular Carcinoma using Liquid Biopsies (2022 - 2024)

Prof Mark Dawson, Ms. Clare Gould, A/Prof Michael Dickinson, Dr Mary Ann Anderson, Prof Constantine Tam 
University of Melbourne
Circulating tumour DNA and Genomic Markers of Poor Response to Ibrutinib-Venetoc (2022 - 2024)

Dr. Omer Gilan  
Monash University
Developing new combination therapies in acute leukaemia (2022 - 2024) 

A/Prof Paul Gregorevic, A/Prof Sean McGee    
University of Melbourne 
Giving people the strength to fight cancer: Targeting muscle to enhance survival (2022 - 2024)

Dr Nicholas Hardcastle, Dr James Korte, A/Prof Sarah Everitt, A/Prof Tomas Kron, Dr Nikki Plumridge, Dr Susan Harden, Dr Kate Moodie, Prem Krishnan, Dr Elizabeth Pearson
University of Melbourne
Sitting up for Radiotherapy (2022 - 2024)

Dr Susan Harden, Prof Penelope Schofield, Prof John Zalchberg, A/Prof Rob Stirling, Mr Ewan MacFarlane
Monash University 
Determining patterns of care and access to novel therapies for mesothelioma (2022 - 2024)

Prof Nicholas Huntington, Momeneh Foroutan, Dr Sebastian Scheer 
Monash University
Enhancing Immunotherapy Response Rates (2022 - 2024) 

A/Prof Thomas John, Prof Sean Grimmond, Dr Muhammad Alamgeer  
University of Melbourne
A Precision Medicine program in Mesothelioma (2022 - 2024) 
This project is funded through the generous support of the Lyall Watts Mesothelioma Research Fund. 

Prof Ricky Johnstone, Dr Stephin Vervoort 
University of Melbourne
New therapies for Multiple Myeloma (2022 - 2024)

Prof Laura Mackay
University of Melbourne
Targeting local immune cells to improve cancer treatments (2022 - 2024) 

Prof Stephen Nutt, Dr Julie Tellier 
University of Melbourne
Targeting plasma cells to treat liver cancer (2022 - 2024) 

Prof Joseph Trapani, Dr Laura Porter 
University of Melbourne
Using anti-cancer drugs to stimulate an immune response to cancer (2022 - 2024) 

Projects commenced in 2021

Dr Rishu Agarwal,  Dr Philip Thompson, Prof Constantine Tam, Prof Sarah-Jane Dawson, Prof Mark Dawson
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Circulating tumour DNA and genomic markers of poor response to Ibrutinib-Venetoclax combination therapy in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (2021 -2023)

A/Prof Ian Campbell,  A/Prof Paul James, Dr Na Li
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Finding new genes that cause familial high grade serious ovarian cancer (2021 -2023)

A/Prof Prudence Francis, Prof Sherene Loi, Prof Sarah Jane Dawson
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Understanding response to neoadjuvant therapy in hormone receptor positive breast cancer; a correlative analysis of the ELIMINATE trial (2021 -2023) 

A/Prof Marco Herold,  Prof Tony Papenfuss
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Looking beyond the role of mutant DNMT3a in AML (2021 -2023) 

Prof Brendan Jenkins,  Dr Daniel Croagh, A/Prof Marina Pajic, Prof Yana Zavros
Hudson Institute of Medical Research
Uncovering the broad clinical utility of the innate immune pattern recognition receptor, Toll-like receptor 2, in pancreatic cancer (2021 -2023) 

Dr Linh Nguyen, Prof John Hopper, Dr Gillian Dite, Dr Shuai Li, Prof Pam Bell, Mrs Gerda Evans, Prof Joohon Sung
University of Melbourne
Combining novel breast cancer risk factors to produce automated and accurate personalised breast cancer risk prediction at the time of mammographic screening (2021 -2023) 

Prof Anthony Purcell, Prof Bruce Robinson
Monash University
Defining the antigenic landscape of malignant mesothelioma - new opportunities for immunotherapy (2021 -2023) 
This project is funded through the generous support of the Lyall Watts Mesothelioma Research Fund. 

A/Prof Erica Sloan,  Dr Fiona Hegi-Johnson, Prof Robin Anderson, Prof Michael MacManus, Prof Scott Mueller
Monash University
Harnessing neural-immune communication to enhance the radiotherapy abscopal response (2021 -2023) 

A/Prof Jeanne Tie,  Prof Peter Gibbs, A/Prof Sue-Anne McLachlan, Dr Craig Underhill, Prof Niall Tebbutt, Prof Alexander Heriot, Dr Julie Chu, Prof Michael Jefford, Dr Tim Akhurst
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
RESOLUTE: Randomised phase II trial to evaluate the strategy of integrating local ablative therapy with first-line systemic treatment for unresectable oligometastatic Colorectal cancer (2021 -2023) 

Dr Daniel Utzschneider,  Prof Stephen Opat, Prof Constantine Tam, Prof Axel Kallies
Peter Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne
Characterization and targeting of T cells for the treatment of leukemia (2021 -2023) 

Dr Ajithkumar Vasanthakumar,  Dr Bhupinder Pal, Dr Simon Tsao, Prof Axel Kallies
Peter Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne
Targeting regulatory T cells in mammary adipose tissue to treat breast cancer (2021 -2023) 

A/Prof Ilia Voskoboinik,  Prof Joseph Trapani, Prof Constantine Tam
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
How to overcome tumour resistance to immunotherapy (2021 -2023) 

Prof Ingrid Winship,  Dr Khalid Mahmood, A/Prof Daniel Buchanan, Mr Peter Georgeson, Ms Emma Barrance, Ms Natalie Diepenhorst, Ms Julie Toner
University of Melbourne
What can tumour mutational signatures tell us about the cause of familial colorectal cancer? (2021 -2023) 

Projects commenced in 2020

Dr Holly Barker, Dr Kristy Shield-Artin, Dr Cassandra Vandenberg and Dr Gayanie Ratnayake 
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Identifying new treatment options for the rare and aggressive ovarian carcinosarcoma (2020 -2022)
Co-funded by the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation 

Dr Paul Beavis, Prof Phillip Darcy, Prof Benjamin Solomon and Prof Sherene Loi
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Enhancing cell-based therapy of cancer (2020 -2022)

A/Prof Daniel Buchanan, Prof Mark Jenkins, Prof Ingrid Winship, Prof Finlay Macrae, Prof Alex Boussioutas and A/Prof Christophe Rosty
University of Melbourne
Why does colonoscopy fail to prevent cancer of the large bowel in people with Lynch syndrome? (2020 -2022)

Prof Suzanne Cory and Dr Gemma Kelly
The Walter and Eliza Hall institute of Medical Research
Testing a promising new therapeutic target (MNT) to improve treatment of diverse human lymphomas and other cancers driven by high levels of the oncoprotein MYC (2020 -2022)

Prof Paul Donnelly and A/Prof Carleen Cullinane
University of Melbourne
Diagnostic imaging and therapy of cancers with copper radiopharmaceuticals (2020 -2022)

Dr Debra Gook, A/Prof David Westerman and Prof Claus Anderson
The Royal Women’s Hospital
Eliminating leukemic cells from ovarian tissue for safe restoration of fertility (2020 - 2022)

Dr Ian Majewski and Dr Peter Valk
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
How does the DNA damage that accumulates with age influence cancer risk? (2020 -2022)

Dr Delphine Merino, Dr Melissa Davis and Dr Belinda Yeo
Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute
Design new treatments for patients with aggressive breast cancer using sequencing and drug response prediction (2020 -2022)

Dr Ashley Ng, Dr Kira Behrens, Prof Warren Alexander,  Dr Rebecca Feltham, Prof John Silke and Dr David Komander
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Drugging Undruggable Targets in Ph+ B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (2020 -2022)

Prof Richard Pearson
University of Melbourne
Combinatorial targeting of cellular “housekeeping” processes to treat cancer (2020 -2022)

Prof Andrew Perkins
Monash University
Towards a cure for myelofibrosis  (2020 -2022)
Funded by the Victorian Government through the Victorian Cancer Agency 

A/Prof Jake Shortt and Dr Lev Kats
Monash University
Determining the reasons why leukaemia and lymphoma become resistant to treatments that alter
the methylation of cancer DNA (2020 -2022)

Dr Lorey Smith and Dr Brendon Monahan
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Preventing Resistance to Targeted Therapy in Melanoma (2020 -2022)

Dr Florian Wiede
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Enhancing the immune system in combating liver cancer in obesity (2020 -2022)
Funded by the Victorian Government through the Victorian Cancer Agency 

Projects commenced in 2019

Projects commenced in 2017 

Projects commenced in 2016