Collaborative Call for Breast Cancer Applications: 2021 Karolinska Institutet and Mayo Clinic Cancer Center

Overview

Having created a unique network, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and Karolinska Institutet are in an excellent position to leverage this relationship to make a global impact on cancer through research focusing on the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of breast cancer. The collaboration efforts will support up to two demonstration projects in 2021 on the topic of Breast cancer, due to already existing links and collaboration between the research entities.

Objective

The objective of this funding is to provide support to initiate and enhance collaborations in breast cancer research between Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and Karolinska Institutet - Cancer Research KI.

These studies may involve considerable scientific risk but may potentially lead to a breakthrough in a particular area, or to the development of novel techniques, agents, methodologies, models, or applications that could have a major impact on cancer research and patient outcomes. It is expected that support via this program will lead to subsequent extramural support from other sources, and will be a metric of success for this grant-awarding program.

Funding

Up to two (2) individual projects will be awarded for one year with a second year of funding contingent on satisfactory progress in the first year.  Project investigators may request up to $100,000 (total cost) for the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center component ($50,000/year for 2 years) and up to 1MSEK for the Karolinska Institutet component (500 000SEK/year for 2 years) per project. Indirect costs are included in the total award. Funding for this RFA is through established philanthropic support (Mayo) and Cancer Research KI (Karolinska Institutet).

Key Dates

• Application submission deadline Sweden: 23:59 on April 1, 2021
• Application submission deadline Rochester, MN, USA: 4:59 pm on April 1, 2021
• Award Announcements: June 1, 2021
• Award Period: July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2023 

Eligibility

Mayo applicants must hold a faculty position at any of the three Mayo Clinic sites. At KI, all faculty with a Ph.D. and working at least 50% at any KI Department are eligible to apply for funding. Applications must include one investigator from Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and one investigator from Karolinska Institutet.

Application Instructions

The application should be written in English and contain:

• Research program (four pages maximum, excluding references)
• Applications need to clearly identify how the research strengths of each investigator will synergize such that the research could not move forward without the collaboration.  Applications from Mayo/Karolinska investigators forging new collaborations as well as from investigators with a prior track record of collaboration are welcome
• For Mayo investigators, a current NIH biosketch is required
• For Karolinska investigators, a Short CV of the principal investigator (including current funding) and a Publication list for the last eight years (2013-2021)
• Project budget for Year 1 and 2 as well as simple budget justifications for Mayo Clinic Cancer Center partner in dollars and Karolinska Institutet partner in SEK

Formatting: Arial font, size 11, margins 1” inch, single-spaced with page numbering.

Submission

• Please send your application as one pdf file named "Mayo_KI collaboration call_first name_last name" to cancerresearchki@ki.se and wcpbreast@mayo.edu at the stated deadlines.

Late submissions will not be accepted. There will be no exceptions.

Evaluation

The applications will be subjected to a scientific review that will include both internal and external (Mayo) and external (KI) scientific reviewers.  The evaluations will be combined and an executive committee (composed of the Director of Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer Research and the Director of Cancer Research KI (pending no conflict of interest exists)) will make the final funding decision based on the ranking from the combined evaluations. 

Review Criteria: Reviewers will consider each of the criteria below:
 

• Scientific merit, including adequacy of design and proposed statistical analysis. 
• Originality and innovativeness of the proposal and relevance to the overall goals of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center/Karolinska Institutet Collaboration.
• Qualifications of the key personnel and their ability to conduct the proposed research.
• Degree to which the project addresses an issue of significant importance for reducing breast cancer incidence and mortality rates, and increasing survival and quality of life.
• Potential for the project to obtain other peer-reviewed external research funding.

Enabling Collaboration

To facilitate new collaborations, we are offering help in identifying research partners at both institutes. Please write a short description of the proposed project and send this to either Jewel Podratz at podrj@mayo.edu at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center (Mayo investigators) or Johanna Furuhjelm johanna.furuhjelm@ki.se at Cancer Research KI (KI investigators).  We will identify contact details for potential research collaborators in the appropriate area of breast cancer research.

Inquiries

Additional inquiries may be emailed to wcpbreast@mayo.edu or cancerresearchki@ki.se.