What Is an Outside the Box Grant?
What Is an Outside the Box Grant?
Outside the box thinking is critical for progress in any field. For childhood cancer, outside the box thinking may pave the way to finding better treatments and ultimately cures.
Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research (Rally) sees itself as a philanthropic seed investor in the next great discovery — we like to invest early and are willing to take risks.
Outside the Box Grants provide seed funding for brand new ideas.
RESEARCH GRANTS
Rally helps fund the most promising research initiatives through research grants including our Outside the Box Grant.
A Rally research grant is a financial award provided to universities, hospitals and private research institutions to support a specific research project.
Rally grants are awarded based on a competitive dual peer-review process conducted by our Medical Advisory Board, which is made up of leading childhood cancer experts.
The Outside the Box Grant funds $50,000 for one year.
Rally funds all levels of research, from science at the bench to translational, and includes fellows, young investigators and independent investigators.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Rally Outside the Box Grants must propose a novel idea for innovative research. Each year, Rally shifts the focus of the Outside the Box Grant to address an apparent need in the field.
In 2026, researchers may propose to address either of the following:
Leverage the use of artificial intelligence to advance the diagnosis, treatment or understanding of cancer in children, adolescents and young adults with a demonstrated potential for clinical translation. Advance efficiency, coordination and overall quality of cancer care to improve outcomes for children, adolescents and young adults as well as their families.
The focus of previous Outside the Box Grants have included rhabdomyosarcoma, brain cancer, osteosarcoma, redlight therapy for neuropathy as a side effect of childhood cancer, and integrative, complementary or supplemental therapies to improve or reduce the side effects of treatment.
WHY
Because kids with cancer deserve better.
Some childhood cancer treatments have been the same for more than 40 years. With your support, we are changing that. Rally-funded research has led to new and better treatments, and ultimately cures, with fewer harmful side effects.
Between 2006 and 2025, Rally awarded $40.5 million in childhood cancer research grants funding 683 projects at institutions around the world.
Rally’s next grants will be announced in early April 2026.