Early Career in Supportive Care Program
Request for Proposals
This funding program features five annual calls for proposals from 2025 to 2029. Each year, the program aims to fund up to 2 awards, resulting in a total of up to 10 awards over the five-year period. This initiative supports innovative projects and fosters career advancements in supportive care.
Background
Supportive care in cancer, defined by Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC), is the prevention and management of the adverse effects of cancer and its treatment. This includes palliative oncology and the management of physical and psychological symptoms and side effects. The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) position paper emphasizes patients’ focus not only on overall survival, but also on quality of life. Multidisciplinary support is thus required at every stage of cancer care to the end-of-life. RTFCCR understands supportive care as non-disease directed therapies aimed at improving the quality of life and/or quality of care for patients with cancer and their caregivers.
At present, clinical research within this focus area is faced with two challenges:
- A lack of funding for innovative young researchers in the field.
- Limited number of high-quality design clinical trials that address disease and treatment burden.
Many oncology scientists in the supportive care space lack the funding experience needed for larger grants. This initiative aims to provide initial research funding, allowing early career investigators to focus on their research and become competitive for independent investigator awards.
This funding program reflects RTFCCR’s commitment to supporting young investigators in supportive care.
Request for Proposals
This Request for Proposals (RFP) is designed to address the needs of patients and the medical community. It aims to fund evidence-based interventional clinical trials in supportive care, specifically by investigators in their first to third year of a full-time, primary faculty appointment at an academic medical institution. RFP is open to investigators worldwide.
Project proposals should have measurable outcomes during the four-year grant period. All applications must be developed with the active participation of patient partners to ensure that they reflect the needs of cancer patients.
Research Topics
RTFCCR invites proposals on hypothesis-driven interventional clinical trials within supportive care. These trials aim to improve cancer patients’ quality of life through prevention and management of the adverse effects of cancer and its treatment. Study outcomes should include well-validated clinical and patient-reported outcomes.
Phase I to II clinical trials are encouraged. Other well-designed studies, such as comparative effectiveness trials, may be considered. Clinical trials focusing on repurposing off-patent compounds are welcome. We also encourage proposals that include geriatric or pediatric populations.
Please note that survivorship clinical trials or interventions, including dietary or natural products, are not eligible for this RFP.
Eligibility
Promising investigators are eligible to apply for this RFP in their first to third year of a full-time, primary faculty appointment in a clinical department at an academic medical institution worldwide.
Applicants need to secure a mentor from their institution willing to support them for the duration of their trial. The mentor must provide a letter of support proving a prior working relationship. If the applicant cannot obtain a mentor from their institution, a referral to an external expert may be arranged.
Award
Each award consists of a USD 245,000 four-year research funding grant. Please note that up to USD 45,000 can be allocated to the mentor. RTFCCR will grant up to two awards per year.
This funding program will feature five annual calls for proposals from 2025 to 2029. The program aims to fund up to 2 yearly awards, resulting in up to 10 awards over the five years.
Application process
The award process consists of two steps, LOI and full application. Only applicants who successfully complete all steps will be eligible for funding. Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- Alignment with the RFP scope and strategic fit with RTFCCR
- Level of innovation and scientific excellence
- Patient partner involvement in the study design and their active role throughout the trial. If your proposal lacks mature patient partner involvement or requires resources to facilitate it, please consider applying for a pre-application grant. Read more: Pre-application Grants – Rising Tide Foundation
- Patient reach (including addressing potential technical challenges, time to impact, and international adoptability)
- Experience of applicants and mentors. Proof of established working relationship between the mentor and applicant is encouraged.
Step 1. Letter of Intent (LOI) submission. Applications should be submitted through our online grant management platform SmartSimple. LOIs will be assessed by internal staff and advisory board members to evaluate the strategic fit of each application. The most promising LOIs will be invited to submit a full application.
Step 2. Full application submission. Within two weeks of the LOI deadline, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full application. These applications will be reviewed by a panel of external experts who will assess their scientific merit. Each application will undergo an independent analysis by scientific peer reviewers, patient partners and a biostatistician. The highest scored applications will be evaluated according to their strategic fit to RTFCCR portfolio. Recommendations made by RTFCCR Advisory Board will then be submitted to the Rising Tide Board of Directors in May 2026 for final funding approval.
Only applications submitted through our online grant management platform Smart Simple will be evaluated.
Timelines
All deadlines listed below are EOD CET.
- LOI submission deadline – October 30th, 2025
- Full application deadline – February 31st, 2026
- Final funding decision – May 2026