Bear Discoveries

Bear Discoveries

Each year, medical research grants are awarded nationwide primarily to junior investigative researchers who make meaningful advancements and discoveries towards finding a cure and therapies for various types of pediatric cancer.

The 2011-2012 grants application process has closed. The 2012-2013 application process will be opened in September 2012.

Application Process:

Bear Necessities has teamed up with the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research to receive grant LOIs and applications at Proposal Central - https://proposalcentral.altum.com under the title "A Collaborative Pediatric Cancer Research Awards Program"

Below are the deadlines for Bear Necessities’ application process:

Letter of Intent Deadline: October 14th, 2011
Notification of Full Application Request: December 2, 2011
Full Application Deadline: January 12, 2012
Notification of Award: by August 1, 2012

Grant Eligibility:

We encourage the following applications:

Post-doctoral Fellowships for pediatric cancer research in their first two years of appointment.
Junior faculty development in pediatric cancer research at the instructor or assistant professor level. In particular, precedence will be given to those in the early stages of their independent career with an MD, MD/PhD, or PhD., who have shown significant promise and productivity during their post-graduate training. The independence of the applicant must be clearly demonstrated by a supporting letter from the department.

Grant Priority Areas:

Primary Priorities:

Use creative or innovative approaches to pediatric cancer research, which could potentially become advanced studies or clinical trials with initial seed support.

Focus on relapsed or refractory diseases
Focus on solid tumors and underserved areas of tumor types, such as retinoblastoma, Wilms’ tumor, etc.
Have significant translational components (e.g. clinical studies, or likely to lead to a clinical trial in the near future).

Secondary Priorities:

Survivorship studies.
Personalized, alternative, or integrative research proposals are acceptable.

The following will not be reviewed:

Grants and Fellowships which have no direct relevance to pediatric cancer.
Proposals for funding the management of clinical trials or infrastructure programs.
Applications from senior faculty ie applications from individuals at the Associate or Full Professor rank.
No more than two applications per single institution will be considered for final funding.

If you have any questions, please contact Susan Mura at smura@bearnecessities.org

2010 - 2011 Fiscal Year Funding

2010 “Bear Discoveries” Research Symposium

Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX - Donald Schaffer, PhD.

“Adoptive immunotherapy for CD70-positive malignancies”

2010 “Bear Discoveries” Research Symposium

University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital - Rhonda Perciavalle, PhD.

“MCL-1 is Localized to the Inner Mitochondrial Membrane and Promotes Mitochondrial Function”

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center - Cincinnati, OH - Lionel Chow, M.D.

“Micro-RNA Expression in Pediatric High-Grade Glioma”

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute - Boston, MA - David Gordon, PhD, M.D.

“Trisomy 8 in hematopoiesis and Myeloid Leukemia”