Researcher Resources
Who We Work With
Testimonials
Corrie Painter, PhD
Deputy Director, Count Me In
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Working with the OSI has been one of the greatest honors of my professional career. As a sarcoma patient and as a cancer research scientist, I am committed to developing a comprehensive resource for the osteosarcoma community in order to drive discoveries and save lives. The sense of urgency that drives me is matched by everyone I’ve worked with at the OSI and I have faith that we will transform our understanding of this devastating disease.
Jonathan Bush, MD
Pediatric Pathologist, Department of
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia
Although unsuccessful in my first attempt, I received valuable and encouraging feedback that has prompted me to reach out to more collaborators and prepared a much more robust and exciting subsequent application.
Claudia Janda, PhD
Principal Investigator, Research Department at Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology
Although my proposed project was not funded, the application process was one of the most helpful and transparent I have observed. The feedback, to both for the LOI and the full applications, was very fair and helpful, and I really appreciate the time the committee took to think and comment on the project.
What We Fund
Clinical Trials
A clinical study with osteosarcoma patients is the culmination and ultimate test for often years of translational science work. We prioritize novel approaches that have strong preclinical rationales and utilize an innovative trial model that allows a rapid readout of effectiveness.
Correlative Studies
Clinical trials are focused on determining whether an experimental therapy works so they usually do not include funding to study why the treatment does or does not work. Such correlative studies can add a valuable additional level of understanding to inform future development.
Translational Studies
Osteosarcoma is a complex, poorly understood cancer. We seek out projects that will generate seminal preclinical biological insights and suggest new ways to attack the disease.
2022-2023 Grant Opportunities
The Osteosarcoma Institute’s 2022-2023 call for letters of intent closed on November 15, 2022. Invitations to submit a full proposal will be shared with applicants in January 2023, and grant winners will be announced later in 2023. Applicants wishing to submit a request for funding for our next cycle should revisit this page in September 2023. If your project is time sensitive, you can also review our “off-cycle” grant funding.
Thank you for giving hope to osteosarcoma patients and families. If you would like to be added to our researcher email list, please sign up as a “doctor or researcher” here. Additionally, you may follow our progress on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The Grant Process
The OSI’s principal grant mechanism involves an annual, two-stage process.
In early fall, we issue a call for summary, letter of intent proposals in our three areas: clinical trials, correlative studies, and translational studies.
In late fall, we convene expert review committees to evaluate the letters of intent and select finalists, who are invited to submit full, detailed proposals.
The full proposals are evaluated, and grants are awarded in late spring.
We do not limit our work by geography or primary institutions. Instead, we invite the brightest minds in the field to apply for funding for pre-clinical studies and revolutionary trials of unexplored aspects of osteosarcoma. What sets our grant process apart is that every applicant receives detailed feedback about their submission from our reviewers. We have seen that this work has resulted in higher quality submissions over the past few years.
Because some projects may not fit in our annual grants timeline, we have a separate, ad-hoc procedure to consider “out-of-cycle” grants using the same criteria and standards. Read more about the OSI’s off-cycle grant funding below.
Discretionary Grants
The OSI Strategic Advisoary Board members include physicians and basic science researchers who are continually introduced to innovative ideas and technologies at medical meetings and research conferences, or within the halls of their own institutions. If an intriguing idea is far enough along, its champion can be encouraged to apply for a grant from the OSI. But often times such an idea is in a nascent stage and needs a relatively small but timely investment to establish its feasibility for further development in osteosarcoma. The OSI has established a discretionary grant program to pursue these opportunities. On the spot grants of up to $20,000 can be nimbly authorized by committees of our SAB. To inquire about discretionary grants, please email a 1-2 page summary of your project to submissions@osinst.org.
Off-Cycle Requests
Our annual grant application window closes in mid-November. While our annual process constitutes the primary OSI grantmaking mechanism, we recognize that not all projects are compatible with that time frame; accordingly, we consider off-cycle proposals on a case-by-case basis. If you are interested in an out-of-cycle proposal, please contact us with a 1-2 page summary about your proposed project and include why it is time sensitive.