The overwhelming response to the RFP is a testament to the dedication and focus that many in the cancer research community are now placing on rare diseases like WM, and to the generosity of donors who give to the IWMF to support such efforts.
When announcing the new RFP in November, IWMF President Carl Harrington said: “The 2016 RFP represents an acceleration of our search for a cure for WM. We expect that WM researchers will aggressively compete again to secure funding from us. How many projects we will be able to fund depends entirely upon the generosity of our donors.”
Now that we have received such a strong response from WM researchers, Carl says, “now it’s up to us to fund as many of these projects as we can. At the moment, we should be able to fund three new projects. If our members respond with new support, we may be able to fund additional projects.” The immediate next step in this process will be a scientific review and ranking of the applications, which will be completed in the spring. Announcement of the new awards will occur in June 2017. Disbursement of funding for approved proposals is expected to start in July-October 2017.
The 2016 RFP follows on the heels of the first IWMF Research Roadmap RFP issued in November 2015, which resulted in the IWMF funding three projects totaling almost $1.2M. See Research Strategy for more details about the 2015 RFP. See page 5 of the September Torch for more information about the IWMF-LLS Strategic Research Roadmap.