For a complete copy of the 2012 Clinician-Scientist Award Program Guidelines, click here.
Note: The deadline for submitting applications to the Prostate Cancer Canada (PCC) Clinician-Scientist Award program is Thursday, March 15, 2012. Applications must be submitted by email to joanne.reynolds@prostatecancer.ca (Adobe PDF preferred, but Word is acceptable; please label file as: applicant name–type of application). Please maintain the order of the documents with the application section.
The Prostate Cancer Canada (PCC) is offering a limited number of Clinician-Scientist awards, which provide salary and research support for outstanding Clinician-Scientists initiating a career as independent investigators/junior faculty in prostate cancer research. These awards provide the opportunity for new faculty with 5 or fewer years of service to develop and demonstrate independence in initiating and conducting prostate cancer research.
The PCC will only accept one application per applicant. Please read eligibility criteria prior to applying.
Candidates for the PCC Clinician-Scientist awards must:
Candidates must spend a minimum of 50% of the time (2.5 x 8 hour days; Monday to Friday) per week devoted to research. Candidates may provide clinical services to the Host Institution during the period of the award, provided that at least 2.5 x 8 hour days (Monday to Friday) are reserved for research duties.
The proposed research project must be in the area of prostate cancer. Clinical work should focus on Prostate Cancer but need not be exclusive to Prostate Cancer. The competition is open to clinician scientists practicing in any area of oncology (e.g. medical oncology, urological oncology, radiation oncology, etc).
Candidates are encouraged to establish contacts with a research mentor to assist in the initial phases of their research career. Plans by the institution and/or the candidate to develop contacts with such a mentor should be described in the application, and will be considered by the review panel.
Candidates must have a written commitment from the Institution, via letter from the Dean of Faculty or Research Director, which accompanies the application, committing to:
Important: Institutional support is a criterion that is considered in the evaluation of a Clinician-Scientist Award application and is therefore an important component of the application. All commitments listed above must be clearly addressed in the letter from the Dean of Faculty or Research Director. Under the circumstances that the letter of support cannot be obtained before the close of competition, it must be provided as soon as it is received or prior to start of the award. Funds for salary support will not be released without confirmation of institutional matching funds.
Awardees are encouraged to apply for additional peer-reviewed grant support during the award period. There is no limit to the amount of peer-reviewed grant support that can be held in conjunction with the PCC award, provided that any additional peer-reviewed funds do not substantially overlap with the PCC funding.
The PCC will make a maximum total contribution of a maximum of $150,000 per year, per award, for up to two years. Of this, $75,000 per year will be allocated for salary support. The host institution is expected to provide at least matching funds for the salary support portion of the award, such that the total salary (including PCC and host institution contributions) will not be less than $100,000 per year. The remaining $75,000 per year of the PCC contribution will be allocated for research and fringe benefits expenses, etc. The host institution is expected to provide additional research funds for clinician scientist. The host institution’s proposed contribution to the research expense portion of the award should be clearly indicated in the application, and this will be evaluated by the award review committee.
The PCC funds will also cover an administrative fee of 10 percent to the institution to cover the awardee’s fringe benefits, such as health insurance and retirement. The institution is expected to cover the remainder of these costs as an indication of support for the awardee.
Institutions that pay for fringe benefits from their own funds may keep the fee as reimbursement for administering the grant or reallocate the fee to the awardee’s research expenses.
The host institution is responsible for issuing all relevant tax forms.
Clinician Scientist awards are released only upon the approval of the Board of Directors of the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation Canada. It should be noted that the Foundation has a limited amount of funds and, although applications may have been assessed as having scientific merit, there may not be sufficient funds to award all such applications. All awards are, at all times, conditional upon, and subject to, availability of funds. In addition, the Foundation reserves the right to terminate, at any time and without cause, any grant or award.
Each award will provide a maximum of two years of support.
Research projects may be in any area of prostate cancer research that would normally be fundable through the PCC pilot grant program, including basic science, clinical, or translational research.
The PCC Clinician-Scientist award consists of a salary component and a research allowance component. The research allowance may be used for equipment, personnel, and other expenses that are required for the proposed research. A budget proposal should accompany the application, and will be considered by the review committee.
The funds will be transferred to the host institution’s finance department in two installments; the release of the second installment is contingent upon the submission of the interim progress report.
The earliest date of commencement of the award is July 3, 2012. Special requests for delayed starts may be granted on a case-by-case basis, and should be made in writing to the Director, Research Program. Up to 15% of annual funding may be carried over for use in the next funding year. The PCC does not assume any financial obligation beyond the funding period specified in the notification letter.
Awardees are required to acknowledge PCC in any communication or publication related to the project. The Notification of Award will detail the funder clearly. Proper acknowledgement would be “This research is supported by the Prostate Cancer Canada” and refer to themselves as a “PCC Clinician Scientist”.
At the completion of each award year, a report summarizing the progress to date must be submitted to the PCC. The report must be received each year, no later than fifteen (15) days after the anniversary date of the award for subsequent award payments to be released. At the end of the award period, the PCC requires the awardee to submit a brief report on activities undertaken during tenure of the award. The Progress/Final Report Forms can be found on the PCC website here.
Awardees should follow their institutions’ patent, copyright, and intellectual property policies regarding discoveries that result from research conducted under these awards. Awardees must adhere to all pertinent regulations regarding the participation of human subjects, and the use of animals, radioactive or hazardous materials, and recombinant DNA in their research projects. The PCC expects the appropriate guidelines with regard to scientific misconduct are in place and enforced at all institutions with which the PCC awardees are affiliated.
Awardees should share scientific findings in a timely manner via the standard means of scientific communication, including publications and/or presentations in scientific forums. The PCC will not retain any rights to published results or patents that result from the research.
The award must be held in the nominating institution. The PCC will consider a transfer of the award to a new institution, with the following requirements:
Research grantees may be asked to participate in photo opportunities and media interviews. They may also be asked to assist in preparing written materials for the PCC Web site.
Candidates must disclose fully any financial interest they may have in any commercial venture whose business activities are related to the subject matter or the PCC application process.
The PCC will not provide funds to individuals who receive support directly from tobacco manufacturers or from the Council for Tobacco Research or from the Smokeless Tobacco Council.
The successful applicant and/or his/her host institution will be responsible for research ethics and its protocols.
The successful applicant and/or his/her host institution will be responsible for any and all risk and liability related to the funded project and shall take all necessary measures to avoid any losses or damages to the PCC, its successors, assigns, directors, officers and employees.
In the event that an application funded by the PCC leads to the development of commercial intellectual property, the grantee will be guided by the policies of his/her institution. PCC does not retain or claim any ownership of IP developed in whole or in part, through the use of funds awarded.
In consideration of the above waiver, we expect grantees’ cooperation in realizing appropriate recognition for the PCC through media releases issued by the host institution. We also expect Scientists’ cooperation in publicizing the PCC’s contribution to their research.
Research proposals and attachments are held in strict confidence by the PCC. Information provided in application for an award is distributed to peer reviewers and staff to facilitate a fair review and to administer the grant program. Lay summaries of funded research proposals are published on our Web site, Annual Report, media releases, newsletters and stakeholder communications with the name of scientist and the host institution.
Names of funded awards and host institutions are included on the CRA website as part of our financial return submission.
The PCC staff and volunteer committees ensure a high degree of integrity, accountability and responsibility and require assurances of the same from all researchers and their host institutions.
A PCC peer review committee will evaluate the full applications.
The main criteria that the PCC Clinician Scientist Award Panel takes into consideration when reviewing the fellowship applications are:
For an application to receive funding, applicants must be competitive in all areas. Depending upon the number of submissions, applications may be pre-screened. Please note that this policy may be re-assessed at any time and pre-screening may be implemented if deemed necessary.
The Chair of the Panel will designate two reviewers: one to interview the applicant and prepare a written report; the other to provide a written report only. All other members of the Panel will review each of the applications and participate in the discussion at the panel meeting. Applicants will be notified by e-mail in April, 2012 with details regarding the interview process and the name of the Panel member assigned to conduct the interview. Interviews will take place during May, 2012. Economy travel expenses will be reimbursed by the PCC.
In June 2012 the panel will discuss the applications under consideration. Panel members are provided with copies of the written reports from the assigned reviewers. These reports are for Panel use only and will not be transmitted to the applicants. The Scientific Officer of the panel is charged with the responsibility of recording salient points raised in the discussion. These comments will be provided to the applicant whether successful or not. Every application receives a thorough discussion/assessment before being rated by each Panel members. Ratings are assigned on a scale ranging from 0 to 5, with 0 representing the lowest funding priority and 5 the highest. The applications are then ranked according to the mean Panel ratings in order to identify which applicants should be recommended for each of the Clinician Scientist awards. Only those applications with a mean score of 3.0 or greater will be considered for funding. However, applicants are reminded that 3.0 is the minimum score that an application must receive to qualify for consideration of funding and that economic constraints usually necessitate a higher cutoff score for determining the number of Clinician Scientist awards that may be allocated in a given year. Each Panel will then recommend to the SMAC Executive which applications should be approved. SMAC Executive then makes the final funding recommendations to the PCC Board of Directors.
Applicants who progress to the final review stage will receive written notification of their application results by June 29, 2012. The results will also be posted on the PCC website.
Applications must be submitted online by completing the 2012 Prostate Cancer Canada Clinician Scientist Award Application Form which can be found at the following link.
The application deadline is Thursday March 15, 2012 at 5 p.m. EST.