Match-making service request for proposals

December 22, 2022

RTFCCR would like to invite proposals from a consortium (comprised of medical/research organizations and at least three patient organizations which are cancer focused) to advance creation of an international patient involvement match-making platform.  The grant provided to the winning proposal(s) is up to USD 300,000.

 

Background

There is an increasing demand from the patient community to be meaningfully involved in research through all its phases and a strong trend of rising stakeholder interest in patient engagement. This demand aims to ensure patients’ needs and wants are included from the early stages throughout the drug development process (priority setting, review of research proposals, partnership in research projects, involvement in R&D, input into regulatory processes, participation in ethics committees, etc.). At the same time, there is an increasing number of requests coming from academia and industry to patient organizations requesting contributions to project advisory boards, steering committees, project meetings and workgroups.

In a landscape analysis conducted by Patvocates for the Rising Tide Foundation, organizations that had implemented some degree of match-making services between industry, academia, regulators, and the patient communities were evaluated and mapped into a snapshot of the current ecosystem supporting this type of work. The landscape analysis assessed all potential organizations with related services in Europe and the USA and developed an understanding of the scope and breadth of these services and how well they function. The results of the landscape analysis showed that currently there is no “overarching” platform providing match-making services that would allow meaningful patient involvement in research, as they are either not accessible to the public or very narrow in scope or implementation.

Rising Tide Foundation seeks to catalyze a collective effort of patient organizations to develop such a platform.

 

How to apply

1 ) Letter of Intent phase – Deadline: 03 April 2023

Please provide as part of your LOI:

  1. The consortium composition (comprised of medical/research organizations and at least three patient organizations which are cancer focused), including written support and commitment of the leadership of each of the organizations that will compose the consortium.
  2. A budget for the utilization of the USD 15,000 RTFCCR is offering to prepare a full application (for full application requirements please refer to next section).

Based on a review of the submitted LOIs, RTFCCR will award USD 15,000 to support the efforts of each patient organization consortium (maximum of 3). Each selected consortium will be required to sign an agreement to provide RTFCCR with the full proposal by 12 June, 2023.

2) Full proposal phase – Deadline: 12 June 2023

The full proposal should be composed of a detailed document describing:

  • Market analysis and perspective describing the needs and current + future expected utilization of such services by Academia and Industry.
  • A detailed description of the services which will ultimately designed for research sponsors (primarily those in academia) in support of efforts to involve patients in their research programs, as well as an overview of the resources required to successfully build and maintain the platform.
  • A business plan including, but not limited to:
  • The projected costs to create the platform and maintain it for the first 36 months.
  • The role of each patient organization taking part in this consortium.
  • Description of the process of matchmaking.
  • The geographical reach of the platform.
  • The plan to attract patients to enroll in the platform and to increase the variety of conditions represented in the platform.
  • The plan to attract users to the service and by when it is expected the service becomes self-sustained.
  • An implementation plan aimed at having the service fully operational within 18 months.
  • Fundraising plan: Be very detailed in your fundraising plan to show how you will secure at least 80% of the total cost before this grant starts.

Full proposals will then be reviewed by an international group of experts selected by RTFCCR. The winning consortium will receive a grant of up to USD 300,000, capped at 50% of the total project costs, with a 3-year duration.

 

 

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