Funding Approach

To focus our efforts and increase our impact, we have designed two umbrella focus areas under the themes Improved Patient Outcomes and Science of Early Detection and Intervention.

Rising Tide Foundation for Clinical Cancer Research (RTFCCR) is a charitable, non-profit organization established in 2010.

Our primary consideration in granting support is given to truly innovative, unique, patient-centered clinical research that has the potential to positively impact the lives of cancer patients at the earliest opportunity. We provide funding for research that directly benefits patients. We do not provide funding for basic research.

Funding can be provided to any relevant institution in any country where meaningful grant oversight is possible.

Short timeframes, maximum impact

To highlight our sense of urgency, we expect that clinical research projects should result in patient impact within 5 years and are expected to start within 6 months of approval unless otherwise agreed.

Partnerships to maximize reach

We are one of several players in this area, and we share objectives with a broad range organizations worldwide. We partner with them in order to leverage resources to accelerate the improvement of patient treatment options and quality of life everywhere.

Focus Areas

To keep our efforts focused and increase our impact, we have developed two umbrella themes: Improved Patient Outcomes and Science of Early Detection and Intervention.

Implementation research

There is much work to be done in the area of implementation research for cancer care.

There is an unmet need to produce evidence on whether or not an approach is being adopted by clinicians and patients, especially with so many patients being treated with oral medication and in outpatient clinics.

An effectiveness-implementation hybrid design is one that takes a dual focus a priori in assessing clinical effectiveness and implementation. We are welcoming grant applications that use one of the 3 hybrid types described below applied to clinical research under our focus areas:

Hybrid Type 1

Testing a clinical intervention while gathering information on its delivery during the effectiveness trial and/or on its potential for implementation in a real-world situation.

Hybrid Type 2

Simultaneous testing of a clinical intervention and an implementation intervention/strategy.

Hybrid Type 3

Testing an implementation intervention/strategy while observing/gathering information on the clinical intervention and related outcomes.

Study Characteristic	Hybrid Trial Type 1	Hybrid Trial Type 2	Hybrid Trial Type 3
Research aims	Primary aim: determine effectiveness of a clinical intervention Secondary aim: better understand context for implementation	Coprimary aim*: determine effectiveness of a clinical intervention Coprimary aim: determine feasibility and potential utility of an implementation intervention/strategy	Primary aim: determine utility of an implementation intervention/strategy Secondary aim: assess clinical outcomes associated with implementation trial
Research questions (examples)	Primary question: will a clinical treatment work in this setting/these patients? Secondary question: what are potential barriers/facilitators to a treatment’s widespread implementation?	Coprimary question*: will a clinical treatment work in this setting/these patients? Coprimary question: does the implementation method show promise (either alone or in comparison with another method) in facilitating implementation of a clinical treatment?	Primary question: which method works better in facilitating implementation of a clinical treatment? Secondary question: are clinical outcomes acceptable?

Exerpt from: Curran GM, Bauer M, Mittman B, Pyne JM, Stetler C. Effectiveness-implementation hybrid designs: combining elements of clinical effectiveness and implementation research to enhance public health impact. Med Care. 2012 Mar;50(3):217-26. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0b013e3182408812. PMID: 22310560; PMCID: PMC3731143.

Whether you are an academic institution interested in applying for a grant or another not-for-profit organization keen to tackle critical cancer related issues together, we want to hear from you.

We receive LOI’s all year round and do not have specific deadlines. Once you have submitted your LOI you will receive further information regarding the timing and next steps. Our board meetings take place in May, August, and December. The evaluation period is between 3 and 6 months.

If your project meets our funding criteria, we will contact you and extend an invitation for you to submit a full grant application for further consideration. If you are uncertain about the eligibility of your proposal, please email us at grants@risingtide-foundation.org before beginning an application.

A selection of current projects and their descriptions, explaining how they fit in our funding program, are available here.

Before you apply, check to see if you qualify for a pre-application grant to support patient involvement

Pre-application Form & Guidelines

All LOIs must be submitted in accordance with the submission guidelines via SmartSimple

Step 1

Once you have navigated to the login page, please click the “Register” button.

Step 2

At this stage, you will be prompted to enter your personal and organization information. If your organization already exists in the system, you will be able to find it by typing in the “Organization Name” field. If your organization does not yet exist in the system, you will need to create a new organization—instructions are provided on the page.

Step 3

Click the “Apply Now” link for the Rising Tide Clinical Cancer Research Program which will automatically move you into the LOI form that you will need to complete online. If you would like to download the questions before completing online, please click the “Save Draft” button and then the “LOI Summary” button, you will then be able to download the questions.

Step 4

Complete all fields in the application form within the SmartSimple system. Please be sure to click “Save Draft” regularly so that no information is lost as you complete the LOI. Please note that the LOI application has limits for the number of characters for each section. All grant notifications will be sent through the SmartSimple system after the LOI is submitted.

Note for past applicants and grantees

You will notice that we have transitioned from our old system, proposalcentral to the SmartSimple platform. We hope that this provides a more accessible and convenient way for you to submit an LOI. If you are a current or past grantee, an account has already been set-up for your organization with your past grant information included. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Only applicants with LOIs deemed most meritorious and aligned with our grant programs’ focus will be invited to submit full applications. Instructions for the submission of full applications are provided after the LOI evaluation.

Our objective is to accelerate progress to improve the lives of people living with cancer today and bring forward the day when a cure for cancer is finally realized. Find some inspiring stories right here.