Sarcoma Research Grants Initiative

To advance sarcoma and melanoma research, we support:

• programs that support and promote novel biomedical research and interventions that lead to a better understanding of the underlying disease process, more effective treatment protocols and ultimately, cures;
• innovative research and clinical trials of new methods to understand the underlying etiology and pathology of sarcoma and melanoma; and
• original basic and translational research leading to more targeted treatment regimens for sarcoma and melanoma.

Examples of topics we have funded:

• understanding differences in the development of sarcomas in children, adolescents, young adults and adults
• research directed at the early detection and diagnosis of sarcoma
• the molecular biology of sarcomas 
• “molecular targets” for new sarcoma therapies
• chromosomal translocations, the oncogenes they generate and their role in sarcoma development
• translational studies, vaccine studies and monoclonal antibodies
• small-molecule inhibitors of signal transduction pathways
• the use of nanotechnology in sarcoma diagnosis and treatment 
• understanding the basis of radiation-induced sarcoma
• modeling of the process of metastases and drug resistance 
• pre-clinical studies leading to an IND

Application Process

Please submit a 1-2 page letter of intent (LOI) only to sarcomaLOI@slifkafoundation.org that includes the following:

1. Brief description of your research project, including the sub-types of sarcoma under investigation 
2. Principal investigator(s) and affiliation(s)
3. Project timeline 
4. Amount requested

If the LOI is of interest to us, we will respond by sending you a grant application to complete. Should we request a full proposal, expect to provide us with the following: project abstract; purpose of investigation; research plan, experimental design and analysis; impacts on field; co-investigators (when applicable); relevant NIH biosketches; budget and references. 

Sarcoma grant applications are solicited and peer-reviewed on a rolling basis.

Award Amounts

Our sarcoma research grants generally do not exceed $50,000 per year or $100,000 for two-year grants. We currently do not fund projects beyond two years. We anticipate that results obtained from grants we award will allow the investigator(s) to apply for significant follow-on funding (e.g., via a National Institutes of Health grant).

Open Science and Collaboration

The Alan B. Slifka Foundation encourages the principle of open science. Open science is the timely and public dissemination, availability and use of scientific data as well as the sharing of experimental methodology and observations. We award many individual grants and also encourage applications that involve collaboration between investigators in different departments within and among institutions.

Publication Compliance  

In keeping with the Alan B. Slifka Foundation's commitment to open science and the timely distribution of new study results to the sarcoma community, we require a description of the investigator’s study plan, which is to be drawn from the grant application and published on the Alan B. Slifka Foundation website when the grant is announced. At the conclusion of the grant, the investigator consents to publication of a study results report—directed at sarcoma researchers and clinicians that highlights important findings less the details required for an academic journal paper—on the Slifka Foundation website. This website report does not preclude the submission of articles based on study results to relevant medical journals. The Slifka Foundation’s goal is to push new study results to the sarcoma community as expeditiously as possible without incurring the long timeline associated with journal publication. Each investigator must submit a signed letter of compliance indicating agreement with these requirements.