The Bringing Biology to Cancer Prevention Team Grants aim to unite interdisciplinary research teams to advance the biological and mechanistic understanding of cancer etiology, genesis and risk, linked with host, lifestyle, environmental, social and other factors, to identify new targets and approaches for cancer prevention, risk reduction and early detection.
The Terry Fox Research Institute has joined forces with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and its partners, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, the Cancer Research Society and BioCanRx, to advance cancer prevention through a groundbreaking new funding initiative.
Together, we are investing more than $41 million to support 19 research teams that will work over the next five years to develop and share new approaches that advance cancer prevention, reduce cancer risk, and improve early detection for some of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in Canada and the world.
This marks TFRI’s first dedicated investment in cancer prevention research. With a total contribution of nearly $10 million, TFRI is funding six research teams who will spend the next five years advancing prevention strategies for cervical, gastric, blood, colorectal, prostate and obesity-related cancers.
These projects will deepen our understanding of how cancers develop and help shift the focus from treatment to prevention.
Overview
Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Approximately two in five Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime, and one in four will die of their disease.* The World Health Organization reports that between 30 to 50 per cent of cancer deaths are related to modifiable risk factors, suggesting that implementing evidence-based prevention strategies could be impactful in reducing cancer incidence and burden on individuals, families and communities.**
The Team Grants: Bringing Biology to Cancer Prevention aims to unite interdisciplinary research teams to advance the biological and mechanistic understanding of cancer etiology, genesis and risk, linked with host, lifestyle, environmental, social and other factors, to identify new targets and approaches for cancer prevention, risk reduction and early detection.
Collaborations between traditional cancer prevention researchers (e.g., population and public health researchers, epidemiologists, social scientists) and those from other disciplines (e.g., biologists, immunologists, geneticists, drug developers) or who are new to the field are strongly encouraged. Collectively, these research teams will develop and disseminate evidence-based solutions to enable improvements in cancer prevention, risk reduction and early detection at the individual and/or population-level.
Objectives
This funding opportunity aims to:
- Advance the understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying cancer etiology, genesis and/or risk linked with host, lifestyle, environmental, social and other factors to enable improvements in cancer prevention, early detection and risk reduction at the individual and/or population-level.
- Foster and enable interdisciplinary team science by connecting diverse researchers across discovery, clinical, health services and population health research, and knowledge users and knowledge holders, whose collaborative efforts are required to achieve an improved understanding of the biological mechanisms and associated determinants of health that influence cancer risk and development.
- Bridge the gap between research and clinical/public health practice through knowledge mobilization.
- Strengthen and promote research capacity in cancer prevention, early detection and risk reduction through interdisciplinary and experiential-based approaches.
For more information visit CIHR's website.