ABS Research Development Grants

The Association of Breast Surgery is keen to maintain its role in research and trials and following the success of previous awards is again making available funding for Research Development Grants.

 

Applications process

The ABS and Prevent Breast Cancer are pleased to again offer their research development grants.  In 2023 the ABS is making £20,000 available for Research Development Grants, including a joint grant with Prevent Breast Cancer of up to £6,000; for research projects in screening, early diagnosis and prevention of breast cancer.

Applications for 2023 are now open and the deadline for submitting your application will be 8th September 2023. 

Applications should be submitted by the deadline to Lena Sebova: lenasebova@absgbi.org.uk on the form below:

Application form as Word document

Application form as PDF

Example of marking criteria

It is anticipated that the results of this round of grant applications will be announced in January 2024.

 

Money for your research

Do you have a research idea but need funding to get it started or make it work? The Association of Breast Surgery and Prevent Breast Cancer are now running another round of research development grants to fund methodologically sound projects for pump priming.

There are a wide variety of possible types of project that will be considered for funding; ranging from clinical research studies to trainee collaboratives, to work such as systematic reviews or pilot work designed to inform the development of larger studies.

These Research Development Grants are designed to pump prime and encourage the set-up of breast surgical research. As such, only research costs required to directly conduct the project are funded; and not overheads, infrastructure costs or medical staff salary costs. It should also be noted that one of the criteria assessed by the peer reviewers criteria in marking of the awards is the value of the proposal.

In the event of there being no fundable applications, the ABS Trustees reserve the right to not award any grants.

 

ABS Breast Cancer Research Development Grants and ABS Prevent Breast Cancer Research Development Grants

Projects seeking funding from the ABS are asked to submit applications for a grant of up to £10,000. Grants will be awarded depending on the quality, relevance and value of the successful submissions. In the event of there being no fundable applications the ABS Trustees reserve the right to not award any grants. Applicants may wish to refer to the research guidance section on the ABS website to aid drafting of the grant application. Please note, that the grant funding does not support fees for open access publications. Grant funding for computer/IT equipment/software may be considered for grant funding. However, please provide robust evidence and justification as to how this is essential to the research project and why it would not otherwise be available.

Applications should further the aims of the ABS which are available on the website, and also be of clear value to the NHS and take appropriate account of its priorities, needs and realities. Projects involving researchers with multidisciplinary background are highly encouraged. Basic science proposals may be submitted, but should demonstrate a clear, justifiable surgical aim; for example, analysis of biology of a putative biomarker may not be a priority in itself, whereas analysis of a biomarker that predicts for probability of multifocality and hence margin involvement and likelihood of change in surgical resection extent is more likely to align to the priorities.  Applicants should also refer to the breast surgical research priorities identified by the Association of Breast Surgery Surgical Gap Analysis and subsequent Breast Surgery Priority Setting Partnership. The PI can be consultant, trainee or an allied health professional. For the joint grants with Prevent Breast Cancer applications must demonstrate a focus on breast cancer prevention, screening or early diagnosis.  See their website for further information. 

Eligibility

Applications are open to individuals working within institutions in the UK and Ireland.  As outlined, since the aim of the grant is to address priorities for breast surgical research, this may prove more difficult without surgical involvement in the research team.

  

New Investigator Award

Are you a new investigator leading on an application with no previous awards as Chief or Principal Investigator (CI or PI)?

If so, you can also be considered for our New Investigator award. Please tick the box on our application form if you would like to be considered for this.

*In order to qualify as New Investigator, the applicant should not have held any previous grants as Chief Investigator (CI) or Principal Investigator (PI); excluding personally awarded research training fellowships, and should be working in a training post or have been appointed to a Consultant post within the last 5 years.  If in any doubt, please contact the ABS Office.

Nurse Member Award

We would like to encourage ABS Nurse Members to submit applications as the lead applicant and are, therefore, offering a Nurse Member Award.  Please tick the box on the form to indicate your qualification for this award when applying.

Applications are sought for:

  • Projects seeking funding for the initial development of clinical trials
  • Systematic reviews
  • Audits designed to inform the design of a study or future research
  • Fellowships/ pump priming
  • Trainee collaboratives
  • Basic science research (in particular where research proposals address breast surgical research priorities; for example, as identified by the Gap Analysis, and where potential clinical relevance can be demonstrated

Competition for the grants will be open to all and the selection process will be made up of a panel of members of the ABS Academic and Research Committee, an Oncologist, a PPI representative, a senior member of ABS external to the A&R committee and a methodologist. 

All members of the selection panel will be asked to declare any conflicts of interest and those with a conflict will be excluded. The chair of the award panel and the senior ABS member will not be applicants or co-applicants on any of the applications.

Successful candidates will be expected to submit a report to the Academic and Research Committee of the ABS within 3 months of the completion of the project for which the grant is awarded. Successful candidates may also be asked to present their results at the A&R session within the annual ABS Conference.

Grant support should be acknowledged in all presentations, abstracts and publications relating to the award.

Please note that holders of a current ABS award as Chief Investigator cannot apply for a further concurrent award as CI.

Contact:

For further information about the ABS Research Development Grants (including examples of previously successful grant applications) contact Lena Sebova: lenasebova@absgbi.org.uk or 020 7869 6855.

 

NIHR Clinical Research Support

The ABS is also a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) non-commercial partner so clinical research studies funded through this scheme will be eligible for Cancer Research Network (CRN) support and adoption onto the NIHR portfolio. Find out more from their website (nihr.ac.uk). For clinical trials applications, where the intention is to apply for NIHR portfolio status, the completed Schedule of Events Cost Attribution Tool should be submitted alongside the application.

In partnership with your local R&D office, we encourage you to involve your local CRN team in discussions as early as possible when planning your study to fully benefit from the support the NIHR CRN offers as outlined in their Study Support Service. To find out more about how you can apply for this additional support to help deliver your study, please visit www.supportmystudy.nihr.ac.uk

If your study involves NHS sites in England you will need to apply for Health Research Authority Approval. For guidance on submitting an application please visit: www.hra.nhs.uk