+ More Filters

Reset Filters

Title

Funding Organization

Funding Type

Eligible Country

Deadline

Other (Select all that apply)

Show Expired Programs

Show Verified Programs

Not Verified

Summer Fellowship Awards

St. Baldrick's Foundation

The St. Baldrick's Foundation is a volunteer and donor powered charity committed to supporting the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives. It started with a friendly dare: would you shave your head to raise money for kids’ cancer research? What happened next would change the world. This bold act of baldness has gained major momentum, since its start in 2000. Today, we have more than 1,000 head-shaving events taking place around the world – virtually and at pubs, restaurants, schools, churches, parks, firehouses, military bases – you name it. It is our constituents’ way of changing the world, in a meaningful way. Volunteers also raise funds through athletic challenges, livestream fundraisers and many other activities. Since the Foundation's first grants as an independent charity in 2005, St. Baldrick's has invested more than $368 million in childhood cancer research grants worldwide. It’s about collaboration. It’s about powerful ideas, big and small. It’s about never giving up until we have cures for all kids with cancers.

FUNDING HIGHLIGHTS

The St. Baldrick’s Foundation works hard to be sure that every dollar makes the biggest impact possible in childhood cancer research. The Foundation is proud to have received the National Cancer Institute Peer Review Funder designation for selection of grants. The Foundation has held several Research Priorities Summits with many of the country’s leading pediatric oncology researchers participating to advise the staff and board of directors on funding priorities.

The St. Baldrick’s team and scientific advisors meet regularly to be sure St. Baldrick’s funds make the greatest impact on pediatric cancer research.

Current funding priorities are divided into four categories:

• New discovery research

• Translational research and early phase clinical trials

• Phase III clinical trials & infrastructure support of participating institutions (primarily the fall grant cycle)

• Education of new pediatric oncology researchers

In addition to research to understand the biology of childhood cancers and discover leads to more effective treatments, topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Adolescents & young adults

• Survivorship, outcomes, and quality of life

• Supportive care

• Epidemiology and pediatric cancer predispositions

• Precision medicine

• Alternative & complementary therapies

AI Based Application Success Predictor

1. Clear, Direct Focus on Childhood Cancer

The top predictor is that the project specifically benefits pediatric/AYA cancer patients, including:

Leukemias (ALL, AML)

Brain & CNS tumors (medulloblastoma, glioma, DIPG/DMG)

Neuroblastoma

Sarcomas (osteosarcoma, Ewing, RMS)

Lymphoma

Rare pediatric malignancies (histiocytic disorders, germ cell tumors)

High-priority themes:

Relapsed/refractory disease

Drug resistance mechanisms

Targeted and immunotherapies

Minimal residual disease detection

Novel biomarkers

Treatment toxicity reduction & survivorship

Neurocognitive, endocrine, psychosocial outcomes

❗ Adult oncology projects with children as a subpopulation do not score well.

2. Mechanism Alignment With Career Stage & Project Scope

Perfect match matters:

Mechanism	Best For	Critical Criteria
St. Baldrick’s Fellows	Pediatric oncology trainees	Mentorship + training environment
Early Career / Scholar Awards	Junior faculty	Trajectory → independent funding
Translational/Consortium	Established investigators & multi-site teams	Patient access + clinical impact
Supportive Care Grants	Clinicians & outcomes researchers	QoL, toxicity mitigation, disparities

Predictor: Fit PI career stage, project maturity, and patient access to the exact call.

3. Strong Preliminary Data

Even pilot grants show:

Feasibility proven in models or early trials

Early biomarker signals

Evidence that required assays, recruitment, and collaborations are established

Target expression or mechanistic rationale validated in pediatric tumors

Predictor: Feasibility and strong rationale → major scoring factor.

4. Pediatric-Relevant Models and Patient Access

Winning proposals leverage:

Patient-derived xenografts (PDX) from children

Pediatric tumor cell lines or organoids

Multi-omics data from pediatric tumors

Access to biobanks, Children’s Oncology Group (COG), pediatric trial groups

Defined cohort recruitment strategy for clinical studies

Predictor: Authentic pediatric relevance is essential.

5. Translational or Clinical Trial Pathway

St. Baldrick’s wants to change outcomes, not only understand disease.

Funded proposals show:

Clear route to trials within 3–5 years

IND-enabling milestones if drug-focused

Biomarker validation toward clinical utility

Defined endpoints to prove patient benefit

Predictor: Promising pathway to clinical impact increases enthusiasm.

6. Strong Investigator Track Record

Reviewers reward:

Publications in pediatric oncology

Prior success in grant delivery

Unique expertise aligned to the project

Clear development into a leader in childhood cancer research

Predictor: PI quality is heavily weighted, especially for Scholar/Faculty awards.

7. Excellence in Mentorship & Environment (for Trainees/Early-Career)

Critical criteria:

Well-funded primary mentor with pediatric oncology leadership

Protected time for research

Robust institutional infrastructure (cores, patients, imaging, GMP if needed)

Co-mentors for complementary skillsets

Predictor: Mentor strength influences reviewer confidence.

8. Well-Defined, Milestone-Based Aims

Best proposals include:

2–3 hypothesis-driven aims

Rapid, measurable milestones

Clear go/no-go decisions

Realistic for 1–3 year timelines

Plan for future funding (NIH/DOD/COG)

Predictor: Feasibility & clarity are top scoring criteria.

9. High Innovation & Urgency

St. Baldrick’s seeks transformative solutions:

First-in-field mechanistic insights

Novel cell/gene therapies

Combination regimens addressing resistance

Real-world solutions to survivorship harms

Cross-disciplinary technologies

Predictor: Innovation + urgent clinical need = reviewer enthusiasm.

10. Clear, Convincing Writing

Winning proposals are:

Logically structured

Supported by visual preliminary data

Strong in rigor & methodology

Accessible to both clinicians and laboratory reviewers

Compliant with guidelines & page limits

Predictor: Clean writing often separates top-tier applications.

🏆 Summary — St. Baldrick’s Foundation Success Predictors

Predictor	Why It Matters
Pediatric cancer focus	Core mission
Mechanism alignment	Correct evaluation
Preliminary data	Feasibility validation
Pediatric models	Clinical relevance
Translational path	Near-term patient benefit
PI trajectory	Investment return
Mentorship & environment	Execution & independence
Feasible aims	Deliverable results
Innovation	Big impact potential
Strong writing	Higher reviewer scoring

Specialties

Pediatrics

Eligibility Requirements

St. Baldrick’s offers Summer Fellowship Awards, funding stipends for one undergraduate, graduate, or medical school student to work in a pediatric oncology research setting for a summer. The total award, paid to the mentor’s institution, is $5,000.

• Mentor and student pair is a prerequisite for applying.

• The mentor and student should work together on the application, but applications must be submitted with the mentor as Principal Investigator (PI) via ProposalCentral.

• Summer fellowship should last 8-10 weeks during summer. Preferred dates are between May and August.

• Students must currently be enrolled in an undergraduate, graduate, or medical degree program.

• Students may train at an institution other than their own institution.

• Institutions may submit only one (1) new Summer Fellow application per year. o Note: The limited submissions policy exception detailed in other program guidelines is not applicable for Summer Fellow awards.

• Mentor may apply only once per year in the Summer Fellow category. Applying for a Summer Fellowship does not affect eligibility to apply in other St. Baldrick’s funding categories.

• Mentor’s Institution must be located in the United States.

• Mentor and/or student need not be American citizens; however, the mentor must work at an academic, medical, or non-profit research institution within the United States.

• A program/institution is defined as an entity essentially operating under one management.

o Any questions or questionable situations will be reviewed by a subset of the Scientific Advisors of St. Baldrick’s. Questions can be emailed to Grants@Stbaldricks.org, please include a copy of the mentor’s biosketch.

• Institutions that are actively involved in (sponsor, promote, or participate in) non-St. Baldrick’s head-shaving fundraising events are not eligible to apply for St. Baldrick’s funding.

o St. Baldrick’s understands that hospitals and their fundraising agents and organizations cannot control what their many volunteers do. Some may undertake head-shaving fundraisers that hospital/agent/organization is not aware of and does not sanction or promote. These activities would not prevent the hospital’s researchers from applying for St. Baldrick’s grants.

o The following applies to hospitals, their fundraising agents and organizations as institutions. Researchers from hospitals would be ineligible to apply for St. Baldrick’s grants if the hospital/agent/organization promotes (advertises, emails, blogs, media stories, social media posts, shares, reshares, likes, tweets, re-tweets or hosts web pages) a non-St. Baldrick’s head-shaving fundraiser through any type of marketing, advertising, outreach or public-facing collateral or ancillary materials, or on any channel (television, radio, print, social media, website, etc.), using any content that sponsors, highlights, advocates or recommends a head-shaving event other than St. Baldrick’s.

• St. Baldrick’s funds may not be used for human embryonic stem cell research.

• No institutional overhead or indirect funding is provided under the terms of the grant. See Budget Guidance section for more details.

• Research projects must have direct applicability and relevance to pediatric cancer. They may be in any discipline of basic, clinical, translational, or epidemiological research.

• The mentor should currently hold an M.D./D.O., or Ph.D. degree and be working in the field of pediatric oncology research. • Summer Fellow must not have been a past awardee.

• The grant budget may include student salary/stipend, supplies, and other direct costs related to the summer fellowship expenses. Grant funds cannot be used for tuition. See Budget Guidance section for more details.

• All awards will be payable to the Mentor’s academic institution, non-profit research institution, or laboratory.

• All qualified applicants will receive consideration for funding without regard to race, color, ethnicity/national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, religion, belief and spirituality, age disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Sponsor Details

Sponsor Institute/Organizations: St. Baldrick's Foundation

Sponsor Type: Corporate/Non-Profit

Address: 1333 South Mayflower Ave Suite 400 Monrovia CA 91016 Ph. (626) 792-8247 Grants@StBaldricks.org

Legal & Affiliation Disclaimer

Affiliation Disclaimer: Trialect operates independently and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by any sponsors or organizations posting on the GrantsBoard platform. As an independent aggregator of publicly available funding opportunities, Trialect provides equal access to information for all users without endorsing any specific funding source, content, organization, or sponsor. Trialect assumes no responsibility for the content posted by sponsors or third parties.

Subscription Disclaimer: Upon logging into Trialect, you may choose to SUBSCRIBE to GrantsBoard for timely notifications of funding opportunities and to access exclusive benefits, such as priority alerts, reminders, personalized recommendations, and additional application support. However, users are advised to contact sponsors directly for any questions and are not required to subscribe to engage with funding opportunities.

Content Ownership and Copyright Disclaimer: Trialect respects the intellectual property rights of all organizations and individuals. All content posted on GrantsBoard is provided solely for informational purposes and remains the property of the original owners. Trialect does not claim ownership of, nor does it have any proprietary interest in, content provided by third-party sponsors. Users are encouraged to verify content and ownership directly with the posting sponsor.

Fair Use Disclaimer: The information and content available on GrantsBoard are compiled from publicly accessible sources in alignment with fair use principles under U.S. copyright law. Trialect serves as an aggregator of this content, offering it to users in good faith and with the understanding that it is available for public dissemination. Any organization or individual who believes their intellectual property rights have been violated is encouraged to contact us for prompt resolution.

Third-Party Posting Responsibility Disclaimer: Trialect is a neutral platform that allows third-party sponsors to post funding opportunities for informational purposes only. Sponsors are solely responsible for ensuring that their postings comply with copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. Trialect assumes no liability for any copyright or intellectual property infringements in third-party content and will take appropriate action to address any substantiated claims.

Accuracy and Verification Disclaimer: Trialect makes no warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information provided by sponsors. Users are advised to verify the details of any funding opportunity directly with the sponsor before taking action. Trialect cannot be held liable for any discrepancies, omissions, or inaccuracies in third-party postings.

Notice and Takedown Policy: Trialect is committed to upholding copyright law and protecting the rights of intellectual property owners. If you believe that content on GrantsBoard infringes your copyright or intellectual property rights, please contact us with detailed information about the claim. Upon receipt of a valid notice, Trialect will promptly investigate and, where appropriate, remove or disable access to the infringing content.

View Funding Opportunity