The Children’s Tumor Foundation welcomes applications for the 2021 cycle of the Drug Discovery Initiative Registered Reports (DDIRR) award program. Initiated in 2017 as a funder-publisher partnership between CTF and PLOS ONE journal, the DDIRR program integrates the Registered Reports model in the grant application process to enhance the rigor, reproducibility, and transparency of the research being carried out by the award recipients.
The first output of the DDIRR appeared as a pre-registered research article titled Evaluating modified diets and dietary supplement therapies for reducing muscle lipid accumulation and improving muscle function in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) in PLOS ONE in August 2020. The publication is authored by Dr. Aaron Schindeler, associate professor at the University of Sydney and a 2018 DDIRR recipient, and reports findings on L-Carnitine as an effective dietary supplement for reducing muscle lipid accumulation in NF1 patients. The study led to the launching of a clinical trial to address muscle weakness and fatigue often observed in NF1 patients.
The DDIRR program provides funding for early stage testing of candidate drug therapies for the treatment of neurofibromatosis and the amounts range from $40,000 (for in vitro preclinical drug testing studies) to $85,000 (for in vivo preclinical drug testing studies).
The Letter of Intent (LOI) stage of the 2021 DDIRR is now open and the LOI form can be accessed from the CTF website or by logging into ProposalCentral grants management platform.
Key dates:
Monday, Nov 2, 2020 – DDI-RR Letter of Intent (LOI) form live
Monday, Dec 14, 2020 – DDI-RR LOI due by 5:00 pm EST
Monday, Dec 28, 2020 – DDI-RR invitation to full application
Monday, Feb 8, 2021 – DDI-RR full proposals due by 5:00 pm EST
April 2020 – DDI-RR decision notifications
