Fight Kids Cancer 2024-2025 Call for proposals

FIGHT KIDS CANCER is thrilled to announce that its next call opening on September 2nd, 2024 will be a pediatric general call. 

Following the success of last year’s call, this pediatric general call will continue to give more flexibility to the applying teams. Thus, the possible amount available and duration per grant application will be the following: 

• For clinical trials: 
• o    Up to 5 years 
• o    Up to 5 million euros 

• For translation research projects: 
  o    Up to 4 years 
  o    Up to 2 million euros 

As flexibility is the key motivation for the modification of the grants' duration and amount, the FKC Funders wants to stress the fact that applicants should apply for what they need and not refrain from applying for smaller amounts or shorter projects such as primer/ preliminary studies, projects or programmes grants. 

Each project will be evaluated on its merit alone. Shorter, high-risk high gain projects are as welcome as are biology companion projects. Translational projects applying for longer duration or higher amounts will be expected to facilitate collaboration across institutions and borders within Europe to meet the FKC selection criteria. 

The FIGHT KIDS CANCER secretariat at European Science Foundation is at the applicant’s disposal for their questions. 

FIGHT KIDS CANCER aims to catalyse and support pan-European leading-edge research initiatives in paediatric cancer to develop innovative approaches to improve the outcome for all children and adolescents with cancer. This call will cover the following non-exclusive objectives: 

• Realise real impact on young patients, 
• Improve survival rates and reduce toxicity to restore young patients to full health after treatment, 
• Advance fundamental knowledge of paediatric malignancies, 
• Support improved interdisciplinary research, methods and collaborations for tackling the issues of today, 
• Strengthen collaboration and the development of scientific capacity across Europe. 

FIGHT KIDS CANCER aims towards overcoming the structural lack of research dedicated to paediatric cancers by ensuring a recurring endowment that will be granted to the best European research projects every year. An additional ambition is to foster closer working ties between clinical and laboratory researchers. 

Please note the 2025 call timeline:

In the 2025 FIGHT KIDS CANCER call for clinical trials funding may be available for the preparatory work for a clinical trial.

If applicants wish to apply for this funding for the preparatory work for a clinical trial the Expression of Interest must be submitted as a clinical trial, state this and include the following information:

• A description of the clinical questions that will be answered by the trial that will result from the preparatory work funded under the current application.
• A description of the work packages.
• A budget for staff costs and travel / meeting expenses.

Staff costs can include both dedicated hires (such as a project or data manager) or a compensation for the institutions’ key personnel (such as a statistician or a regulatory expert).

We invite you to consult the guidelines of the call here, also available after the 2^nd September on the submission platform.

You will be able to submit your EOI on the submission platform. 

Link for submission

The following template is to be used to submit your full proposal. 

The deadline to submit your EOI to the FKC paediatric general call is the 18^th  October 2024 at 16:00 CEST.

FIGHT KIDS CANCER Secretariat at ESF: fightkidscancer[at]esf[dot]org