The funding process

Applicants for funding from Against Breast Cancer (ABC) should families themselves with the funding process before applying. Calls for Proposals will be issued by Against Breast Cancer (ABC) and researchers are invited to apply before the advertised deadline date using the template forms provided.

Seed grant applicants are asked to complete a full research application. Project grant applicants are asked to provide a Letter of Intent in the first instance.

ABC is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) and all applications will be assessed following the AMRC guidelines for peer review best practice.

Grant applications are reviewed for scientific merit, uniqueness, applicant experience and viability within the proposed budget in an independent and impartial manner. All reviewers have signed confidentiality agreements and agree to adhere to our Conflict of Interest policy. Applicants can recommend or exclude reviewers as part of the application process.

1. All applications are initially assessed by the Research Manager to ensure they are aligned with the Research Strategy of the charity.
2. Applications for Seed grants (less than £50,000 and for a term of less than 1 year) will be assessed by our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of experts and lay reviewers (Research Advocates) who will recommend funding decisions to the Trustees. Written review may also be sought from external experts if the SAB feel they do not have the expertise required to provide recommendations for a proposal or part of a proposal.
3. Letters of Intent for Project grants (of greater than £50,000 per annum) will be reviewed by the SAB. Successful applicants will be requested to provide a full research application which will be sent for external peer review by two scientific experts. Applicants are asked to suggest peer reviewers and may also recommend reviewers who should not be approached. Peer reviewers will provide a scoring for every application reviewed. This score and reviewer’s comments will be presented to the SAB who will take consideration of the peer review responses when reviewing applications, before recommending funding decisions to the Trustees.
4. Applicants may be given the opportunity to respond to questions and/or suggestions made by the external peer reviewers or the SAB, and asked to submit a revised proposal where a good idea is recognised but some changes to the proposal are required before funding can be considered.
5. All applicants will receive feedback on their proposals regardless of success.

Successful applicants will be sent a Grant Award Letter to be signed by the lead applicant and the host institution in order to accept the grant and its Terms and Conditions.

Grant Holders of Seed and Project grants will be required to provide quarterly project updates, and Project grant holders will also be asked to present project progress annually at a meeting of the SAB.