For the 2020-2021 funding year, the Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) announced it will fund 69 cancer research grants, valued at $4,711,335, making ICRF’s funding now surpassing 2,500 grants since its creation, and totaling more than $77.5 million.
The grant selection is based on the scientific merit of the proposed research and the quality of the application, rather than affiliation with any particular institution. Over the years, the ICRF has funded a project in all the leading research centers in Israel, becoming the largest non-governmental funder of cancer research in the Jewish state.
"ICRF has been able to fund a portfolio of grants we are uniquely excited about, not only because it is of the scale and scope of the previous year's funding, but because of the broad scope of innovative, high impact work that it embraces," said ICRF national executive director Dr. Mark Israel, commenting on the new grants.
"In these times of apprehension and uncertainty, there is one thing that you can be sure about: Scientific research is the answer to disease," he said.
The selection process of the applications for the ICRF grants is divided into two main steps: First, the ICRF's volunteer Scientific Review Panel (SRP), composed of leading American and Canadian scientists with expertise in cancer research, reviews all grant applications on a transparent and objective basis. Second, they present their ranking to the International Scientific Council (ISC), ICRF’s scientific policy-making arm, which will make the recommendations.
When it comes to the cancer research projects selected to be sponsored by the ICRF for the year 2020-2021, the areas of studies that stand out are on blood, brain, breast, colorectal, lung, ovarian, pancreatic, pediatric, and skin cancers, as well as genetics and genomics, molecular biology, immunology and immunotherapy, and the tumor microenvironment.
"The coronavirus will eventually be defeated, but cancer will still be with us. ICRF has not forgotten, and we hope that our supporters will not forget, our important mission to eradicate the scourge of cancer,” added Israel.