World Cancer Research Fund International Regular Grant Programme

Deadline Date: October 30, 2024

 Donor Name: World Cancer Research Fund International

 Grant Size: $500,000 to $1 million

The World Cancer Research Fund International is pleased to announce the International Regular Grant Programme to support innovative and original research into the role of diet, nutrition and physical activity in either Cancer Prevention or Cancer Survivorship.

Types of Grants

• The Regular Grant Programme comprises two main grant types:
  • Investigator Initiated Grants 
    • Investigator initiated grants (IIGs) are for established researchers working on the research areas and themes. They encourage collaboration with other teams; therefore, it is important to have at least one co-applicant. The aim of this grant funding scheme is to support innovative and original research into the link of diet, nutrition and physical activity in either Cancer Prevention or Cancer Survivors. 
  • Pilot and feasibility grants
    • Pilot and feasibility grants (PFGs) are intended as startup funds for preliminary research to allow researchers to collect preliminary data or test study parameters to take them to a stage where an application for an IIG would be appropriate. PFGs could also study behavioural change in cancer survivors. 
    • Lifestyle interventions intending to change behaviour, including change in diet, physical activity, and change related to body composition should have a clear theoretical basis for the mechanism of action and predicted outcomes of the behavioural change.

Research Principles

• Relevant exposures
  • The aim of the grant programme is to fund research that helps elucidate the role of diet, nutrition (including body composition) and physical activity in cancer.
  • Relevant exposures encompass both confirmed and possible cancer risk factors related to diet, nutrition (including body composition) and physical activity.
  • Exposures must be well defined and could include:
    • Diet, dietary patterns, other diet related behaviours and – provided that they are part of the usual diet – foods, food components and dietary supplements. Please note that proposals focusing on the role of isolated food or herb extracts that are not part of the usual diet will not be accepted. 
    • Markers of nutritional status, including physiological or metabolic markers; body composition, and measures of growth, development and maturation. 
    • Physical activity, physical fitness, time spent being sedentary, metabolic or other markers related to physical activity and physical activity related behaviours. 
    • Only research pertaining to contaminants included in the Third Expert Report will be accepted.
• Cancer-related outcomes
  • Outcomes should be specific and well defined. Relevant outcomes include cancer endpoints as well as recognised surrogate markers of cancer (these do not include risk factors such as obesity, oxidative stress, hormone levels, behavioural change but factors that reflect the cancer process e.g. mammographic density, colorectal adenomas, leukoplakia, Barrett’s oesophagus) or cancer outcome (e.g. pathological complete response to therapy), but applications must justify the use of a particular surrogate marker.
• Relevance to human cancer
  • Studies must be justified in terms of their direct relevance to human cancer. Experimental designs outside in vivo human settings, such as animal models, will only be considered for relevant studies that examine mechanistic pathways of the cancer process. 
  • Applications that propose studies performed exclusively in cell lines will not be accepted.
  • The relevance to humans and to human cancer of the proposed animal model will need to be clearly explained.

Impact Areas

• The research they fund research must have beneficial implications for people’s lives by improving the understanding the role of diet, nutrition (including body composition) and physical activity in cancer. The outcome of the research must, in some way, contribute towards helping reduce people’s risk of developing cancer, or improve outcomes in people living with and beyond cancer. Applicants need to demonstrate they have considered the potential impact of their research in relation to the following areas, as appropriate:
  • Potential for translation into clinical practice 
  • Usefulness to other researchers in the field
  • Outreach to the general public or patients
  • Influence on public health, including, when relevant, in policy settings
  • Sustainable development goals and application of environmentally conscious practices

Research Areas

• Applications to the Regular Grant Programme must fall into either the Cancer Prevention or the Cancer Survivors Research Area. 
• For the Cancer Prevention Research Area, they accept research into the links relating diet, nutrition (including body composition) and physical activity to the causation or primary prevention of cancer. The Cancer Survivors Research Area focuses on individuals who have received a cancer diagnosis.

Research Themes

• There are two Research Themes that apply to both research Areas, and one that applies only to the Cancer Survivors Research Area.
  • Mechanisms Research Theme
    • The Mechanisms research theme applies to both Research Areas, and covers molecular, cellular and physiological mechanisms that help explain the biological connection between relevant exposures and cancer development or progression. This type of research must be coherent with existing laboratory, epidemiological and clinical evidence. Research in this
    • Theme is especially likely to benefit from interdisciplinary work and the use of new technologies, such as genomics, epigenomics and metabolomics, but such studies should be hypothesis driven and based on preliminary data. For this Theme, they welcome both laboratory studies and epidemiological studies that explore the mechanisms underpinning links between diet, nutrition (including body composition) and physical activity, and cancer- related outcomes.
  • Host factors Research Theme
    • The Host factors research theme applies to both Research Areas and covers factors that might explain the variability between people in their susceptibility to cancer or the biological abnormalities predisposing to it. It also applies to the variability in outcomes after a cancer diagnosis, including in response to treatment. Variation in susceptibility to cancer or in its progression is likely to be influenced by host factors. These might be fixed, such as age, gender, ethnicity and genetic variation, or potentially modifiable, such as hormonal, immunological, metabolic and epigenetic influences. They are interested in how diet, nutrition (including body composition) and physical activity exposures throughout the life course might interact with or operate through

Funding Information

• Investigator Initiated Grants: IIGs are awarded to Principal Investigators for a maximum of £500,000 for up to four years. 
• Pilot and feasibility grants: These grants are for a maximum of £60,000 in total for up to two years

Eligibility Criteria

• The World Cancer Research Fund International Research Grant Programme accepts applications from anywhere in the world except the Americas (North America, Central America including the Caribbean, and South America).
• World Cancer Research Fund International encourages international collaborations. Please note that although the Principal Investigator of an application cannot be from an institution based in the Americas, co-applicants and collaborators can be based in those countries, and a portion of the research work can be carried out at their institutions.
• Applications with the Principal Investigator based in a low- and middle-income country are also encouraged, such as for high quality studies that explore relevant exposure-outcome links in under-researched regions or population. Applicants should ensure the relevant expertise has been secured, for example through appropriate international collaborations.
• The Regular Grant Programme accepts applications from universities, medical schools, hospitals, research institutes and other academic centres. Research for commercial organisations is not eligible.

For more information, visit WCRF.