The Little Princess Trust has been funding research into childhood cancers since 2016. They fund research that will lead to kinder, more targeted, less toxic and more effective treatments for all childhood cancers. They will only consider funding work which will have a direct impact on the outcomes of children and young people and have a strong focus on innovation.
Little Princess Trust New Ideas Grants
The Little Princess Trust (LPT) is keen to support innovation in children and young people’s cancer research, supporting promising ideas which may be challenging to find funding for from traditional research funders.
Our ‘New Ideas Grants’ are to help researchers generate high-quality preliminary data, or to demonstrate the validity of a hypothesis/study, to advance innovative and novel ideas with the potential to transform the treatment of children and young people’s cancer.
We are looking for impactful, ‘thinking outside the box’ ideas. Applicants should have a novel hypothesis. You may have some preliminary data that can be developed further, but this is not a pre-requisite for this grant round. We will prioritise exciting ideas with the greatest potential to secure further funding, including from LPT in future innovation-focused funding rounds. We are looking for projects which are genuinely new and haven’t been done before.
Little Princess Trust (LPT) Project Grants support research into cancers affecting children and young people. Funded projects will align with the objectives set out in LPT’s research strategy; funded projects will:
- Improve survival, treatment or patient care
- Provide patients with kinder, less toxic treatments
- Assist in transferring research progress from the lab to a clinical setting
- Broaden and deepen knowledge of children and young people’s cancers.
The focus should be on improving outcomes for children and young people.
We expect the typical award for our New Ideas Grants will be up to £50,000 with a project duration of up to 12 months, however there is no upper limit for proposals and decisions are primarily based on the quality of the proposed research and its potential impact rather than cost.
Applications to this funding round should be for scientific proposals that study:
- New approaches to treatment, in particular:
- More effective treatment with fewer toxicities/on-treatment side effects
- Approaches to treatment that may lead to a reduction in short- and long-term sequelae of treatment (but studies focusing on treatment of late effects, health behaviour interventions for survivors, fertility/reproductive health and psychosocial aspects are unlikely to be considered)
- The causes of childhood or TYA cancer, where the research is likely to lead to an improvement in outcomes
- Accurate diagnosis of childhood or TYA cancer, where the research is likely to lead to an improvement in outcomes
The Trust generally funds basic science (with a clear plan for translation/patient benefit), translational and clinical research. Other types of research are unlikely to be considered for this funding scheme. For more information, read The Little Princess Trust's Research Strategy.
Applications to this funding round will comprise:
- A submission of your scientific proposal through our Flexigrant portal
- Your lay summary of the project, its potential impact and future aspirations in the form of a video, maximum 5 minutes, a slide deck (maximum 8 slides) or a document, maximum 2 sides of A4. This should be for a lay audience and will be used by The Little Princess Trust Research Subcommittee for deciding which applications to take through to peer review. A video submission is preferred.
The deadline for applications is 17:00 on Wednesday 28 February 2024. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be accepted. Funding is available to UK and Ireland based research organisations, i.e. universities and hospitals.
Applications will be judged on
Applications will be judged on:
- Research need and scope
- Innovativeness of research idea and potential for future impact
- Design of proposed study
- Leadership & expertise of research team
- Justification of resources.
More information about what we are looking for in each cateogry can be found in our 'guidance for applicants' document below.
Application process
You'll need to submit your application online using our grant management system, FlexiGrant via https://cclg.flexigrant.com/. The system is straightforward to use, but if you have any questions or problems using Flexigrant, please contact us on research@cclg.org.uk.
You should inform your host institution that you intend to apply, as they will be required to approve your application.
- All applications should be submitted through our online portal. You will need to sign up for an account with us to complete this process. Applications must be completed by 17:00 on 28 February 2024.
- Your accompanying lay summary of the project, its potential impact and future aspirations (in the form of a video, maximum 5 minutes, a slide deck (maximum 8 slides) or a document, maximum 2 sides of A4, noting that a video submission is preferred) should be submitted immediately following your application through our online portal.
- This should be for a lay audience and will be used by The Little Princess Trust Research Subcommittee for deciding which applications to take through to peer review.
- It should be emailed to LPT@cclg.org.ukwith the email subject line 'LPT New Ideas Grant Submission'.
- You should include in the body of the detail the full name, institution and email address of the lead applicant, who will be the key contact for further stages of the application process.
- Receipt of your submission will be acknolwedged within three working days. If you have not heard during this time, please email research@cclg.org.ukto confirm
Please read our guidance for applicants before starting an application
How research applications are selected
Excellent research governance is at the heart of our research decision making. Our independent Research Advisory Group (RAG) overseas our research grant rounds and follows our Principles of Peer Review Policy. All of our RAG members and external peer reviewers are asked to declare any Conflicts of Interest and adhere to our Grant Review Code of Conduct . Following peer review, the RAG will discuss and rank the applications for funding. Final approval comes from the Little Princess Trust Research Subgroup.