Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award Continuation Grant

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Program Description | Funding | Eligibility | Application Requirements

Program Description

NOTICE: The 2025 Continuation Grant application deadline is Friday, March 14.

The Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award Continuation Grant is designed to provide two additional years of support to Damon Runyon Clinical Investigators who are approaching the end of their awards and need extra time and funding to complete a promising avenue of research, or initiate/continue a clinical trial.

Policies and Procedures

All Clinical Investigator Award policies and procedures will apply to the Continuation Grant.

Selection and Review

The Clinical Investigator Award Committee (CIAC) will review applications and select awardees for approval by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation's Board of Directors.

Selection Criteria

The Clinical Investigator must demonstrate the following:

• High productivity and significant accomplishments during their first three years of funding.
• Additional funding would enable either the completion of a promising avenue of research, or initiation or continuation of a clinical trial, and the Clinical Investigator has insufficient funding for the proposed research.
• The research to be funded has the potential to impact the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of one or more forms of cancer.

Funding

The $400,000 grant will be for a period of two years. Funding in the amount of $200,000 will be allocated to the awardee’s institution each year for the support of the Clinical Investigator. Funds are intended to be flexible and can be used for a variety of scientific needs including the Investigator’s salary, salaries for professional and technical personnel, special equipment, supplies, and other miscellaneous items required to conduct the proposed research. No part of this grant can be used for indirect costs or institutional overhead.

Other Funding

Investigators may receive funding from other sources to support their research. However, no other physician-scientist career development award from a private source (non-federal government) may be held concurrently with the Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award Continuation Grant.

Physician-scientist career development awards from the federal government including the National Institutes of Health (e.g., K08, K12, K23), the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are allowed.

Scientific or budgetary overlap with other funded projects is not allowed. Therefore, it is critical that all current and pending grant support for your research be reported to the Foundation and the relationship of that support to the Damon Runyon-funded project be explained.

Please contact the Foundation with any questions regarding concurrent funding (212.455.0520).

Eligibility

All third-year Damon Runyon Clinical Investigators are eligible to apply.

Application Requirements

All application materials should be emailed to Clare Cahill (clare.cahill@damonrunyon.org) on or before the March 14 deadline by 4:00 PM Eastern Time.

The complete application should be assembled in the following order:

1. Cover Sheet
   Please fill in all required information on the provided form and make sure all signatures are in place.

2. Research Proposal
   Including figures, tables and legends, no longer than five pages of single-spaced, 12-point type with at least 0.5-inch margins. A list of references is not included in the 5-page limit. The proposal should include:

   • A summary of your progress and accomplishments under your current Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award (~ 2 pages)
   • Description of your proposed research (~ 2 pages)
   • A compelling justification for additional funding based on the criteria outlined in the “Selection Criteria” section above (~ 1 page)
      

3. Mentor’s Letter of Support
   The Mentor should evaluate the applicant’s progress in becoming an independent clinical investigator and support their need for additional funding.
   If the applicant has a Co-Mentor, they should write an additional letter, or the Mentors can write one letter in conjunction.

4. Applicant’s NIH Biosketch

5. Applicant's Full Bibliography, in which:
   1. the applicant's name must be highlighted for each entry
   2. original, peer-reviewed research articles must be listed separately and first with hyperlinks
   3. next list review articles, chapters, editorials, etc.
   Do not include presentations, abstracts, "in preparation" or "under review" articles.

6. Other Sources of Funding
   A list of all current and pending funding sources, including the specific aims of each grant and the degree of overlap with the applicant’s proposal.
   Scientific or budgetary overlap with other funded projects is not allowed.

7. Budget
   The budget should be realistic estimates of the funds required for the proposed research and should also be itemized by category according to the instructions on the budget form.

8. Human Subjects, Radiation Safety, and Environmental Health Issues Statement
   A written statement testifying that adequate safety precautions will apply for projects that involve any biohazards (e.g., recombinant DNA, chemical carcinogens, etc.) and that the research project has been (or will be) approved by the appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB), Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and/or Biohazards Committee.

Contact Information

Award Programs | awards@damonrunyon.org