Activities Funded Through the Cohesion Fund

Introduction

Each year the R&D office provides a fund to support activities to promote cohesion between members of the RRG and to support the development of young researchers within the field. To this end the committee of the Cancer RRG administer the distribution of this money to support a number of different activities. All members can apply for the opportunities below (except the travel grants see below):

• Committee led activities
• Workshops/Symposiums/Conferences
• Seminar programmes
• Small grant scheme
• Travel awards
• Special Interest Groups
• Miscellaneous requests

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Committee led activities

The PI committee use a proportion of the Cohesion fund to support their activities.

The most important of these is the annual one day retreat, usually held in the Autumn (Details). This allows all members to come free of charge to hear a number of invited speakers and to get involved in breakout sessions linked to specific themes which change annually. If you have any speakers you would like us to invite, or you would like to organise a themed breakout session please let us know.

The committee also organise a themed workshop at the annual conference of the National Cancer Research Institute. Conference details here.

The committee also organise the Newsletter and this website. If you would like to contribute an article or piece of information for either please contact us - all contributions are very welcome. Please submit them to s.hart@qub.ac.uk.

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Workshops/symposiums/conferences

Anyone who is registered as a PI or AI can submit a proposal to organise an event. Examples of events which have been part or wholly funded by the Cancer RRG are: local conferences, workshop or specialist training events. Organisers are encouraged to raise part of the funding through sponsorship although this is not essential.
Organisers of National / International conferences can apply directly to the RDO for funding - contact the R & D office directly at: http://www.centralservicesagency.com/display/rdo_rd_office

The aim of any cohesion funded event should be to promote collaboration and cohesion of the membership. As there are disparate interests within the group it is not proposed that the events should necessarily be of interest to all of the members but medium to small subsets. In general the proposing group will involve a minimum of 3 RRG members (any category) who act as sponsors. For this type of activity it is not necessary to have a PI involved. (For further information contact the current Chair - Professor Stephanie McKeown: sr.mckeown@ulster.ac.uk; an application form for funding is available on the forms page of this website.

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Seminar programmes

Regular seminar programmes (at which cancer researchers both local UK based and international are funded to speak) are organised to expose researchers in NI to the latest research in a range of areas of interest to Cancer RRG members. These occur both in the QUB seminar programme http://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/CentreforCancerResearchCellBiology/Whatsonthisweek/SeminarProgramme/ (for further information contact Susie Hart s.hart@qub.ac.uk) and the seminar programme of the Biomedical Sciences Research Institute at the University of Ulster (for further information contact ca.mitchell@ulster.ac.uk or sr.mckeown@ulster.ac.uk).

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Small Grant Scheme

The aim of this scheme is to bring together members of the Cancer RRG who might otherwise not have found the means to do so. Apart from providing a mechanism for interactions across sub-groups, it is also hoped that it will provide the focus for applications for further funding to outside agencies between the collaborators. To qualify for the scheme you must provide a 1-2 page summary of the work to be done to include, Title; Names of applicants; Background; Purpose; Plan of the investigation; Identification of how the money will be used; Explanation of how the grant will support collaboration/cohesion between the proposed collaborators and how inclusive the grant will be i.e. how the money can be used to promote research for the non R&D office funded applicants. (For application form see the forms page).

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Travel Awards

Young investigators (normally only the funded research associates) are eligible to apply for up to £500 per year to travel to conferences / courses. RAs must be presenting if attending a conference. Application forms are available on the forms page. Occasionally the committee will advertise travel grants for other young investigators from the entire Cancer RRG membership (look out for these calls).

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Special Interest Groups (SIG)

The Cancer RRG contains over 200 registered members and naturally there are many interest groups among such a large membership. Consequently the committee encourages small groups with particular interests to form a SIG. This should be used to promote cohesion in a smaller more cohesive setting.

Currently we have two Special Interest Groups. One of which is organised by the nurses and allied health professionals and chaired by Dr Eilis McCaughan (em.mccaughan@ulster.ac.uk). There is also a Stem Cells in Cancer SIG which is chaired by Helen Wheadon (h.wheadon@ulster.ac.uk) and Alex Thompson (alex.thompson@qub.ac.uk). The chair of each SIG is entitled to sit on the PI committee as a non-voting member (further info).

If you would like to form a new SIG please contact the current Chair, Professor Stephanie McKeown (sr.mckeown@ulster.ac.uk), to discuss the possibility.

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Miscellaneous requests

The committee encourages all members to suggest uses for the cohesion fund which promote cohesion among members. (If you have any good ideas please contact the current Chair, Professor Stephanie McKeown, to discuss the possibility - sr.mckeown@ulster.ac.uk).

For application forms and further information on all of the above contact: Prof Stephanie McKeown email: sr.mckeown@ulster.ac.uk or Linda Megrath Tel: 028 9097 2763; Email: l.megrath@qub.ac.uk.