2024 LLS Discovery Grant Program (DGP)

Eligibility

Applicants:

• The program welcomes applications from US citizens and non-US citizens, as well as applicants who are performing research outside the United States.
• Applicants must hold a PhD, MD, DVM, or equivalent degree.
• Applicants must be independent investigators affiliated with a non-profit institution at the time funding commences and for the duration of the award. Applications from non-academic facilities are not eligible.
• Investigators must demonstrate that their research environment is equipped and suitable for all aspects of the work. Applications may involve multiple institutions and collaborators; however, the applicant (principal investigator) will be responsible for signing off on all terms of the funding agreement.
• An applicant (PI) may only submit one DGP application per cycle. However, if you currently hold a Discovery Grant Program (DGP) or Blood Cancer Discoveries Grant Program (BCDG) award, you may not apply to DGP in this cycle unless your current award is scheduled to end before October 1, 2024.

Overlapping aims in grant proposals submitted to LLS

• The PI and/or Co-PI may apply to more than one grant program during an application cycle if the aims do not substantially overlap with the aims of any other application across all programs. You may not be on a different project within the same grant program unless you are a Collaborator.

• Collaborators or Key Personnel may be part of other DGP projects or any other grant program applications provided the aims differ.

All such duplicate grant proposal submissions with substantially overlapping aims are subject to administrative disqualification, and such proposals will not be reviewed further or considered for funding. Contact researchprograms@lls.org with any questions about this policy or to discuss with LLS scientific staff any questions concerning potential overlap between applications.

Summary

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is pleased to announce the 2023-2024 application cycle of the Discovery Grant Program (DGP). DGP is a research award program designed to encourage basic research, technological innovation, and informatics pipeline development. Also known as the Blood Cancer Discoveries Grant Program, DGP hopes to gain better understanding of blood cancer disease mechanisms, to help develop improved methods for detecting and monitoring cancer progression, and to help identify novel therapeutic targets.

LLS is sponsoring and issuing this Request for Applications (RFA) from established independent academic investigators for support of foundational, discovery-stage research that can lead to advances in the treatment and cure of blood cancers. LLS recognizes the need for a dedicated mechanism to encourage established investigators to explore the biology of blood cancer and support proof-of-concept studies that could initiate completely novel approaches to treatment.

The Discovery Grant Program (DGP) is aimed at supporting cutting edge, discovery- oriented innovation research, concerned with understanding blood cancer properties and vulnerabilities and aimed toward advancing treatments for blood cancers.

Examples of projects of potential interest include:

• cellular activities that underlie the behavior and vulnerabilities of blood cancer cells

  including phenomena or processes such as clonal evolution, autophagy, unique metabolic vulnerabilities, inflammation/inflammasomes, DNA damage responses, organellar changes, and poorly understood cellular regulatory mechanisms

• resistance mechanisms including immune evasion, resistant clone evolution, and cellular changes underlying development of resistance to chemotherapies

• novel biomarkers or techniques to detect and monitor blood cancer development and progression

• blood cancer cell interactions with the microenvironment and with the immune system, including exploration of novel immune synapses

This program is not meant to support:

• clinical trials or correlative studies associated with clinical trials
• development of a drug or treatment that already has shown proof of concept
• research that is primarily confirmatory or minimally incremental
• research into cellular behavior, mechanisms, or development not in the context of
• blood cancer
• studies of normal hematopoiesis