ICR Newsletter - March 2010

Table of Contents

1. Funding Opportunities

2. Funding Decisions

3. Impact Assessment of the Palliative and End-of-Life Care (PELC) Initiative

4. March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

5. New Institute Advisory Board Member

6. Meetings of interest to the cancer community

1. Funding Opportunities

The New ICR Travel Award and Publication Prize for Cancer Research Trainees

On April 1, 2010, the CIHR Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) will launch two new funding programs for graduate students and postdoctoral trainees undergoing cancer research training: the ICR Travel Award and the ICR Publication Prize.

Research trainees will be able to apply for a $1,000 travel award to cover the cost of presenting their own research at a national or international conference related to cancer. There will be four competitions a year (January 15, April 15, June 15, and October 1), and the Institute will give out nine or ten awards per competition. Applications will be evaluated and ranked according to criteria which include:

  • Relevance of the trainee’s research project to cancer research
  • Impact of the presentation on the trainee’s career
  • Relevance of the conference to cancer research
  • Justification of budget and financial need

ICR, wishing to recognize the excellence of cancer research done in Canada by graduate students and postdoctoral trainees, will award 12 publication prizes a year of a value of $1,000 each. Trainees, who have published research articles as first authors within six months of the application deadline, that describes work done in Canada, may enter their paper into the competition. There will be two submission deadlines a year, June 30 and December 31.  Publications will be evaluated and ranked according to criteria which include:

  • Relevance to cancer and/or the research priorities of the Institute
  • The level of the trainee’s contributions
  • The quality of the journal
  • The impact of the publication
  • Impact on the target audience

Both these funding opportunities will be offered through the Institute Community Support (ICS) Program of ICR. The full description of the program, instructions on how to apply, and application forms will be found on the CIHR Find Funding Webpage, or the ICR webpage.

The Terry Fox New Frontiers Program in Cancer

There will be a 2010 competition for the Terry Fox New Frontiers Program in Cancer. These grants support Canadian research teams to explore new frontiers in cancer research.  The deadline for submitting a letter of intent (LOI) is June 1, 2010.  Invitations to present a full application by December 1, 2010 will be sent to successful applicants by September 1, 2010. As in the past, review of full applications may include a site visit.  Funding for grants of the 2010 competition will start July 1, 2011. Full description of the funding opportunity and instructions on how to apply will be posted on the CIHR website.

Please visit ICR home page regularly to find out about the latest funding opportunities.

The Terry Fox Foundation New Investigator Award 2010

The Terry Fox Foundation invites applications for the Terry Fox Foundation New Investigator Award (2010).  The purpose of this Request for Applications (RFA) is to provide outstanding young researchers with support as they develop their career as independent research scientists or clinician scientists and to undertake high-quality research in close collaboration with established research teams. Applications must be sponsored by existing Terry Fox funded programs.  The deadline for receipt of application summaries is May 31, 2010. 

2. Funding Decisions 

Catalyst Grant: Cancer Survivorship

This short term funding opportunity is intended to encourage collaboration, within the cancer survivorship field between biomedical and clinical researchers, and health services and psychosocial cancer researchers to discover new ways to eliminate or reduce the adverse short and long term side effects associated with many current cancer treatments. ICR and other partnering CIHR Institutes have allocated a total of $1,269,225 to fourteen catalyst grants. Results of the March 2009 competition are available online.

The Meetings, Planning and Dissemination (MPD) Program

In 2009, the CIHR Institute of Cancer Research supported 18 workshops/meetings/symposia in Canada for a total of $264,276 through the CIHR Meetings, Planning and Dissemination Program that runs three competitions per year. The list of all meetings supported by ICR can be viewed on the ICR web page.

2009 MPD competition results

Date and Location Event Applicants(s) Competition Date
May 13-16, 2010, Hamilton, ON  Seventh Canadian Symposium on Telomeres and Telomerase  AUTEXIER, Chantal  

 2009/10

March 11-13, 2010, Toronto, ON  Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer: Towards Better Outcomes in Canada  BARR, Ronald D

 2009/10

Aug. 8-11, 2010, Montreal, QC  20th Annual International CEA Symposium BEAUCHEMIN, Nicole  

 2009/10

June 16-18, 2010, Orford, QC  Symposium "Signalisation Québec 2010" BLOUIN, Richard  

2009/10

March 1-3, 2010, Victoria, BC  Practice Guidelines Winter Institute-Building Capacity in Knowledge Synthesis, Evaluation & Application  BROUWERS, Melissa C

 2009/10

May 25-29, 2010, Quebec City, QC  12th World Congress of Psycho Oncology  FILLION, Lise  

 2009/10

Feb. 18, 2010, Montreal, QC  10th Annual McGill Biomedical Conference: Advances in Basic Cancer Research  NICHOL, Jessica N

 2009/10

April 8-9, 2010, Vancouver, BC  Functional Imaging for Radiotherapy  CELLER, Anna  

 2009/06

Oct. 14-16, 2009, Montreal, QC  Third International Symposium on Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer  FOULKES, William D

 2009/06

May 15-18, 2010, Toronto, ON  Fifth Canadian Conference on Ovarian Cancer Research (CCOCR 2010) LETARTE, Michelle V

 2009/06

April 9-11, 2010, Windsor, ON  Music Therapy and Supportive Cancer Care: New Horizons in Care across the Lifespan  MAGILL, Lucanne  

 2009/06

July 3-8, 2010, Montreal, QC  26th International Papillomavirus Conference and Clinical Workshop  STEBEN, Marc  

 2009/06

Nov. 19-20, 2009, Vancouver, BC  CAM Curriculum for Oncology Nurses: Development Workshop  BALNEAVES, Lynda G

 2009/02

June 23-25, 2009, Hamilton, ON  Practice Guidelines Summer Institute BROUWERS, Melissa C

 2009/02

Oct. 25-28, 2009, Montreal, QC  Annual CANO/ACIO Conference INOUE, Larissa  

 2009/02

July 13-15, 2009, Montreal, QC  Systems Biology in Cancer & Immunology Symposium  SAUVAGEAU, Martin

 2009/02

June 1-Sept. 1, 2009, Vancouver, BC  Western Canada Childhood Cancer Research Network  SCHULTZ, Kirk R

 2009/02

Oct. 21-23, 2009, Toronto, ON  Forum on the Earlier Detection and Diagnosis of Breast Cancer  YAFFE, Martin J

 2009/02




3. Impact Assessment of the Palliative and End-of-Life Care (PELC) Initiative

ICR is pleased to share the results of the Impact Assessment, prepared by external consultants, of its Palliative and End-of-life Care Initiative. This initiative was developed by ICR in collaboration with 18 partners, with a total investment of $16.5 million over six years. The Highlights and Conclusions document is available on the ICR website, under Resources.

4. March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in Canada.  ICR has invested close to $6 million in colorectal cancer screening research through several initiatives launched under the Early Detection of Cancer strategic research priority area. More information on the colorectal cancer screening research supported by ICR is available online [ PDF (2.3 MB) | Help ]. We invite you to read the Web Message from the honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, which highlights the Government’s efforts against colorectal cancer. To find out more about how to prevent, treat and beat colorectal cancer, and to learn more about the public awareness campaign, please visit the website of the Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada. 

5. New Institute Advisory Board Member

ICR is pleased to welcome Dr. Barbara Rotter who joined ICR’s Institute Advisory Board on December 1, 2009. Dr. Rotter is the Director of the Bureau of Metabolism Oncology and Reproductive Sciences at Health Canada. Her biography is now available on the ICR website.

6. Meetings of interest to the cancer community

The following upcoming meetings are funded in part by ICR.

5th Annual Canadian Conference on Ovarian Cancer Research, May 15-18, 2010, Toronto, ON. Along with the Society of Gynecologic Oncology of Canada (GOC) and Ovarian Cancer Canada (OCC), we invite you on a “Journey to Discovery, Prevention and Cure,” where we will feature renowned Canadian and international researchers presenting their findings in symposia ranging from biomarker discovery and validation, cells of origin and models of ovarian cancer to susceptibility, risk factors, novel therapies, and current and emerging clinical trials for ovarian cancer.  Workshops in conjunction with specific symposia are offered to provide an opportunity for the ovarian research community to exchange ideas and discuss the implications of its discoveries. The main conference will be preceded by an interactive one-day workshop for trainees.  We are introducing a half-day workshop for survivors, also preceding the official meeting. This meeting is a unique forum in which all ovarian cancer researchers, from scientists to clinicians will have the ability to present and discuss their work, forge new collaborations, or strengthen existing ones! Don’t miss out on the chance to participate, present your own data, find new collaborators and witness the capacity building of our growing community by inspiring graduate students and other learners to pursue their professional goals as researchers in ovarian cancer! Please visit the website for registration and programme details. We look forward to seeing you in Toronto! (Organizers: Michelle Letarte, Joan Murphy, Elisabeth Ross and Marie Plante.)

7th Canadian Symposium on Telomeres and Telomerase, May 13-16, 2010, Hamilton, ON.  The guest speaker is Julie Cooper from Cancer Research UK. Any Canadian researcher working on issues related to telomeres and telomerases is invited to attend this meeting. Registration is free of charge and in general, lodging is very economical. Graduate students presenting their work as a poster or orally can obtain travel and lodging subsidies. Deadline for abstracts is April 15, 2010. (Registration closed on March 15. Please send a request for participation to the organizers if you are interested in attending).

Functional Imaging for Radiotherapy Workshop, April 8-9, 2010, Vancouver, BC. This workshop will involve about forty participants (oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, medical physicists, radiopharmacists and computer scientists). The topics of the first day's talks will be internal radiotherapy procedures, internal dosimetry and quantitative imaging. The second day will focus on the role of nuclear medicine functional imaging for external beam radiotherapy planning. The aim of the workshop is to provide a forum for the leading scientists from all these disciplines to exchange ideas, share experiences, discuss potential problems and seek solutions. (Registration is closed).