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 2025, researchers may propose to address either of the following:

• Integrative or complementary therapies that improve physical, psychological, existential and/or social symptoms or side effects of childhood cancer and its treatment.
• Nutrition and/or supplements (i.e., probiotics) that improve quality of life during childhood cancer treatment to improve or reduce side effects such as, but not limited to, nausea, mucositis or chemo toxicity.

The focus of previous Outside the Box Grants have included rhabdomyosarcoma, brain cancer, osteosarcoma and redlight therapy for neuropathy as a side effect of childhood cancer.

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 2024, Rally awarded $35 million in childhood cancer research grants funding 597 projects at institutions around the world.

Rally’s next grants will be announced in early April 2025.