Our Grants Map
Our programs deliver results for cancer patients and contribute to enhancing freedom and prosperity.
A world of difference
Since our inception, we have funded more than 140 grants that have
impacted people across the world in over 20 countries.
Working Our Way Home
First Step Staffing
First Step Staffing (FSS), provides immediate employment, transportation to and from work, and connections to other resources and services to support those who are facing barriers to employment. Through this project, FSS will expand to two new cities and scale their Retention Services partnership with Emerging Leaders, which was first piloted through the Rising Tide Collaboration Fund.
Over the course of the two-year grant, FSS will employ 175 individuals across their two new locations and, importantly, achieve self-sustaining offices through employer staffing agreements in these two locations. This will enable FSS to employ hundreds and thousands over the coming years. During the two-year grant, FSS plans to pay out over USD 2.5 million in wages in the two new locations.
In addition to employing 175 individuals in the two years of the grant, FSS will add a new component to their retention services: the Emerging Leaders Training program. This collaboration was originally sparked by the Rising Tide Spark Fund for Collaboration. Emerging Leaders tested their training with FSS clients and staff in 2023 with great success. Because of this, FSS has identified the Emerging Leaders training as a key ingredient to their retention services, which they will be able to fully implement through this new Rising Tide grant.
Grant Details
Organization: First Step Staffing
Country: United States
Funding Year: 2024
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Empowerment of Individuals
Private Sector Solutions
Restoring the Rule of Law by Overturning the Unconstitutional Administrative State
Pacific Legal Foundation
Through this project, the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) aims to enhance the rule of law and individual freedom in the United States of America by challenging the unconstitutional administrative state. They plan to do this by identifying and developing cases related to the separation of powers, push these cases to the Supreme Court to bolster their chances of nationwide regulatory form, and collaborate with partners to create regulatory reform at the state and federal level.
Throughout this project, PLF legal priorities will focus on preventing Congress from passing legislative power to unaccountable agency, stopping courters from deferring to agencies interpretations of norms, ensure only Senate-confirmed, presidentially appointed official can issue regulation, and ensure a fair and impartial process for those subject to agency actions.
Over the past five years, through litigation and complementary activities, PLF have curbed agency overreach, held the government accountable, and established themselves as a leader in this field.
Grant Details
Organization: Pacific Legal Foundation
Country: United States
Funding Year: 2024
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
FWD Technology and Freedom Academies
Democracy Lab Foundation
The FWD Technology & Freedom Academies (TFA) is a pioneering initiative by the Democracy Lab Foundation (Demo Lab) and CRC Endurance to promote employment and civic participation in underinvested communities in Costa Rica where youth apathy and disengagement is dangerously high. With support from the Rising Tide grant, DemoLab has developed a Freedom Curriculum which covers leadership and entrepreneurship, civic education, and financial freedom. The Freedom Curriculum is taught in parallel with a software engineering and English course, offering alumni an opportunity for employment in the global technology ecosystem as well as a civic education that promotes democratic and classical liberal values.
Participants, aged between 17- and 29-year-old from low-income backgrounds and areas affected by organized crime, will undergo a six-month in-person course that is developed in collaboration with Universidad Fransico Marroquin, Cornell University, and University of Oxford, and other experts. This project aims to enhance agency and provide skills that contribute to greater economic flourishing.
Grant Details
Organization: Democracy Lab Foundation
Country: Costa Rica
Funding Year: 2024
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Freedom Games
Liberte! Foundation
Based on open dialogue and free discussion, Freedom Games, hosted by Liberte!, is one of the premier classical liberal events in Europe. Since 2014, the annual three-day festival has taken place in Lodz, Poland.
With a program of over 100 sessions featuring 400 speakers and drawing a diverse crowd of approximately 2,000 attendees, the event is a catalyst for change. It aims to change minds and foster a community of engaged freedom supporters in Poland and beyond. With a mix of in-person and online sessions, the event reaches a broad audience, including those from across the political spectrum who may not have been exposed to classical liberal ideas before.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Freedom Games is committed to teaching freedom by bringing together thousands of people to learn, network, and explore classical liberal ideas. The event offers a rich variety of over one hundred panels, debates, lectures, TedX-style talks, networking sessions, music concerts, and more, providing an exciting array of ways for thousands of participants to find out more about the ideas that underpin free and prosperous societies.
Grant Details
Organization: Liberte! Foundation
Country: Poland
Funding Year: 2024
Project Duration: 4 years
Funding Areas
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Change Drivers 2.0
Bendukidze Free Market Center
The "Change Drivers 2.0" project led by Bendukidze Free Market Center supports grassroots initiatives in Ukraine that offer alternatives to government solutions in areas such as education, healthcare, rule of law, and welfare. The project provides training, networking, media exposure, and funding opportunities to these innovative organizations.
Over the next two years, the project plans to engage with 100 new change drivers, offer training, workshops, and networking opportunities to these groups and build partnerships with entrepreneurs for funding and mentorship. These initiatives have the chance to pitch for up to 10,000 Euros in funding and work with mentors from the business community to implement their ideas.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Bendukidze Free Market Center is committed to supporting and acknowledging private sector solutions by creating an environment that champions grassroots organizations that offer an alternative to government services. The project also seeks to empower these change agents, enhance the capacity of existing ones, and establish a network of organizations to share knowledge and best practices.
Grant Details
Organization: Bendukidze Free Market Center
Country: Ukraine
Funding Year: 2024
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Private Sector Solutions
FEE en Español
Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
Youth in Latin America are frustrated with the lack of opportunity and abundance of corruption present in their countries and local communities but they are energized and ready to act. Unfortunately, these youth often see individual freedom and prosperity as impossible to achieve due to government oppression, lack of financial resources, poor educational opportunities, etc.
As polls indicating the rising popularity of socialism reveal, far too many young Americans are uninformed or misinformed about the principles of a free society, the widespread opportunity and prosperity it creates, and the role each free person plays in determining his or her own path. Though shocking, 77% of high school students FEE encounters have had minimal or no exposure to these ideas. Little sustained effort has been made to message these ideas in the classroom and in ways in which students are receptive.
FEE will directly engage with Latin American, Spanish, and Hispanic American high school and college students through their educational workshops delivered in-person and virtually through online webinars by acclaimed college professors and successful entrepreneurs. These workshops will educate students about the economic, ethical, and legal principles of a free society and inspire them to embrace and advance these principles throughout their lifetimes.
Classroom instructors will cover topics such as individual liberty, free enterprise, limited government, personal responsibility, and entrepreneurship. Using captivating lectures, insightful economic experiments, engaging group discussions, and interactive Q&A sessions, their instructors connect these topics to the students daily lives, communities, careers and the states of their nations. The main objective of this project is to educate and inspire Spanish-speaking youth with the principles of freedom.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
By educating and inspiring students with sound economics, ethical principles, and personal leadership, and empowering them to become leaders, voters, educators, entrepreneurs, and parents who understand, value and cherish free-market principles, FEE is creating a new generation of liberty-minded individuals who will make better decisions for their countries. FEE wants to inspire the students they reach to embrace individual liberty for themselves and not look to the government for solutions to their struggles or their countries' problems. In addition, they want to encourage and empower individuals to promote and advance freedom of the individual throughout their lifetimes wherever life may take them. In doing so, their important work to enhance freedom of the individual will have a significant multiplier effect in long-term reach and impact.
Grant Details
Organization: Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
Country: United States, Spain & Latin America
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Identifying and Improving Free Market Solutions to Poverty
State Policy Network (SPN)
State Policy Network (SPN) envisions an America where all people can flourish because collaborative, entrepreneurial leaders have secured lasting social change, personal freedom, and economic opportunity at the state and local level. One challenge to this vision is the fact that, currently, 37.9 million people in the United States still live in poverty. A further problem is that many, if not most, efforts to address poverty are top-down programs created by politicians thousands of miles away from the communities that are affected by the program, multiplying the unintended consequences.
Where decades of top-down solutions to poverty have proven ineffective, this SPN project will advance solutions that place local leaders, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs in the driver seat those who are closer to the problem and better equipped with the necessary knowledge to address poverty. SPN will identify creative problem-solvers at the local level, improve their effectiveness, and share their successes with others who can replicate those successes elsewhere.
Through the project, SPN will do the following:
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Identify promising entrepreneurs and projects that propose market-based solutions to poverty
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Guide project owners & partners to refine & improve market-based solutions through LaunchPad events
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Develop & promote content highlighting the most promising market-based solutions
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Develop a practical tool (based on learnings) that increases the effectiveness of their efforts to bring market-based solutions to their own communities
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
This project has a clear goal to advance private sector and enterprise solutions to poverty as opposed to the prevailing 'one size fits all' government welfare programs of today. Market-based solutions that are amplified through this project will empower people to become self-reliant, engaged citizens.SPN seeks to teach by example how the free market can improve people's livesfree markets dont only benefit the rich, but also dramatically improve the quality of life for those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder.
Grant Details
Organization: State Policy Network (SPN)
Country: United States
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Scaling Community Land Rights in Uganda
Cadasta
Land rights form the foundation for freedom and prosperity and are essential to enhancing productivity and access to the market economy, yet 70% of land in the developing world is undocumented. In Uganda, securing land tenure continues to be a major challenge. More than 80% of the populaces claims to land rely on customary traditions rather than legal documents.
The project builds on existing partnerships with local service providers and governments to secure formal land titles for a total of 125,000 rural Ugandans. Cadasta offers a proven and scalable solution to addressing property rights. They will provide their local partner, Ujamaa Tribe, with technology & training to collect the necessary data for landowners to receive their Customary Certificates of Ownership (CCOs), a unique program established by the Ugandan government that fully recognizes customary land tenure on the same level with other forms of tenure.
Cadastas platform and tools help those in the community who have not been able to afford or access services to map their land and apply for a CCO. This project facilitates CCOs for these communities and changes the lives of Ugandans who have long suffered from land grabbing. This effort will be particularly impactful for young people who currently have no way of proving ownership of the land when their parents die. The project not only helps secure land tenure, it also engages young Ugandans as data collectors and digital leaders in their efforts to leverage land as a critical asset for improved livelihoods and community security.
Under this project, Cadasta will achieve the following over four years:
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Legal registration and documentation (CCOs) are issued to 25,000 households, achieving legal recognition of land tenure for 125,000 individuals living in customary communities in Namutumba and Kilaro districts in the Eastern Region of Uganda.
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Ensure that 60% of the CCOs are held by women or jointly with their spouse.
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Enhance landholders freedom and prosperity by measuring improvements to livelihoods, access to benefits and services, perception of tenure security, and womens empowerment & decision-making.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Without secure title to land, Ugandans are unable to access credit, invest in their land and businesses, and feel secure in their families futures, constraining their individual freedom and prosperity. The CCOs issued to people through this project are legally recognized and secure their ownership in perpetuity for the current landholders and their children. This project not only promotes land ownership but also knowledge, skills, and data empowerment for individuals, families, and communities.
It is expected that due to secure land tenure, individuals and communities are less likely to experience land grabs and violence related to land conflicts and are free to invest in more profitable crops with reduced fear of land dispossession. Strengthening land rights for women is also essential for promoting personal freedom and their participation in the market economy, a clear pathway to prosperity for the whole family.
Grant Details
Organization: Cadasta
Country: Uganda
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Scaling Greenlight into Africa and Beyond
The Greenlight Office
Too often, people struggling with socioeconomic challenges are not seen as the protagonists in eliminating poverty from their lives. This translates into programs that lack input from the very individuals/families that are the target of the help. Additionally, the social development organizations working to alleviate poverty generally lack methodology or metrics for impact assessment to prove that their programs work. The majority of outcomes and impacts for poverty-related programs are measured using income generation or household costs as the main indicator with little effort to use monitoring and evaluation tools beyond the traditional money-metric method. However, it is well documented that financial indicators are often inadequate in mapping social and cultural wealth because they do not take all dimensions of poverty into consideration.
The Greenlight Office has managed to develop a strong tech solution that has reached more than 130 organizations in South Africa and is now ready to grow further. All users of the solution form part of the Greenlight Movement. This project helps to build up the necessary capacity in The Greenlight Office, to scale the application of the tool to accompany every person using the Greenlight app to move from a life of impoverishment & dependency to that of flourishing & agency.
The Greenlight Movement is built on the Poverty Stoplight methodology. Their surveys use stoplight colors (red, yellow, green), assessing poverty levels using 50 indicators grouped into 6 dimensions of poverty. The tool provides images in tables, and scorecards to create innovative maps that enable socio-economically challenged individuals and families to see and understand the ways in which they are poor. Organizations that want to activate their beneficiaries/employees/clients and measure their social programs impact will onboard as a member of the Greenlight Movement and agree to share their data with other members. Their people are trained to be Greenlight facilitators and to use the Greenlight metrics (surveys).
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Both government and nonprofit organizations use obsolete programs to address poverty. The Greenlight Movement provides an alternative means to address poverty that prioritizes personal agency. It seeks to change the system of addressing poverty both top-down, as organizations design programs that influence beneficiaries to own their journeys out of poverty, and bottom-up, as grassroots (families and employees) take on the responsibility of changing the quality of their lives, manifested through changed behavior. Organizations are also becoming more aware of the need to measure, assess, and report on social impact in order to justify their programs. As more organizations within a community begin to use it, data points will begin to show if self-identified needs have commonality by region. This will enable service providers to focus on programs that provide assistance that fulfill targeted needs.
Grant Details
Organization: The Greenlight Office
Country: South Africa
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 4 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Private Sector Solutions
Youth@Work
Ujima Foundation for Training & Development
Parents often fail to make arrangements for their children prior to a premature death. In these instances, children face significant consequences that include a lack of access to housing, education, healthcare, and nutrition. In Kenya, an estimated 3.6 million children are orphans or classified as vulnerable of which approximately 647,000 have lost both parents. Without a family network, the eldest child must take on the responsibility of caring for all the younger siblings. Thrust into the position of head of household, these young people risk exploitation and extreme poverty. Additionally, they risk being separated from their siblings.
The Youth@Work program addresses this critical gap by targeting orphaned youth between the ages of 18-24 lacking access to opportunities and responsible for younger siblings due to parental death. Ujima Foundation provides employability training to improve their access to vocational training in the tourism, hospitality and beauty sectors. Each participating youth has, on average, 3 siblings for which they are responsible. Ujima works to empower orphaned youth towards self-reliance so that they can support themselves and the children in their care. Ujima believes children develop better in their families and should be cared for in a familial environment for as long as possible.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Youth@Work targets a very specific marginalized group that is unable to afford and access formal vocational training institutes or universities. A job to an Ujima trainee means that they are better able to support themselves, make informed decisions, practice agency, reject destructive lifestyles, and participate positively in the community. Ujima wants these youth to shift from viewing themselves as victims, to becoming the protagonists of their own life and achieving financial independence so that they can support themselves and the children in their care.
Grant Details
Organization: Ujima Foundation for Training & Development
Country: Kenya
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Private Sector Solutions
New Training Program for Poverty-Fighting Leaders
Acton Institute
Many well-intentioned civil service leaders across the United States are tired and frustrated because they have not been adequately effective in their poverty-fighting efforts. The 20th century model of government intervention, state planning, and transfer payments has created a broken framework for social order. Acton Institute will develop and test run a prototype training program for human-service leaders in the poverty-fighting arena. With this project, they are aiming to change how non-profits in poverty alleviation function by grounding them in the principles underlying human flourishing, with a particular emphasis on free enterprise, limited government, the dignity of the person, and rule of law. They will develop an educational training program with a take-home toolkit of self-assessment tools for poverty-fighting institutions.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
This new training program will enhance Actons robust network of poverty-fighting organizations and thereby advance systemic change through sustainable, enterprise-oriented models. It will enable their partner network to share what works across organizations for more effective engagement with the poor. As individuals rise out of poverty, this also frees their communities, enabling the broader community members to prosper. Too often, the poverty fighting ecosystem suffers from an industrial complex, which operates under a heavy bureaucratic burden, imposes economic costs on individuals, communities, states, and the federal government, and suppresses innovation and growth. Advocating for individual, institutional, and social freedom reverses the downward spiral of expectation, dependence, and entitlement fostered by handouts.
Grant Details
Organization: Acton Institute
Country: United States
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Luces de Desarrollo (Poverty Stoplight implementation in Guatemala)
Universidad Francisco Marroquin (UFM)
Local charity has long been helpful to those experiencing poverty but is limited by local resources. In the last century, governments and international NGOs expanded efforts for poverty alleviation through foreign aid and intervention. These approaches, however, have not succeeded at helping people in countries such as Guatemala, where the lowest poverty rates have been slow to change.
Attention has been paid to the way current approaches ignore or distort local knowledge, but experts with harmful mental models still shape the environment. Recently, for example, attention to multidimensional poverty has sought to explore the complexity of poverty, but such approaches still tend to rely on deprivation-based models. Defining new deprivations leads only to more intervention and redistribution, which perpetuates problematic incentives and ineffective (sometimes corrupt) collaborations between international actors and local politicians.
This project looks beyond interventionist and deficit-based solutions and seeks capability-based solutions that unleash human agency, responsibility, and freedom. Successful poverty alleviation requires widespread belief that even the poorest people have agency and valuable capabilities. This person-centric program supports the liberty and agency of every person to shape their life-path. Luces de Desarrollo will create a movement of families realizing their dreams while changing the narrative around poverty by implementing the Poverty Stoplight tool, developing a data-driven network, and researching the resulting data to assess for larger patterns.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
The project shows that it is not necessary to rely on government intervention to fight poverty. Instead, it proposes a process in which each individual defines poverty and becomes a protagonist. UFM also promotes that private businesses learn how each individual defines poverty so that they can use resources to help them fight it. By creating a network of organizations, they are able to find more solutions and ideas to overcome different challenges (red lights) in a more efficient way.
It is common in Guatemala to find deficit-based approaches to poverty that call for increased public expenditures or offer people only a one-size-fits-all approach. This project aims to change this approach and show governments and other organizations that their resources could be better used in programs that help people tackle the challenges in their lives that are most important to them. If organizations use the Stoplight, they will be able to learn what participants prioritize from all the indicators. This will help organizations support participants in a more efficient way. The process can also reveal what assets (their green lights) are available to these families to conquer the challenges they face.
Grant Details
Organization: Universidad Francisco Marroquin (UFM)
Country: Guatemala
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Private Sector Solutions
Teach Freedom through Applied Micro-Entrepreneurship
Libertas Institute
In the United States, the typical student spends 8 hours a day sitting at desks, reading textbooks, and regurgitating information for tests. We know that this method is ineffective along with the fact that curriculum in both public and private schools is typically devoid of anything involving free market economics, property rights, the ideas of human flourishing, individual liberty, and entrepreneurship.
Libertas Institute, through their Tuttle Twins brand, has helped to fill this gap through books, curricula, and other educational materials that have reached more than 250,000 families. Even though they have experienced this great success, they lack avenues for youth that have engaged with their resources to apply what they have learned, actualizing more theoretical concepts about entrepreneurship and markets in the real world. Its one thing to learn about entrepreneurship and freedom in a classroom, its another to experience it for oneself.
The Childrens Entrepreneur Market, branded as a Tuttle Twins initiative, will address this gap and provide a market experience as an opportunity to apply what is taught elsewhere. Through this project, Libertas will develop a more focused entrepreneurship curriculum as well as scale their Childrens Entrepreneur Markets to 20 new states.
To date, The Childrens Entrepreneur Markets have reached more than 4,000 young entrepreneurs in 6 states. With this project, Libertas will reach more than 32,000 students through their Entrepreneur Markets. You can learn more about the Childrens Entrepreneur Markets on the Libertas Institute website: Children's Entrepreneur Market Helping kids learn business through firsthand experience (childrensentrepreneurmarket.com).
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Over the past years in the United States, there has been a steady decline in the desire of young people to become entrepreneurs. At the same time, many children are in educational settings that dont develop their potential to its fullest. As mentioned previously, much of their time is spent at a desk, reading textbooks, and regurgitating information for tests.
This project will first aim to enhance the freedom of young, aspiring entrepreneurs as they have the opportunity to get their first taste of what it means to run a business. With the mentorship and support that Libertas will give to the top young entrepreneurs in this program, they have the opportunity to identify the next generation of great entrepreneurs. Additionally, with the scale they plan to achieve they hope to reverse the negative association that many young people have today towards business and entrepreneurship making possible a freer more prosperous society for future generations.
Grant Details
Organization: Libertas Institute
Country: USA
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Pilot Trial of Microbial Targeting to Prevent Myeloma
Emory University
Myeloma is a common blood cancer that originates from a precursor state called monoclonal gammopathy. The clinical studies in this application are based on the idea that specific bacteria that reside in the gut of patients with monoclonal gammopathy may be responsible for promoting growth of abnormal cells that eventually lead to the cancer. The clinical studies will test whether specifically targeting such bacteria can reduce inflammation and reduce the growth of abnormal cells in these patients.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Madhav V. Dhodapkar
Organization: Emory University
Country: USA
Focus Area: Early Intervention
Funding Year: 2023
Funding Scheme: LLS
Project period: 3 years
Metastasis-directed therapy in oligoprogressive castration-refractory prostate cancer: a randomized phase 3 trial: MEDCARE
University Hospitals Leuven
Patients with metastatic prostate cancer are treated with systemic therapy, being hormonal therapy (palliative androgen deprivation therapy (pADT) with or without androgen receptor targeted agent (ARTA)) with or without chemotherapy (docetaxel). With time the sensitivity to this hormonal therapy will eventually disappear due to the out-selection of refractory tumor clones. At that time, new or progressive castration-refractory lesions become visible on imaging while the other lesions are still controlled with the ongoing systemic treatment. This disease status is defined as metastatic castration-refractory prostate cancer (mCRPC). For such patients presenting with progressive CRPC, the standard treatment is to start next-line systemic therapy (NEST) or maintain a wait-and-see policy until a point where the number of active metastasis increases, new symptomatic metastatic lesions appear, or the severity of symptoms worsens (e.g., due to growth of existing metastases). If there is a maximum of 3 progressive lesions (oligoprogressive disease), our previous research has demonstrated that metastasis-directed therapy (by targeted radiotherapy or metastasectomy) of these progressive lesions leads to a progression-free period of 17 months, in which patients do not need NEST. Additionally, quality-of-life is maintained.
Whether this increased progression-free period will result in an improved overall survival is not yet objectivated. The latter can be achieved by performing a large, randomized phase 3 trial, which is the aim of the current MEDCARE trial. MEDCARE is a randomized, open-label trial in which two equally sized groups will be compared and a total of 246 patients will be needed.
- Arm A: standard approach (active follow-up or treatment with next-line systemic therapy): to be decided upon at the multidisciplinary board.
- Arm B: metastasis-directed therapy by metastasectomy of targeted radiation therapy while continuing current systemic therapy.
The targeted radiation therapy will be performed using stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). SBRT is a specialized, technologically advanced type of external beam radiation therapy that irradiates the metastatic spot to a lethally high radiation dose. It is performed using daily image-guided radiotherapy which assures high precision, leading to better sparing of nearby healthy tissues. Consequently, SBRTinduced side effects are rare and absent in most cases. If metastasectomy (surgical removal of the metastasis) is chosen, the surgeon will determine the technique which would yield the best results. If possible, minimally invasive surgery will be the preferred option. The aim of MEDCARE is to investigate whether metastasis-directed therapy to the oligoprogressive diseases can prolong overall survival when compared to the standard-of-care approach.
In addition, side effects, quality-of-life and cost-effectiveness treatment will be prospectively evaluated during the study. As MEDCARE tries to prolong the patients life through metastasis-directed therapy, it potentially results in a huge benefit for patients suffering from metastatic castration-refractory prostate cancer. Possible (but minor) disadvantages of participating in this study are the time lost by the patient in filling out questionnaires (min 10 minutes each follow-up visit) and additional visits to the departments of radiation therapy and/or urology.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Gert de Meerleer
Organization: University Hospitals Leuven
Country: Belgium
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2023
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 6 years
True Charity Network
Watered Gardens
Since the beginning of the war on poverty in 1964, and despite spending around USD 1 trillion a year on poverty alleviation, the U.S. poverty rate has barely budged. Furthermore, there are regions of poverty, such as in Appalachia, where prosperity in financial terms is the same as it was a generation ago, but family breakdown, unemployment, depression, and addiction are at historic highs. Even if government policy is perfected, Watered Gardens believes that no government program will ever be sufficient to build the personal relationships so critical to helping people find freedom and true prosperity.
There are around 112,000 U.S. public charities that deal with poverty in some way with a combined annual budget of around USD 243 billion dollars. Add to that around 380,000 houses of worship, many of which actively engage in charitable efforts. For the majority of these half million organizations, their current programs are not particularly effective. Most of them give handouts with no expectation of, or path to, improvement for their clients.
The True Charity Network (TCN) is a coalition of organizations working to help organizations learn about more effective ways to serve people in poverty, connect with others to share best practices, and influence the context in which poverty exists. Through this project, Watered Gardens is increasing the person centeredness of private poverty alleviation organizations through knowledge, tools, practical guides, and actionable training to move from ineffective, hand-out-based charity to freedom-oriented, outcome-driven solutions.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
True Charity's vision is subsidiarity practiced as the norm. Subsidiarity refers to solving problems at the most local level possible first personal responsibility, then families, then caring communities/nonprofits, then the various levels of government. The intuition that every needed change must come from the government or even from a nonprofit (rather than the individual or his family) creates numerous systems that manage poverty rather than solve it. They are taking them on by sharing the importance of subsidiarity and providing practical routes to practice it.
They believe that people in poverty are not problems to be solved, they are people with potential to be unleashed. Because of this one of their core tenets is that true charity is challenge-oriented. They believe people in poverty must be given tools, support, and responsibility to improve their own situations. They believe that change comes when the poor are empowered as moral agents. Development is not something done to people, it is a process that they lead, and which cannot succeed without their personal ownership. This is one of the key components missing from many public and private programs and why much of their content is focused on helping leaders embrace it and employ it.
Grant Details
Organization: Watered Gardens
Country: United States
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Private Sector Solutions
Future of Free Speech Project
Justitia
Freedom of expression and internet freedom have been in global decline for more than a decade, endangering one of the most important and contested values of human civilization. In a global survey with 50,000 respondents in 33 countries, Justitia found that support for free speech in the abstract is very high but drops substantially when put to the test against controversial speech and trade-offs.
Freedom House's 2021 report found that authorities in at least 48 countries pursued new rules for tech companies on content, data, and competition over the past year. With a few positive exceptions, these rules are being exploited to subdue free expression and gain greater access to private data. Large tech companies have undermined the practical exercise of free speech of millions of people around the world through increasingly opaque and inconsistent enforcement of constantly changing content moderation standards.
The current threat to free-speech is prevalent in democratic societies. Democracy across the globe depends on vibrant and free exchange of ideas, information, and cultural understanding that can only occur if people feel free to engage across diverse attitudes and opinions. Providing a freedom-oriented way to reduce harms and build a more resilient citizenry is critical if we are to prevent growing risks of censorship under new technological capacities.
This project will create a free-speech toolkit of non-restrictive measures, designed to combat harmful speech by focusing on constructive counter speech. The objective is to build a resilient culture of free speech able to withstand the challenges arising from the revolution in communication technology, declining respect for free speech in democracies, and the spread of authoritarianism.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
This project offers an alternative to government censorship by empowering individuals and local communities to make decentralized decisions about content moderation at the expense of centralized censorship by private mega-platforms and/or governments. This project challenges the prevailing narrative that free speech is a threat to society by putting forth concrete outputs empowering governments, companies, civil society organizations, and minority groups to use freedom of expression as a non-restrictive way to efficiently combat hatred, disinformation, and authoritarian propaganda in the digital age.
Justitia believes that individual rights and human dignity can be exercised only in a society where one can freely express and contribute to the marketplace of ideas with their thoughts on religion, philosophy, and politics without the oppressive policing of contrary and unpopular opinions that challenge preconceived ideas. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass said that To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. This project will demonstrate that free speech is a right of the speaker and a collective right of everyone to receive information.
Grant Details
Organization: Justitia
Country: Denmark & Global
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Private Sector Solutions
From UBI to You and I: Defending Human Dignity and Liberty
Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI)
Calls for Universal Basic Income (UBI) as an imperative solution to globalization-driven social and economic changes are mounting in Europe. The COVID-19 crisis intensified fears that technological progress would put the livelihoods of millions at risk, to the point of homelessness and starvation. Public support for UBI is now at 50 per cent and is much stronger among young people in Central and Eastern Europe. UBI is entering the political mainstream as governments and private organizations have introduced pilot programs.
LFMI acknowledges that there is polarization over the debate on UBI among classical liberal/libertarian circles and aims to promote more unified cultural narratives toward agency-based solutions to human flourishing. LFMI will bring together an international multidisciplinary team of esteemed researchers to survey, acknowledge, and respond to the concepts around UBI from libertarian/classical liberal authors and other scholars from philosophy, psychology, anthropology, history, economics, and political science.
From this, they will synthesize findings to formulate conclusions and craft fresh agency-centric narratives at the intersection of disciplines countering UBI and other universal welfare schemes. LFMI will publish a multidisciplinary collection of original essays and a practical guide with a mind map and interdisciplinary arguments They will contribute a systemic analysis of the impact on the institutional conditions relating to money, labor markets, and economic sustainability LFMI will build a microsite that will serve as a repository for interested stakeholders in academia, think tanks, media, politics, business, and civil society. Targeted marketing and communication campaigns will be conducted in Poland and Lithuania to test broader messaging around UBI among diverse circles of thought leaders and opinion makers.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
By facilitating intersectoral collaborations and enriching the intellectual and cultural discourse with new arguments, LFMI seeks to bridge the gap over UBI and shift popular narratives and policy away from statist to agency-centric solutions.
Grant Details
Organization: Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI)
Country: Lithuania & Poland
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Teaching Freedom
Youth-Driven Learning: Building Agency and Independence
GripTape
Youth desire to engage in their own learning and development while pursuing their interests and passions, but consistently find themselves in environments where their learning is dictated by adults. Formal US high school education often fails to connect with youth in authentic waysleaving them disengaged and unchallenged. Gallup (2016) found that only a third of 10th through 12th graders feel engaged with learning at school and according to Casel (2018), 7 in 10 students are bored in school. When they are not in school which is about 80% of their time each year there is even less thought and fewer resources given to ensuring that out-of-school time is spent growing, learning, and developing.
The problem is especially stark for under-resourced youth. They have interests, passions, and a deep desire to learn, grow, and be successful, just like their well-resourced peers. But they are more likely to attend mediocre or poorly performing schools where there is scant choice and opportunity, and they often lack the resources and networks to participate in enriching summer, weekend, and after-school opportunities.
GripTape was designed to address a simple, yet radical question: What would it look like for young people to truly drive their own learning? Their model, built by and for teenagers (!), aims to give youth the respect, decision-making authority, and resources to take true ownership and agency over their learning and development. The Learning Challenge offers youth ages 1419 a radically different 10-week experience where they pursue their interests, fully deciding what and how they learn. They are further supported with a budget of up to USD 500 and a Champion who believes in their potential, is curious about their efforts, and helps them reflect on their ideas, actions, and decisions but without giving direction or making decisions.
You can learn more about the Grip Tape approach and the success that they have achieved on their website: GripTape Challenge - Learn How and What You Want.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
GripTape has engaged in rigorous testing and evaluation of their program design and impact. This includes a longitudinal study which they completed in 2022 that showed 87% of participating youth are now more confident in their ability to independently learn without the support of others, and 91% are more confident in creating learning opportunities for themselves.
At its root, GripTape is all about providing youth with an experience that significantly enhances their sense of individual empowerment, building confidence, competence, and conviction in the youth that they support. Rising Tide believes that this experience of empowerment and autonomy on the part of young people will have a lasting and meaningful impact on the participating individuals as well as society more broadly through these changed individuals.
Grant Details
Organization: GripTape
Country: USA
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Private Sector Solutions
Establishing an Education City
Maharishi Invincibility Institute
Maharishi Invincibility Institute is a low-cost tertiary educational institution in South Africa. Since its founding in 2007, the institute has educated over 22,000 low-income youths and placed over 19,000 graduates into long-term or permanent jobs. After three years of working, most MII graduates make at least 3.5 times their combined familys salary.
Their project with the Rising Tide Foundation will support their mission to build an Education City in Johannesburgs Central Business District and support initial funding for some scholarships (which, through various schemes, become largely self-sustainable). This project, coupled with a donation of a large building by Anglo American and other support, will allow MII to increase their number of students from their current intake of 1,100 to over 5,000 in the next five years.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
The Battle of Ideas Festival is committed to teaching freedom through exploring questions and debates around free speech. At the festival, numerous debates, panels, and workshops explore the diverse ways freedom of speech can manifest and be suppressed. Similarly, as individual empowerment and creative destruction can only occur when people are free to think, speak, and engage in new ideas, the festival contributes to enhancing a freer and more open society by creating a platform whereby speakers and attendees can do this.
Grant Details
Organization: Maharishi Invincibility Institute
Country: South Africa
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Private Sector Solutions
Battle of Ideas Festival
Academy of Ideas
Public life depends on constructive dialogue, but open discussion has become increasingly impeded by a censorious climate. Cancel culture, refusal to debate with those across the political spectrum, and the policing of language have become more common than ever.
To push back against this censorious climate, we are delighted to support the Academy of Ideas annual flagship Battle of Ideas Festival. By bringing together over 400 leading speakers from a range of viewpoints to discuss the most pressing issues of the day to an audience of around 3000 attendees, the festival creates a platform where free speech is fervently upheld, conversations across the political aisle can take place, and meaningful solutions proposed.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
The Battle of Ideas Festival is committed to teaching freedom through exploring questions and debates around free speech. At the festival, numerous debates, panels, and workshops explore the diverse ways freedom of speech can manifest and be suppressed. Similarly, as individual empowerment and creative destruction can only occur when people are free to think, speak, and engage in new ideas, the festival contributes to enhancing a freer and more open society by creating a platform whereby speakers and attendees can do this.
Grant Details
Organization: Academy of Ideas
Country: United Kingdom
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Increasing economic literacy across secondary schools in Kosovo, Georgia, and Ukraine
Economic Fundamentals Institute
Low levels of economic and financial literacy are pervasive throughout many former communist nations. Given their 20th century historical context, native languages are not equipped to discuss free markets and traditional learning environments are often unconducive to critical thinking. Consequently, millions of citizens are ill-informed about finances and economics. Fortunately, the Economic Fundamentals Initiative (EFI) is tackling this widespread problem.
With the Rising Tide Foundations support, EFI is embarking on a pilot project to expand the understanding of economics among 15- to 18-year-olds in three former communist countries: Kosovo, Georgia, and Ukraine. By training networks of teachers across these three countries, they hope to empower educators to teach economics in the classroom, thereby giving tens of thousands of students an education in economics. They are also translating and distributing many thousands of copies of the introductory economics book, Common Sense Economics.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Through championing economic and financial literacy among young people and educators, EFI is already empowering teachers and students and encouraging different ways of thinking. Through this project, thousands of students and teachers will learn about finances and the economics of free societies, which will help change perspectives, policy outcomes, and national prosperity.
Grant Details
Organization: Economic Fundamentals Institute
Country: Former communist countries
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Defending Freedom, Combatting Collectivism
American Institute for Economic Research
Freedom is under attack from both the left and right. Forms of collectivism have pushed economic policies and political agendas that undermine key institutions and moral foundations that protect and uphold freedom.
On the right, enthusiasm for using the state to engage in top-down management of the economy through economic nationalism and corporatist policies is increasing. On the left, we are faced with stakeholder capitalism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, and Environmental, Social, and Governance as a way to restructure publicly traded corporations to serve various progressive goals beyond profit, severely distorting the workings of business. This has resulted in the trampling of individual liberty as these ideas take hold and are ineffectively opposed.
This new initiative from AIER will target collectivist ideas and illiberal ideologies which pose the greatest threat to freedom today. The reason for the success of these ideas is that collectivists on both the Right and Left have generated ideas and carefully communicated them to key audiences: scholars, students, political leaders, and average Americans.
AIERs methodology follows this playbook to push back on the encroaching collectivism and regain crucial ground for individual liberty and classical liberalism. AIER aims to influence the rich ecosystem of ideas that shapes the trajectory of liberty in America. They will develop complex ideas, educate scholars and public intellectuals, and make those ideas accessible to broad audiences.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
This new initiative from AIER is oriented towards teaching freedom, especially to audiences whose commitment to liberty is waning. Through research, education, and speaking engagements, AIER scholars in this initiative will illustrate the risks of collectivist solutionseven when they may appear attractive for promoting seemingly good endsand, importantly, the benefits of freedom. This initiative is not only about criticizing anti-liberal ideologies but about advancing a positive vision for freedomone suited to twenty-first-century America.
This work will empower individuals to think about these issues that are increasingly reduced to buzzwords and simple solutions and to oppose ideas and policies (both in government and business) that would limit their freedom. This initiative will show people that free markets allow people to orient their lives in ways that best facilitate their flourishing. AIER will empower individuals to build communities where they can flourish and cultivate those values and habits that support freedom.
Grant Details
Organization: American Institute for Economic Research
Country: United States
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Teaching Freedom through Civics
Bill of Rights Institute
Through this initiative, the Bill of Rights Institute will develop a comprehensive digital textbook in civics titled, Government and Politics: Civics for the American Experiment. This is crucial as many young people today see the Declaration of Independence as hypocritical and the Constitution as outdated and irrelevant. Knowing little of history, they neither recognize nor cherish the blessings of liberty. Today, only 40 percent of high school students support the right to express offensive opinions, and 56 percent are comfortable disagreeing with teachers and fellow students.
This Civics textbook will be usable in part or whole by any high school civics or government course, including Advanced Placement courses in the U.S. It will be adaptive and customizable with the point-counterpoint methodology employed throughout. They will embed videos, case studies, primary sources, essays, timelines, graphic explainers, and game-based simulations or learning scenarios.
This textbook, uniquely in this space, will situate the government's role as limited. Instead of centering the government as the prime engine of American growth and progress, BRI's digital textbook will focus on civil society and the individual citizen's role. This will challenge students to reimagine the respective roles of government and civil society. Additionally, the textbook will feature the integration of game-based learning and simulations that will enable students to practice the principles they learn.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
With this new resource, students will learn that liberty, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, was the "promissory note" of the American Founding, and the Constitution was the blueprint designed to realize that promise. Students will learn that while America has not always lived up to its Founding ideals, they have inspired and guided a nearly 250-year effort that continues to this day. Further, the project will teach the power of private-sector and charitable alternatives and give meaningful agency to young people.
Grant Details
Organization: Bill of Rights Institute
Country: United States
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Private Sector Solutions
Management of low-risk ductal carcinoma in situ (low-risk DCIS; grade I and II): a non-randomized, multicenter, non-inferiority trial; standard therapy versus active surveillance
Netherlands Cancer Institute
It is urgent to reduce overtreatment of the potential breast cancer precursor Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS), because most DCIS lesions are harmless and will never progress to invasive breast cancer (IBC). Yet, almost all women with DCIS undergo burdensome breast-conserving surgery, often followed by radiotherapy, or even breast amputation. DCIS is frequently found by screening, i.e., up to 25% of all so-called breast cancers.
To reduce DCIS overtreatment, we initiated the LORD-trial (LOw Risk Ductal carcinoma in situ) in 2017 to test whether regular monitoring (active surveillance) for low-risk DCIS is safe. Initially, the trial was not successful for three reasons. First, women did not want to be randomly assigned to conventional treatment or to AS. Second, the diagnostic process was too complicated. Third, there was doubt whether women with high-risk DCIS were not accidentally included in the trial. We addressed these hurdles as follows. First, women can now decide for themselves for conventional treatment or AS. Second, the radiology protocol was simplified. Third, a few pathology tests were implemented to minimize the risk of including women with high-risk DCIS. These changes were received with great enthusiasm among women with DCIS and their health care professionals. Since then, the number included per month increased more than ten-fold to about 40 women per month, resulting in a total of over 1,100 participants in September 2023. Currently, about 60% of all women in the Netherlands with screen-detected, low-risk DCIS participate, which makes completed inclusion in 2026 highly realistic.
The LORD-trial is very well embedded in the PRECISION Initiative focused on distinguishing harmless from potentially hazardous DCIS (PI Jelle Wesseling; cancergrandchallenges.org/teams/precision), safeguarding synergy in our efforts to conquer overtreatment of DCIS.
Aim
To test whether active surveillance for women with screen-detected, low-risk DCIS is safe, hence preserve their quality of life, and save health care costs.
Approach
- Ensure resources to screen candidate trial participants to ensure patients feel confident that the risk is minimized to leave potentially high-risk DCIS untreated.
- Focus on the impact on quality of life of included women with low-risk DCIS.
- Communicate results of the LORD study at various national, international conferences, together with patient representatives; engage with scientific and societal stakeholders and publish results in expert journals; share results with, for example, society via social media, magazines, and webinars.
Impact and future directions
If active surveillance is safe for low-risk DCIS, this will annually save many thousands of women globally the burden of intensive treatment, preserving their quality of life, and reducing health care as well as societal costs. We also aim to develop an aid to support informed, value-congruent decisions by women participating in and after the study. As such, this will help to transform from a one-size-fits-all DCIS treatment approach to a personalized DCIS management strategy in which such shared decision making is key. Obviously, this will definitely be practice-changing.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Jelle Wesseling
Organization: Netherlands Cancer Institute
Country: The Netherlands
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2023
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 5 years
RAINBO blue - De-escalation of adjuvant treatment in POLE mutated endometrial cancer
Oslo University Hospital
Cancer of the lining of the uterus (endometrial cancer, EC) is the most common gynecological cancer in Europe, with almost 4000 new cases every year in the Nordic countries alone. More and more women will be diagnosed with this disease in the years to come due to the increase of risk factors such as obesity. In this RAINBO blue study we want to find out whether we can de-escalate treatment in women with a specific mutation (so-called POLE mutation). We hypothesize that they can be cured with surgery alone and can be spared for the short- and long-term side effects of chemotherapy or radiation after surgery.
The greatest challenge in the treatment of women with endometrial cancer is the lack of reproducible pathological classification. We can therefore not predict accurately enough if a woman has a high risk of the cancer returning after surgery or not. This leads to a tremendous variation in how women are treated after surgery and some women may be overtreated. A pragmatic molecular classification system [Proactive Molecular Risk Classifier for Endometrial Cancer (ProMisE)], has identified four subtypes (POLE mutated, p53 aberrant, mismatch repair deficient and a group with no specific molecular profile [NSMP). This classification system enables consistent classification and provides higher precision in prognosis, both in the risk of relapse and survival. Broad implementation of this molecular classification will help us to better tailor treatment after surgery, taking the patients risk of relapse into account. One of the molecular subgroups, women with POLE mutations (POLEmut), often have aggressive pathological features in the cancer tissue but clinical outcomes are universally good. it is unclear whether chemotherapy or radiation after surgery prolongs survival in these patients. Given the substantial acute and long-term side effects of pelvic radiation chemotherapy, there is high unmet need to identify which women can be spared for more treatment after surgery. As this group seems to have very good survival, we hope, that these women can be cured with surgery alone.
RAINBO blue, is a multi-center prospective international study including patients with POLE mutated endometrial cancer. In the study, patients are treated with surgery alone and treatment after surgery is de-escalated. We will study the clinical outcome, quality of life as well as how de-escalation impacts health care costs.
Molecular classification is still not widely implemented in the Nordic countries and we lack precision in diagnostics and treatment. Participation of the Nordic countries in RAINBO will certainly speed up implementation of state-of the art molecular diagnostic. Further, this study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of using molecular classification to de-escalate treatment after surgery in women with endometrial cancer. RAINBO blue will also generate data on patient decisional conflict, quality of life and economic implications of molecular classification-driven care that will inform future patient education and resource utilization
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Kristina Lindemann
Organization: Oslo University Hospital
Country: Norway
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2023
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 5 years
Application of Memory Like NK cells for Metastatic Melanoma
Washington University in St.Louis
Immunotherapies which activate T cells have dramatically improved outcomesfor patients with metastatic melanoma. However, nearly half of patients will not respond or will progress on even the most potent immunotherapy treatment, highlighting the urgent need to develop new therapies. Cellular therapies,such astumor infiltrating lymphocytes(TILs), composed mostly of T cells, are a new treatment option for melanoma patients. T cell-based cell therapies, however, are limited by long production times and significant side effects. Here, the researchers advance an alternative cellular therapy, natural killer (NK) cells, to addressthese challenges. NK cells have broad anti-tumor activity, do not cause significant side effects, and are specialized to recognize tumorsthat have developed resistance to T cell tumor killing.
This interdisciplinary group at Washington University has advanced a unique NK cell therapy, termed memory-like (ML) NK cells, from discovery to clinical investigation. ML NK cells attack human melanoma and control melanoma tumor growth in mice. These data provide the proof-of-principle that thisform of cellular therapy may benefit melanoma patients. Here, they propose to translate these exciting findingsto patientsin a phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate the safety and preliminary efficacy of ML NK cellsin patients with metastatic melanoma who have progressed or not responded to standard immunotherapies. Thisa therapy is expected to work in concert with immune checkpoint blockade providing a complementary immune attack. This study will set the stage for larger future clinical trials using NK cellsfor melanoma and other solid tumors. This approach represents a novel cellular therapy strategy for melanoma patients, and is a potentially transformative therapy.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Todd Fehniger
Organization: Washington University in St.Louis
Country: United States
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2023
Funding Scheme: MRA
Project period: 5 years
NK cell immunotherapy to reduce relapse after haploidentical transplant for high-risk pediatric AML
Washington University in St.Louis
This is a prospective Phase I/II trial, with the long-term goal to translate novel findings in the field of innate immunity into early phase immunotherapy clinical trials for pediatric and young adult (YA) patients with high-risk acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Frontline chemotherapy results in remission in 80-90% of patients and is followed by consolidation therapy consisting of additional chemotherapy (low-risk) or by transplanting healthy blood-forming cells from a donor, known as allogenic hematopoietic cell transplant (allo-HCT) (high-risk). Despite a high remission rate with initial chemotherapy, about 40% of AML patients relapse. Prognosis for patients with relapsed disease after allo-HTC is dismal. Indeed, relapsed AML accounts for >50% of all childhood leukemia-related deaths. Novel treatments are desperately needed to enhance efficacy of allo-HCT and prevent relapse to ensure sustained, durable remissions. The goal of this proposal is to implement ML NK cell adoptive therapy in combination with haplo-HCT for patients with high-risk AML in first or second remission with the goal to induce durable remissions and reduce relapses.
The applicant has developed a novel donor-derived natural killer (NK) cell product with memory-like (ML) properties and enhanced anti-leukemia properties (ML NK cells). Their pre-clinical data shows significant improvements of ML NK over the nave NK cells. They have demonstrated safety and efficacy of ML NK cells in adult and pediatric patients with relapsed AML. Here, they aim to combine ML NK cells with modified HCT to provide a unique immunological environment to promote expansion and anti-leukemic activity of the cells. This study will enroll total of 24 patients over 3 years, 30 years of age with high-risk AML.
Their interdisciplinary group at Washington University has advanced the ML NK cell therapy, from discovery to clinical investigation. The team conducted the first-in-human trials of ML NK cells in adult and pediatric patients with AML, as such they are uniquely positioned to develop this novel, personalized immunotherapy. They hope that completion of the proposed studies will identify a new, potentially lifesaving immunotherapy for pediatric high-risk AML patients.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Todd Fehniger
Organization: Washington University in St.Louis
Country: United States
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2023
Funding Scheme: LLS
Project period: 4 years
Opioid-Sparing Effects of Nurse-Delivered Hypnosis During Breast Cancer Surgery
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Breast cancer accounts for one in four cancer diagnoses in women, affecting up to one in eight women in the United States. All patients with breast cancer undergo surgery, yet surgery is not without risks and is associated with a multitude of side effects. Many of the complications from surgery are from the use of general anesthesia and intra- and postoperative opioids. Side effects of general anesthesia include hemodynamic instability, postoperative nausea and vomiting, suppression of cell-mediated immunity, cognitive impairment, and delayed recovery. The use of opioids is also associated with postoperative nausea and vomiting, ileus, urinary retention, pruritus, and immunosuppression. Frequently, intra- and postoperative opioid use often leads to an increased risk for non-medical opioid use and opioid-sparing techniques are needed.
Extensive data supports the use of non-pharmacological interventions including hypnosedation (HS) for patients undergoing invasive medical procedures. In a variety of medical populations, patients using HS report significantly less anxiety and pain, demonstrate beneficial physiological responses, request less analgesic medication, and spend less time in the procedure room than controls. In a number of studies, the improved patient-reported outcomes and overall satisfaction was also paralleled by decreased medical costs. All of these previous studies either delivered the HS during simple medical procedures (e.g., breast biopsy) or before more invasive procedures such as breast surgery and no RCTs have provided hypnosis during surgery delivered by one of the surgical team members. The proposed trial will randomize women and men with breast cancer scheduled for a lumpectomy sentinel node biopsy to one of three groups: 1) surgery with a local anesthetic, fentanyl, and HS before and during surgery (HS); 2) HS before surgery with usual care general anesthesia (HS-GA; propofol infusion, fentanyl, and local anesthetic); or 3) Usual care general anesthesia (GA).
The study will examine differences in opioid use, pain, anxiety, nausea, fatigue, and cognitive dysfunction before and after surgery. Recovery will be also tracked 14 and 90 days after surgery. The study will also examine group differences in medical costs associated with procedure time, recovery room time, and use of medications. This project will allow further exploration of HS during surgery provided by a clinical team member and to explore the biopsychosocial processes associated with analgesia and opioid use, anesthesia, and pain and examine baseline individual difference factors associated with the intervention effects and recovery. We specifically propose to test the hypothesis that HS during breast cancer surgery will result in better analgesia control along with lower opioid use, less pain and psychological stress, and faster recovery than GA. Data from the proposed study will help to move this intervention into the standard of care and expand the use of HS into other invasive medical procedures where general anesthesia may be avoided.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Lorenzo Cohen
Organization: University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Country: United States
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2023
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 5 years
Prevention of persistent pain with LidocAine iNfusions in breast cancer surgery (PLAN): a multicentre randomized controlled trial
UHN
Breast cancer surgery can cause chronic pain, which is hard to treat and affects many aspects of life. Some studies suggest that giving lidocaine, a painkiller, during surgery can prevent chronic pain later. The PLAN trial is a large and international study that will test this idea. It will compare lidocaine with a placebo in 1,602 patients who have breast cancer surgery. The main goal is to see if lidocaine reduces chronic pain 3 months after surgery. The study will also measure other outcomes, such as pain, opioid use, functioning, and quality of life up to 1 year after surgery. The PLAN trial will provide strong evidence on whether lidocaine can prevent chronic pain in breast cancer surgery.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: James Khan
Organization: UHN
Country: Canada
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2023
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 4 years
Resisting Illiberalism: Supporting Civil Society Against Authoritarianism
Atlas Network
Atlas Network's "Resisting Illiberalism" grant program aims to combat the global rise of illiberalism. Through targeted funding, the project will empower civil society organizations and grassroots movements across Atlas Networks 600 partners in 102 countries to develop projects that promote awareness and education on the dangers of authoritarianism. This project also includes learning events for grantees to encourage collaboration among like-minded organizations, share best practices, and brainstorm future collaborative projects that defend and advance free societies.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom:
The projects supported within this program will address civil freedoms and equal rights under the law to ensure everyone is treated fairly and can exercise their inherent right to speech, religious practice, association, and personal choice. The projects in this program will also develop educational materials and execute awareness campaigns to enhance public understanding of authoritarianism's dangers and persuade citizens to prioritize safeguarding democratic values. Prioritizing grassroots approaches to combating illiberalism and reaching younger demographics will better ensure that freedom has a voice for generations to come.
Grant Details
Organization: Atlas Netwrok
Country: Global
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Private Sector Solutions
Hekaton Cities
Prometheus Institute
Decades of overregulation and a misguided planning culture have made cities increasingly slow and exclusive, rather than places of openness, creativity, and exchange.
This project will advance an explorer mindset versus the planner mindset. By building a 100-day accelerator for change entrepreneurs, the Prometheus Institute will help five projects begin with meaningful funding, project management training, and mentoring to eliminate significant obstacles to individual ingenuity. It will inject practical values of entrepreneurship and polycentricity into urbanism.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Through this project, Prometheus will champion liberal solutions to urbanism and undermine the planner mindset that has dominated the field for decades. By supporting entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into reality, Prometheus will open up possibilities for bottom-up private sector solutions to tackle urban problems and influence policy leaders toward more liberal city-planning approach.
Grant Details
Organization: Prometheus Institute
Country: Germany
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Teaching Freedom
Private Sector Solutions
Education Program For Teachers: Creative Kids Fair @SmartFeld
Association Smartfeld
Entrepreneurs testing innovative ideas in an open marketplace is crucial for creative destruction, economic growth, and societal progress. Yet, entrepreneurship is not a subject taught in Swiss primary schools. Fortunately, through its Creative Kids Fair @SmartFeld, Association Smartfeld is looking to change this. By encouraging primary-school-aged children with the opportunity to come up with a product idea, refine the innovation, create the good, and then providing a space for students to sell their products at an annual fair, Association Smartfeld hopes to get Swiss children excited about the ideas and skills of entrepreneurialism.
Together with the Rising Tide Foundation, Association Smartfeld will conduct workshops with teachers focusing on practical ways of integrating entrepreneurship into classrooms across Swiss Primary schools. This will also ensure teachers have the skills and confidence to work with their students to participate in the annual creative kids fair.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
This project helps to empower educators with the confidence and skills needed to teach and integrate entrepreneurship into Swiss classrooms. Similarly, the project empowers the entrepreneurs of tomorrow by equipping students with new ideas and skills to test their ideas, gain confidence, and propose new ways of creating goods that can serve others.
Grant Details
Organization: Association Smartfeld
Country: Switzerland
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Empowerment of Individuals
Liberal arts for all: Philosophy, Politics, and Economics for indigenous and ethnic minorities of Ecuador
Fundacion Ecuador Libre
Many senior positions in Ecuador require a graduate degree, but few indigenous and ethnic minorities have access. Students from low-income families who are not admitted to the limited slots in public university rarely access higher education at all, with only 2.7% of the indigenous population obtaining a graduate degree. Most Ecuadoran post-graduate programs are located in Quito and Guayaquil, while Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) programs from other countries are taught in English. This presents a barrier for low-income students or minorities who primarily live in more remote communities.
Liberal Arts for All will expand opportunities for indigenous and low-income youth to access high-quality, nonpoliticized education in liberal arts. The Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Universidad de las Amricas (UDLA) in Quito, Ecuador, with the support of Fundacin Ecuador Libre (FEL) and the PPE program at the University of Pennsylvania, launched the first PPE Diploma in Latin America. The diploma has developed into a one-year masters degree (M.A.) based on core ethical, economic, and political ideas in the classical liberal tradition combined with practical application through a component called Ignite in Action. A scholarship program gives low-income minority students access to a postgraduate program at UDLA, a top-rated private university in Ecuador. What's more, the program - taught primarily online with an intensive series of in-person seminars - will be subtitled into Spanish and Quechua to facilitate easier access for targeted populations.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
The project will empower individuals by teaching them the core ethical, economic, and political ideas in the classical liberal tradition. It will also help them live meaningful lives as free and autonomous agents by providing them with the material opportunity, skills, social connections, and mindset to thrive. Earning this masters degree will increase their ability to achieve goals that are out of reach for many people in their communities
The content of the program teaches students the mindset to thrive in a free society. It covers the moral basis of a market society, the importance of the rule of law, and the ways in which private property and exchange promote social welfare. But it will also teach them how to interpret ideas they disagree with charitably, and how to debate and argue with people they disagree with in a civil manner. This project will help to form the next generation of indigenous and ethnic minority leaders, giving them a voice and platform to act as individuals with their own voice."
Grant Details
Organization: Fundacion Ecuador Libre
Country: Ecuador
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Reaching the Rising Generation with the Ideas of Freedom
Libertas Institute
There are many books that teach on free markets, individual freedom, and prosperity for adults, but there has been (and continues to be) a profound void in the childrens literature market. Libertas Institute has the unique opportunity to offer families a better alternative through an expanded suite of Tuttle Twins resources, including more of the Tuttle Twins book series and a monthly magazine which promotes the ideas of freedom and liberty to children and young adults. Simultaneously, they will produce a new American history textbook along with a supplemental curriculum. Students will be able to identify the ideas of freedom that shaped American history and, through activities in their curriculum, learn about their enduring relevance to their lives today.
The Tuttle Twins series has sold over 3.5 million copies globally, with 23 childrens books being translated into a dozen languages. They will now have books for toddlers and teenagers, selling over 4,000 books a day with a strong interest due to the surge in homeschooling and concern over the rise in authoritarian government actions. On Amazon, they have achieved 1,000s of 5 start reviews on the existing Tuttle Twins suite of books. The ultimate objective of this project is to educate children on the principles of a free society and cultivate a successful pipeline of resources for toddlers to college students that will in turn make them lifelong defenders of freedom.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
Libertas Institute is growing an increasingly large audience of families dedicated to freedom. This will have a significant and lasting impact by introducing many more people to the ideas of freedom. At its core, this is a teaching freedom project - introducing and solidifying a deep understanding of individual liberty and ensuring children learn the importance of personal responsibility, understand why freedom is so important, and recognize why free markets and limited government are essential to prosperity.
Grant Details
Organization: Libertas Institute
Country: USA
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
Systems Change
Teaching Freedom
Time4 – for individual, self-determined, self-learning, free young people
Verein "Respektierung & Wahrung Natürlicher Lernprozesse"
Many young people in Switzerland feel that the traditional pathways offered through government education are not right for them. They increasingly choose educational pathways that are outside of the traditional system. However, support for young people that choose such a self-determined educational path has been very limited in the country. Time4 offers these young people an alternative development and education path compared to traditional vocational training, apprenticeships, or middle school. The participants of Time4 plan their educational path themselves but are supported by the Time4 team and their peers in the reaching of their self-set goals.
Time4 is now working to scale its offer in supporting them along their self-determined learning paths. Designed for young people who have a strong intrinsic motivation for learning and don't fit the paths designed by public education, the program offers support through in-person meetings, clear goal-setting and monitoring. They may go and learn a new language, set up their own company, or present their art to the public often things that were previously considered not possible.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
Time4 offers an alternative to public education in Switzerland. It offers young people an environment in which they can follow their individual learning pathway towards earning their own living. This rpgram challenges the traditional system of education and offers a unique alternative with the potential to become more mainstream in the long-term.
An increasing number of young people are struggling with the pre-defined educational pathways, ending up demotivated and without objectives, as a self-determined learning path is not currently an option in the system. Time4 adds this new perspective to the Swiss educational landscape and offers young people the level of support and assurance needed that will allow them to follow pathways in a flexible manner that were unthinkable in the traditional education system. Time4 offers young people a framework in which they can discover, refine, and deepen their interests and talents. Thanks to individual, self-defined work steps and learning objectives, the young people can follow their own needs and wishes. They are given the time they need to tackle their own small and large tasks, make their own decisions, and manage the resulting consequences themselves. In it they grow up to be free and empowered adults.
Grant Details
Organization: Verein "Respektierung & Wahrung Natrlicher Lernprozesse"
Country: Switzerland
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Enterprise Success in Uganda
Teach A Man To Fish
Low skilled, poorly-paid employment and significant underemployment are the reality for the majority of Ugandan youth who make up 78 percent of the countrys population. The main barriers for young people - including a lack of skills, progression pathways, networks, and access to capital - trap them in a futile cycle of poverty. The Teach A Man To Fish (TAMTF) project offers a path out of poverty for youth that choose to participate and are motivated to improve their own and their families economic situation.
This project is an expansion of the proven School Enterprise Challenge (SEC) program of TAMTF, in which trained teachers support students at local schools through a 14-step program to establish and run a business. The programs purpose is to unleash the creativity and power of young people to fulfill their potential in school, work, and life and contribute to their communities prosperity.
TAMTF is expecting to engage over the three years with 4,400 disadvantaged students (50% female) in 60 schools. With guidance from TAMTF, school business teams create a profit-share agreement in which 25 percent of profit is reinvested to keep the business operational for the following year and the remainder is allocated as students see fit, with some funds going towards the students and teachers that support the business. Currently existing businesses at schools in Uganda vary, with some of them engaging in vegetable farming, food processing, manufacturing (soap, charcoal), canteen and catering services, and livestock farming. One youth group started their own tent and chair rental business after recognizing the opportunity that daily village gatherings (meetings, funerals, etc.) posed. The school business provided a previously unavailable service in the community, meaning that event organizers were no longer required to travel the 82 km to the nearest town.
The SEC education model uses the challenge of launching and running a real business at school, offering the participating students the experience to discover their talents, earn money and foster competencies and character qualities such as entrepreneurial mindset, social conscience, and agency. An additional "high-flyer" component of the program is a new training to particularly committed and promising young entrepreneurs to set up their own businesses outside of school.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
This project encourages graduates from an entrepreneurship program to create their own network of productivity and exchange rather than rely on government aid or NGO handouts. As part of the proposed project, participating students will also be trained to start self-managed Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) to gain access to capital for their own individual businesses. The VSLAs provide a safe savings and loan facility to youth who lack easy access to formal financial services. This project aims to make schools an empowerment pathway for marginalized Ugandan youth, equipping youth with vital skills, agency, and confidence to fulfill their potential in life. The comprehensive program embeds skills and resources within the schools for the long-term: teachers learn to facilitate practical, student-centered entrepreneurship and skills-building education and are furnished with a wealth of resources; while school-businesses generate additional income with a profit-sharing agreement that secures the school-business in their schools as an educational tool. The project presents an exceptional opportunity for young women and men in Uganda to transform their lives, empowering participants with the skills and agency to succeed and become confident, active agents of change within their communities.
Grant Details
Organization: Teach A Man To Fish
Country: Uganda
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
She Rises Up
Sky Films, Inc.
While the World Bank reports that over a billion people have come out of extreme poverty in just 25 years, many women remain trapped without equal access to economic opportunities and legal rights. For those living in extreme poverty, there are often obstacles beyond their control that make progress nearly impossible from government regulations with unintended consequences to cultural attitudes that prevent women from accessing or controlling their own income.
"She Rises Up is a feature documentary film that will tell the stories of inspiring women who are pulling themselves and their families out of extreme poverty. The film will explore the explosive implications of womens economic participation and share powerful methods that work toward the eradication of extreme poverty, reclaiming the moral high ground for economic freedom. Compelling stories in Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Burundi will highlight the power and importance of economic freedom for women.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
Freedom of the individual is dependent upon the culture highly embracing that value. While no one film can transform a cultural mindset, by generating interest and discussion around the benefits of free markets and entrepreneurship, Sky Films Inc hopes to ultimately contribute to systems change. Economic freedom is a necessary, though not sufficient, tool to erase poverty and generate human flourishing. "She Rises Up" can generate a narrative change in the way we view economic freedom and entrepreneurship globally.
Grant Details
Organization: Sky Films, Inc.
Country: USA & International
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Essential Scholars II
Fraser Institute
Essential Scholars is a public education project aimed at educating high school and university students and young adults more broadly about the main insights of the key thinkers in the classical liberal tradition. The project comprises 15 modules, each centered on a short book written in an accessible style by an acknowledged expert and supported by short animated videos (80 total) and links to other online resources. Some 200,000 copies of the books have been distributed, while the videos have been viewed over 3.7 million times.
The Essential Scholars II project is expanding both the extent of these learning resources (by adding audio versions of the books, creating podcasts, and developing lesson plans) and their reach (by training teachers and through promotional efforts in collaboration with independent think tank partners in Australia, the UK, and the US). The podcasts will explore the core ideas of the scholars and their relevance to modern day policy questions. The lesson plans will incorporate project material for use in high schools, and webinars will be held to instruct teachers in their use. The project website (essentialscholars.org) will be overhauled to add new resources and improve functionality for high school teachers wanting to include Essential Scholars materials in their classrooms.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
The ultimate goal is to achieve future systems change as students who have been introduced to the key ideas and leaders of classical liberalism enter the marketplace and become influencers themselves. Essential Scholars provides an attractive introduction for new as well as sympathetic audiences to the key ideas of liberty. The books themselves are excellent introductions to these ideas and the audio books will provide a new way for people to access them. The videos provide even easier access to the ideas of freedom and are easily adaptable for use in the classroom. Providing teachers with lesson plans that incorporate these resources and providing training will promote and enrich classroom learning about the ideas of freedom.
Grant Details
Organization: Fraser Institute
Country: Canada
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 4 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Teaching Freedom
New Approaches to Development Assistance
University of Pittsburgh - Center for Governance and Markets (CGM)
While scholars and policymakers have decried the ineffectiveness of development assistance for many years, it remains a persistent part of the policy landscape. A growing consensus has emerged among development scholars and professionals that large-scale investment projects such as roads, bridges, and dams do not successfully generate economic growth and development. This has led to a turn to community-based interventions. Targeted community-level interventions seem to do a far better job incorporating local preferences and contexts than top-down alternatives. These initiatives focus on decision-making powers and financial control within communities, solutions that self-governing communities discover for themselves.
By bringing together scholars and practitioners to explore project strategies, approaches, and innovations in the sphere of community-driven development assistance. This project embarks on a comparative study on a range of innovative projects to better understand how these projects are implemented and explore what factors lead to more effective outcomes particularly from the perspective of intended beneficiaries. New frameworks and literature will be developed that integrate perspectives of self-governance on development to construct new principles for development assistance. This initiative will create a hub of knowledge of bottom-up development assistance and initiatives at the Center for Governance and Markets (CGM) at the University of Pittsburgh.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
By bringing individuals to the center of analysis of development assistance, this project will bring about a system change in the way both scholars of applied development assistance and practitioners alike think about these issues. The project seeks to change the way that policymakers view the development assistance landscape, in ways that put individuals and communities in the drivers seat of their own flourishing.
Grant Details
Organization: University of Pittsburgh - Center for Governance and Markets (CGM)
Country: USA & International
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Educational Video Series
Institute for Swiss Economic Policy
Objective education materials allow students to better understand the consequences of economic policies, making abstract policies such as taxes or government spending more tangible. This project, with a promising new player in the Swiss research context of economic policy, involves the creation of a twelve-part video series titled Taxes, debt and Switzerland simply explained - covering a variety of topics, including inequality, pensions, federalism, democracy, taxes, government spending, etc. The videos are aimed to be highly tangible for the student, which is ensured by starting each video lesson with a focus on how the topic is impacting the student.
The video series provides an essential individual learning opportunity for students supporting them in their recognition and understanding of economic policy interrelationships. Each five-minute video will have supporting content that includes a written summary of the topic covered and a series of exercises to ensure student understanding of the concepts introduced. The videos will be distributed through the new Swiss online learning platform Evulpo, where they will be freely available to students. Evulpo, is a young, dynamic, and fast-growing Swiss start-up that operates as a digital learning platform offering free explanatory videos, summaries, and exercises linked to the Swiss Governments education agenda for public schools.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
A free and solid basic education in economic policy issues is important for the preservation and development of our prosperity and society. This school-supplementary content from an independent authority guarantees, in addition to the scientific foundation, the greatest possible individual freedom in the acquisition of new knowledge and in the understanding of economic contexts.
Grant Details
Organization: Institute for Swiss Economic Policy
Country: Switzerland
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Teaching Freedom
REMBRANDT
Radboud University Medical Centre
The REMBRANDT trial addresses a heavy burden for the pancreatic cancer patient population. The only curative treatment option for pancreatic cancer is pancreatic surgery, in the vast majority of cases comprising pancreatic head resection. In this complex surgery, a surgeon removes the pancreatic head, the duodenum and part of the bile duct. After removal, they perform a surgical reconstruction in which three new connections (i.e. anastomoses) are being made.
This operation is associated with postoperative complications, such as delayed gastric emptying (DGE) and anastomotic leaks (e.g. postoperative pancreatic fistulas (POPF)). DGE is characterized by prolonged requirement of a nasogastric tube, inability to tolerate solid foods, vomiting and gastric distension. It is a burden for patients, impedes their recovery and may hamper the ability to undergo adjuvant chemotherapy.
A possible mean to prevent these complications after pancreatic surgery is by adding an extra anastomosis after reconstruction for pancreatic surgery, the so-called Braun anastomosis.
Working together with the patients association Living with Hope, dr. van Laarhoven and his team aims at evaluating the effectiveness of the addition of the Braun anastomosis after standard Child reconstruction in pancreatic head resection in reducing the incidence of delayed gastric emptying (DGE) and anastomotic leaks (e.g., postoperative pancreatic fistulas (POPF)).
REMBRANDT is a randomized-controlled patient-centered trial testing for superiority of the intervention. It involves 15 centers in the Netherlands, all part of the Dutch Pancreatic Cancer Group (DPCG). It plans to recruit a total of 256 patients, 128 per arm.
The ultimate goal of this study is to ameliorate the procedure of pancreatoduodenectomy with Child reconstruction so to decrease its burdensome postoperative complications.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Kees van Laarhoven
Organization: Radboud University Medical Centre
Country: The Netherlands
Focus Area: Disease and Treatment Burden
Funding Year: 2022
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 4 years
Career Connect Cambodia
Digital Divide Data
The job-skills mismatch in Cambodia impedes youth from low-income backgrounds from entering formal jobs. Career Connect Cambodia will offer a solution to this challenge that will allow these youth, and their families, a path out of poverty. The Career Connect program is the continuation of a pilot which substantially scales the number of underserved youth placed in jobs in Cambodia through compact skills training and match-making with employers.
Digital Divide Data aims to recruit and train 600 youth from underserved Cambodian communities from 2022 to 2025 with at least 80% being placed in jobs by about 10 partner-employers. Through the program, these youth will learn new skills that make them competitive in the job market, empowering them to achieve personal and economic freedom.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Career Connect helps underserved youth who do not have connections succeed through their own abilities and merits. Youth get the opportunity to increase their earnings, which they can reinvest in themselves or their families to sustain their economic growth opportunities. DDD aims to sustain and expand their impact in Cambodia and help catalyze equitable economic growth to reduce global inequality. DDD sees a future where youth, with proper education and career guidance, enhance their capacity for self-determination, improving their and their communities quality of life. As they support themselves and their families to overcome poverty and assume control of their lives, these youth attain both economic and personal freedom.
Grant Details
Organization: Digital Divide Data
Country: Cambodia
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
Empowerment of Individuals
Freedom Games 2023
Liberte! Foundation
Freedom Games is a yearly gathering in Lodz, Poland of renowned international experts and intellectuals using various conference formats from lectures to panel discussions to discuss key challenges Western societies face in the 21st century, offering a creative space for exchanging ideas on culture, economics, business, and public life with the end to advance a more free and prosperous society.
The key output of the project is the organization and execution of one edition of Freedom Games: at least 3 days of events with more than 250 speakers and at least 60 sessions available both online and in-person in a dedicated conference space, with more than 1 million online viewers of Freedom Games streaming and videos, and at least 1,500 in-person attendees.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
The Freedom Games forum has developed to become a powerful tool for promoting free-market ideas and personal freedoms while confronting individuals with other ideological currents. The 2023 Freedom Games event will show ideas important for Liberte! Foundations mission like free markets, rule of law, entrepreneurship, and the importance of big cities as engines of development and personal freedom, while supporting the idea of local governments to avoid centralization.
Grant Details
Organization: Liberte! Foundation
Country: Poland
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Teaching Freedom
Free Market Roadshow 2023
Austrian Economics Center (AEC)
The Free Market Roadshow - running for 15 years with dozens of partners throughout Europe - is a strong network of influential organizations and individuals advancing individual freedom on the continent. The joint effort of leading organizations and universities in Europe conducts an annual series of events to spread the word of freedom and prosperity to empower individuals. Prior to the pandemic, the roadshow reached 45 cities in one-year with 10,000+ attendees.
The Free Market Roadshow (FMRS) has a continuous ambition to build new networks and coalitions helping to spread the message of individual and entrepreneurial freedom, sound policy, self-responsibility and free speech all with the goal of reaching new audiences. They will host between 35 and 45 events in 2023 and hope to achieve nearly 10,000 attendees. In 2023, they will focus on growing their impact and attendee engagement, while experimenting with content innovations to attract non-traditional audiences.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Their innovative concept of touring capitals and important university cities in Europe and beyond has proven to reach the private sector (entrepreneurs and businesspeople) and empower the next generation (students). With its large network, the FMRS can play a crucial role in advancing ideas that will lead to general freedom and prosperity.
Grant Details
Organization: Austrian Economics Center (AEC)
Country: Austria
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Private Sector Solutions
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
TOPCOP3
University Health Network
The TOPCOP3 trial, led by Dr Shabbir Alibhai in the University Health Network in Toronto, Canada, aims at improving the care of older patients suffering from metastatic prostate cancer and undergoing androgen receptor axis-targeted agents (ARATs) therapy.
The ARATs is a new class of therapeutics that improves survival but causes substantial side effects, particularly in older men, reducing the quality of life, and potentially leading to the premature stopping of treatment. Current care consists of access to a nurse triage telephone line and clinic visits once every 1-3 months.
Dr Alibhai will test the feasibility and efficacy in improving quality of life and reducing severe side effects of treatment (including hospitalization) of two different types of care, alone and in combination: remote symptom monitoring (RSM) and geriatric assessment and management (GA+M). I am really excited to launch this trial to test two innovative supportive care strategies to improve the cancer journey for older men with advanced prostate cancer with the help of Rising Tide Foundation, says Dr. Alibhai.
Men who receive GA+M will get recommendations and monthly follow-ups from an oncology nurse. The nurse will also connect them to community resources if needed (e.g. physiotherapy, dietitian). Men assigned to RSM will have weekly symptom monitoring online or by telephone as well as symptom management provided by an oncology nurse, if needed. The control group will receive usual care. 168 patients, aged 70 or older, will be recruited at 2 centers in Canada.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Shabbir Alibha
Organization: University Health Network
Country: Canada
Focus Area: Disease and Treatment Burden
Funding Year: 2022
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 3 years
Dad Saves America: Reimagining Education
Emergent Order Foundation
Emergent Order Foundation's newest channel "Dad Saves America" promotes the idea of educational freedom through its "reimagining education" content. The reimagining education pillar of the Dad Saves America brand will encourage millions of families to reimagine what education is and how best to provide it for their kids in a way that unlocks their unique genius. They are producing videos which critique the current dominant education system, shift perspectives on what it means to get an education, and offer real alternatives.
Emergent Order Foundation will produce 20+ videos based on interviews with world class educators with a goal of reaching 1.5 million viewers across all platforms. From these videos, they will drive visits to their webpage to learn more about alternative schooling options. To inspire practical action on the part of their viewers, they will collaborate with educational partners to co-create a website connecting partners with these alternative education models.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
With Dad Saves America, Emergent Order Foundation produces content for parents and their kids that models classical virtues and actively encourages the audience to take actions so that they can live those virtues out and experience them for themselves. Their videos educate dads and all parents about the merits of self-directed education systems. Their content and future partnerships will put families in direct contact with private sector alternatives to public school. And through moving kids out of a broken system and driving demand for school choice, they hope to catalyze systemic change. In this way, their program both teaches freedom and empowers individuals. And its through that individual experience, inspired by storytelling, that they promote an overall culture of freedom.
Grant Details
Organization: Emergent Order Foundation
Country: United States
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Private Sector Solutions
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Re-opening Poland: The Roadmap for Polish Immigration Policy
Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju (Civil Development Forum)
This multi-phased project of the Civil Development Forum combines research with advocacy aimed at liberalizing Polish immigration policies based on the effective reforms introduced to support Ukrainian refugees in the country. The publication and promotion of recommended legal changes in the area of migration policy would support the comprehensive framework for (non-EU) foreign employment and entrepreneurship in Poland.
The main goal is to break bureaucratic barriers and introduce changes to migration policy in Poland to enhance the smooth and effective influx of migrants. The Civil Development Forum aims to establish new narratives for the ongoing and high-priority debate on immigration in Poland. They will collaborate with local communities and governments to identify barriers and bottlenecks between local and central institutions on the regulation of the labor market and migrant entrepreneurship to create recommendations for changes in the legal system. These recommendations will reach policy- and decision-makers in Poland to influence public debate on the topic of immigration policy and ultimately change the existing approach. Through workshops, conferences, and public meetings, they will reach intellectuals, scholars, and media and business representatives, as well as local government authorities and community leaders.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Ludwig von Mises wrote that, The principles of freedom, which have gradually been gaining ground everywhere since the eighteenth century, gave people freedom of movement. Freedom of movement gave rise to modern economic growth, unprecedented improvements in the mass standard of living, and an escape from poverty. Hindering movement can take many forms, from closed borders to various discriminating regulations that hamper buying or renting an apartment, taking up a job, or starting and running a business. Whenever there are regulations discriminating against immigrants, the basic freedom of movement is violated.
The Civil Development Forum aims to remove existing impediments to immigration in Poland by showing the benefits from immigration for both the host society and incomers, identifying barriers faced by immigrants, and offering recommendations to improve policy for employment or starting a business. If policy changes are successfully implemented, this project would lead to systems change and greater freedom, by widening the right of both residents and migrants in Poland to enter mutually beneficial relations. Migrants would be empowered through the right to use their knowledge and professional qualifications in the same way as Polish citizens. Overall, a better understanding of immigration and friendlier legislation in the labor market and for entrepreneurship will lead to a more peaceful and prosperous society.
Grant Details
Organization: Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju (Civil Development Forum)
Country: Poland
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
IELSG37 - Ukraine
Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC)
Primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) primarily affects young patients, particularly females in their 3rd to 4th decade of life. It is usually characterized by the presence of a bulky mass in the chest. Even with aggressive immunochemotherapy, the mass often does not completely disappear. Patients with refractory or relapsing disease typically have poor outcomes, so consolidation radiotherapy has been widely used to improve cure rates during initial treatment. However, this approach carries a higher risk of long-term complications such as heart diseases and second cancers.
To address the necessity of radiotherapy, the International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group (IELSG) initiated the IELSG37 randomized study. The objective was to determine whether mediastinal irradiation could be omitted in patients who achieved complete metabolic remission, as determined by a PET/CT scan, after conventional immunochemotherapy. The primary endpoint of the study was progression-free survival (PFS) at 30 months from randomization for patients who were PET-negative at the end of frontline immunochemotherapy.
The IELSG37 study is the largest prospective trial ever conducted in PMBL, which is a relatively rare condition (constituting less than 5% of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases). Over 545 patients from 74 centers in 13 countries participated in the study. Among the contributing countries, after Italy and the United Kingdom, Ukraine played a significant role in patient recruitment.
In a disease where progression or relapse beyond two years from initial treatment is extremely rare, the PFS data from the IELSG37 study are highly mature. At least 97% of patients have been followed for a minimum of 30 months after randomization. The observed difference in 30-month PFS between the radiotherapy arm (98.5%) and the observation arm (96.2%) was not statistically significant and clinically not relevant. This lack of clinical significance is supported by the fact that the 3-year overall survival was identical in both arms, at 99%. These findings suggest that omitting radiotherapy in patients who achieve complete remission is a safe approach. However, longer and careful follow-up is necessary to assess the impact of late events. The Project CCR-22-110 aims to support the collection of long-term follow-up information from the 25 Ukrainian patients enrolled in the trial.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Emanuele Zucca
Organization: Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC)
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Other Areas
Funding Year: 2022
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 6 years
Surgical versus conservative therapy for breast cancer related lymphoedema
University of Basel
The LYMPH Trial Comparison of operative versus non-operative treatments for chronic breast cancer-related lymphedema
One in five breast cancer survivors will develop chronic breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL). Chronic lymphedema results in swollen arms because water is stored in the tissue and does not drain away properly. Lymphedema is usually treated with conservative therapy, i.e. regular lymphatic drainage and the wearing of compression garments. However, many positive reports have been made worldwide using surgical treatment for lymphedema. Unfortunately, there is a lack of scientific data conclusively supporting these reports. Therefore, in our study, we investigate whether surgical treatment of BCRL significantly improves the quality of life of patients compared to conservative therapy alone. We will also investigate the relationship between the costs and benefits of surgical treatment. In our study, patients will be randomly assigned into two groups: (1) Group A, will receive surgery for lymphedema followed by standard conservative therapy. The surgical procedures include `lymphovenous anastomosis` and `vascularised lymph node transplantation`, (2) Group B, will receive conservative therapy only. Once the primary endpoint of one year has been reached, patients in Group B may opt to have surgery, an option made possible within the framework of our pragmatic study design. Participation in this study lasts 10 years, with the actual intervention and follow-up examinations taking place within the first 2 years and additional observations taking place once annually for another 8 years. We believe that robust scientific evidence through this study could bring surgical intervention for BCRL into more routine clinical practice, thus potentially increasing patient life quality to the highest standard possible.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Elisabeth Kappos
Organization: University of Basel
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2022
Funding Scheme: Swiss Cancer Research
Project period: 5 years
Influence of a home-based nutrition and exercise programme including an application for monitoring on quality of life in advanced cancer outpatients
Tumor Center, Kantonsspital Winterthur
Patients with advanced tumors are at particular high risk for malnutrition, both because of their disease and the anticancer therapy. Consequently, they may suffer from weight loss, decline in physical function due to muscle wasting, and reduced tolerance and response to anticancer treatment. A program combining nutrition and exercise could be an effective and safe strategy to prevent or treat malnutrition in cancer patients. The goal of the study is to investigate the effect of a nutrition and exercise program on the quality of life of patients with advanced tumors of the lung or the gastrointestinal tract.
These patients are often treated as outpatients, are still pursuing a profession and are active in their families and social lives. Thus, to facilitate participation, a home-based setting was chosen, and a smartphone app for data recording and monitoring was developed exclusively for this study.
Patients that participate in this study are randomly assigned to either the intervention or the control group. Participants in the intervention arm have at least two appointments each with a nutritionist and a physiotherapist. Furthermore, they receive a nutritional supplement high in protein and with added leucine and HMB (beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate, a leucine metabolite). Patients in the control arm meanwhile continue their standard therapy. Participants in both study arms record data with our study smartphone app. Assessments take place at week 0 (baseline), after the 12 weeks intervention and at week 24 as a follow-up.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Miklos Pless
Organization: Tumor Center, Kantonsspital Winterthur
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Disease and Treatment Burden
Funding Year: 2022
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 1 year
PReoperative Optimisation of Modifiable rIsk factorS in surgEry of the Pancreas
Maastricht University
For pancreatic cancer, a pancreatic operation is the cornerstone of curative treatment. Patients with a pancreatic tumor often suffer from severe weight loss and loss of physical condition at the time of diagnosis. A reduced preoperative performance status has been associated with worse postoperative outcome such as a higher chance for a postoperative complication.
This project investigates whether preoperative screening and intervention on eight potentially (partly) modifiable risk factors for adverse outcome will improve postoperative outcome.
All patients are screened for eight (partly) modifiable risk factors (low aerobic fitness level, malnutrition, low psychological resilience, comorbidities, such as iron deficiency, impaired glucose control and frailty, and intoxications such as alcohol and smoking behavior). Next, together with the patient a patient-tailored optimizing program is designed and executed.
The primary endpoint is time to functional recovery, which considered the most appropriate measure to reflect the severity of the impact of the operation, the number of postoperative complications and the severity of these complications. Several secondary outcomes will be studied, of which many are relevant for patients such as quality of life, but also includes process and cost analysis which are necessary to incorporate preoperative optimization in future guidelines and to get preoperative optimization reimbursed.
All Dutch centers performing pancreatic operations will participate in this national study; each center will cross over from "current practice" to the "best practice" program, in a randomized order.
This new approach tries to limit the impact of the treatment by improving performance status and resilience of patients and by reducing surgery complications. This will be of benefit for the patient, will ease recovery, and improve quality of life and potentially also survival. Besides, by improving the performance status, likely more patients will complete the full preoperative or postoperative chemo(radio)therapy and more patients will undergo surgery at their best fitness status.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Marcel den Dulk
Organization: Maastricht University
Country: The Netherlands
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2022
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 4 year
Comparing an operation to monitoring, with or without endocrine therapy (COMET) for low-risk DCIS: a phase III prospective randomized trial
Alliance Foundation Trials, LLC
Over one in five women diagnosed with breast cancer on screening mammography have ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a condition where abnormal cells are found inside the milk ducts of the breast. Only 2030 percent of DCIS cases turn into invasive breast cancer, which is cancer that spreads and causes illness. Many women can live with DCIS without it ever harming them. Doctors usually treat DCIS the same way they treat invasive breast cancer, using surgery and radiation. Yet many doctors and researchers believe that, instead of having surgery right away, some women with low-risk DCIS can safely choose to watch for changes in their condition through extra mammograms and regular checkups, and only intervene for progression. This approach, widely used for early-stage prostate cancer, is called active monitoring (AM).
Until now, very little research has directly compared the experiences and outcomes of patients receiving these different treatments for low-risk DCIS. A prospective randomized trial, the COMET (Comparing an Operation to Monitoring, with or without Endocrine Therapy, for low-risk DCIS) study, is evaluating whether it is safe for some women to monitor their low-risk DCIS instead of having standard surgical treatment.
The COMET study aims to assess the clinical outcomes and the quality-of-life (QOL) outcomes from women diagnosed with low-risk DCIS for up to ten years. Patient advocates have partnered with researchers in the planning and development phases of the study to ensure that the outcomes of the COMET study are important and relevant to patients.
The COMET trial has recruited almost 1000 women from 87 clinical sites in the United States. Women were randomized to one of two groups: surgery (standard treatment) or AM. Patients in the standard treatment group could choose between recommended surgical treatments. In the AM group, doctors check patients regularly to make sure that DCIS did not turn into invasive breast cancer. Only patients who progress to invasive cancer have surgery. The researchers are analyzing the rate of new invasive breast cancer in both groups. For the next five years, the long-term clinical outcomes of both groups will be collected from medical records and other source documents. The long-term QOL outcomes will also be collected annually, in order to compare whether patients report greater uncertainty, anxiety, or depression, with surgery or AM. The QOL surveys were carefully reviewed by our patient advocates to ensure that there is no excessive burden to patients.
Results from the study will help future women diagnosed with low-risk DCIS by providing them with evidence-based, practical information to make a decision about their treatment options. The QOL surveys are critical to the study outcomes, as they will enable patients, their families, and health care stakeholders to better understand the impact of treatment options on quality of life, particularly important in a disease that has no symptoms, and only minimal mortality risk.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Shelley Hwang
Organization: Alliance Foundation Trials, LLC
Country: USA
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2022
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 5 years
Unlocking Potential through Mindset Change among Unemployed Youth in Kenya
Emerging Leaders
Unemployment in Kenya among youth aged 15-24 is over 60%, and the struggle to generate sufficient income is even harder for vulnerable youth such as teen moms, those struggling with alcohol and drugs, school dropouts, or those with criminal records. COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on youth living in informal settlements, worsening their pre-existing vulnerable situation.
One of the key challenges for these forgotten youth is that, as they look around them, they see the same, hopeless story played out in almost every person around them. These youth chronically fail at benefitting from typical entrepreneurship and business-skills programs because they are either over-looked or dont believe they fit or are able to succeed. Instead, they wait for help from others like parents, government, or big business.
To break this cycle of inter-generational poverty, Emerging Leaders project in Kenya will work with vulnerable, unemployed youth in urban informal settlements of the Nairobi and Naivasha regions. The program focuses first on changing mindsets to unlock youths potential. Then the program builds on this with financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills, typically seeing upwards of 70-80% of participants start a small income-generating business - one they identify, plan, and deliver and which more than doubles their monthly income.
This four-year project will focus on scaling-up delivery of the Leadership for Life program to 18,000 poor urban youth through a train-the-trainer model. The program is delivered by youth themselves - who have been transformed through their own leadership and entrepreneurship journey.
Our goal is to see:
70% start income-generating projects
40% linked with other programs or companies that can help them to grow their businesses
5% to be employing at least one other person.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Every single day the story of our lives is being written; the question is who has the pen? Emerging Leaders approach to enhancing freedom is to help youth re-imagine and then re-write their story by empowering them with the mindsets, motivations, and skills to flourish. This
enables them to navigate the challenges of life and make choices that will enable them and those around them to thrive. The program helps create flourishing communities by unlocking human potential and unleashing entrepreneurial creativity. When youth realize they are free to lead themselves and have agency over their choices and future, their entrepreneurship, energy, and growth is unstoppable and a catalyst for transformative change.
True freedom means no one - not us, nor any other entity - can tell youth what they should want or should dream. So flourishing is not defined by us, instead youth define it for themselves. And then they are coached to lift up their heads to see the needs around them, and how their own actions can help solve those needs. And thus, the link from mindsets to entrepreneurship to flourishing is born
Grant Details
Organization: Emerging Leaders
Country: Kenya
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 4 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Campaign for Housing and Human Dignity
Independent Institute
Across the state of California, local governments have shifted from a more personalized approach to homelessness that respects the dignity of the individual to a one-size-fits-all program that is euphemistically called Housing First. The Housing First program dehumanizes its beneficiaries by treating them as objectives of the system rather than subjects - protagonists in their own story. Unfortunately, this program has resulted in a redirection of funds from organizations that have demonstrated success helping people leave homelessness and rise out of poverty towards initiatives that simply build housing.
To compound this issue, excess zoning regulations throughout the state of California have resulted in sky-high housing costs. These two elements housing without expectations and excessive regulations - combined together, are perpetuating the troubling state of the homeless in California.
The Independent Institute, through the Campaign for Housing and Human Dignity initiative, aims to provide a realistic alternative to California's current Housing First approach through (with the hope that successes can then be exported to other states):
- A 60-page Independent Policy Report that identifies the failings and damage of current policies while also painting a positive picture for what a transformational housing approach might look like.
- A multifaceted media campaign including a documentary to be widely disseminated via YouTube and receive high-profile coverage by key media outlets. The documentary will portray individuals impacted by homelessness, showcase programs providing transformation, and provide a vision for San Francisco to broaden the array of approaches that will alleviate the crisis.
- Develop an unaligned website branded as Beyond Homeless that will present the policy reports findings, including creative graphics, the documentary, as well as short excerpts and other content.
We are thrilled that this initiative has now been launched; you can watch the documentary trailer here, visit the BeyondHomeless.org website, and learn more about the Urban Vision Alliance.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
The vast array of regulations on housing development imposed by California abrogates property rights, reducing individual freedom, while both feeding homelessness and preventing individuals from exiting it. Coupled with the destructive Housing First narrative, California has been placed in a dire circumstance. Independent Institute effectively highlights each of these policies and their failed outcomes, and widely promotes freedom-enhancing solutions through effective promotional campaigns and working collaboratively with the Urban Vision Alliance to support a transformational approach to ending homelessness. Through this program, individuals experiencing homelessness will be provided with alternative optionsoptions that enable them to take control of their own life rather than becoming the objects of a bureaucratic system that overlooks their individuality.
Through this initiative, Independent Institute will highlight and disseminate successful, human-centered solutions to homelessness that can be employed both in San Francisco and more broadly.
Grant Details
Organization: Independent Institute
Country: United States
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Jeevika App: Making a Living on the Street
Center for Civil Society
Street vending is a low-cost enterprise and a primary source of livelihood for almost 2% of Indias urban population. Despite being ubiquitous, the economic and property rights of vendors are often at risk of abuse from government authorities. They live under the constant threat of eviction, seizure of their goods, and arbitrary fines. Approaching lawyers in every case of confiscation or eviction is costly. Harassment of vendors is rampant due to a lack of legal awareness, a systematic record of harassment data, and proper legal enforcement.
Vendors right to livelihood is at the forefront of governmental discourse, as acknowledged by Indias Prime Minister, and Centre for Civil Society (CCS) has managed to build its reputation as the go-to civil society organization for issues related to vendor livelihoods. CCS is currently developing a comprehensive mobile application (the Jeevika App) to ensure legal empowerment of vendors and to bridge information gaps through technology. The Jeevika App will become a one-stop access for vendors in Delhi by (a) creating a legal aid and SOS platform that will connect vendors to law students or lawyers in case of harassment; (b) enabling street vendors to geo-tag themselves for verifying their property rights claims; and (c) collating data on harassment and generating heat maps. This project aims to provide tools for street vendors to defend their rights and fight harassment. The empowerment of vendors will ultimately deter public officials from abusing their powers.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
For over two decades now, CCS has championed the economic freedom and right to earn a dignified livelihood for the poorest of poor in the informal sector, such as the street vendors in India, a vulnerable group of nano-entrepreneurs. CCS has won the 2021 Asia Liberty Award and the 2021 Templeton Freedom Award for its work on street vendor livelihoods. The government of India, through its Parliamentary Standing Committee on Urban Development, acknowledged and accepted the recommendations proposed by CCS on protecting the rights of street vendors.
CCS has recorded instances of street vendors standing up to judicial officials, representing their cases in the court, and mitigating harassment while proactively working to make them legally aware of their rights and the law. Through a methodical identification of stakeholders and dissemination, the Jeevika App will positively impact the business landscape for street vendors in India. If the application is successful, then (a) the number and severity of harassment cases and extortion of street vendors will reduce; and (b) policymakers will speedily and comprehensively rectify legal barriers. As some vendors become empowered to fight against harassment, they will inspire others to do the same. The project will eventually help improve the prosperity, freedom, and dignity of street vendors in India. Once the issue of harassment is addressed, it will help the urban poor to work their way out of poverty.
Grant Details
Organization: Center for Civil Society
Country: India
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Corporate Welfare: Where’s the Outrage?
Free To Choose Network
The term capitalism is oftentimes misunderstood both in the United States and more broadly around the world. These misperceptions around capitalism are often a result of the pervasive trend toward corporate welfare in the western world. While the topic of wealth distribution is typically accompanied by debates for levels of welfare benefits, taxation vs. voluntary assistance, or optimal levels of taxation that encourage work but provide a safety net to the poor, Free to Choose Network (FTCN) believes that all reasonable people (while maybe disagreeing on the previous issues) can broadly agree on the ill effects of upward wealth redistribution where the low and middle class provide subsidies to business owners and politicians.
FTCN aims to generate a culture shift as a solution to the pervasiveness of corporate welfare in the western world today. They will aim to generate this cultural shift through (a) creating a film for distribution on public television; (b) establishing a community engagement program that helps provide local citizens with knowledge and tools to combat the problems of cronyism; and (c) producing and distributing video-based classroom education materials highlighting the partnership between government and business that causes cronyism to flourish.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Though this project, FTCN will highlight the work of ordinary people who are making systemic changes in their communities and then subsequently promote these efforts to others. They will be able to raise awareness around the issue of corporate welfare and then inspire those at the local level to combat it. This will result in a stronger reaction against the corporate welfare impulse in the United States, providing greater security and agency to the most marginalized in society who are disproportionately affected by this issue. Additionally, through their K-12 educational outreach, FTCN will change the future culture around corporate welfare by educating youth on the topic.
Grant Details
Organization: Free To Choose Network
Country: United States
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
System Change
Teaching Freedom
The WISDOM Study (Women Informed to Screen Depending on Measures of Risk)
Sanford Research
WISDOM is the first prospective, randomized large-scale evaluation of an alternative approach to the one-size-fits-all mammographic screening introduced in the 1980s.
The present study compares annual screening with a risk-based approach that uses a comprehensive evaluation of each womans individual risk for breast cancer to develop a risk-based, personalized breast cancer screening recommendation. The goal of risk-based screening is to improve the chance of preventing breast cancer in those at risk and to reduce rates of false-positive recalls, over diagnosis and over treatment, which are significant causes of morbidity in the current annual screening approach.
The results of this study could transcend the current screening controversy and support a transition of personalized medicine screening and prevention approach. For patients, personalized care should lead to better health outcomes due to fewer indolent tumors being detected, fewer unnecessary biopsies, and less anxiety for women. We also believe this program will improve access to, and use of, preventive therapy for women at high risk, thereby modifying the incidence and progression of disease.
Impact
The WISDOM trial sponsor (University of California, San Francisco) does not have scientific results at this time. The WISDOM study is closed to enrollment. Sites are still following current participants. The total number of women consented as of 2023-Sep-18 is 55,168 across all sites.
Women living in the United States with internet access could log on to the WISDOM study web site to learn about the study. Interested and eligible participants were able to join/consent online. The study has been presented at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium 2020 and 2022, as well as published in 5 manuscripts in peer-reviewed medical journals.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Maria Bell
Organization: Sanford Research
Country: United States
Focus Area: Early Detection
Funding Year: 2021
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 3 years
Unlocking African Trade
Institute of Economic Affairs
Despite recent progress, Africa remains the worlds poorest and most protectionist continent. Protectionism in Africa means more poverty, less choice, and lower quality of life for one billion people across the continent. However, there is now a real prospect for change if the right support is provided, in part thanks to the recent implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) implemented on January 1st, 2021.
This historic agreement aims to remove 90% of tariffs on goods traded between member-states within five to ten years. Within thirteen years, it aims to remove 97% of tariffs. The World Bank estimates that, if successful, this Free Trade Area can lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty, 68 million from moderate poverty, boost regional income upwards of USD 450 billion, and increase average wages for both skilled and unskilled workers by about 10% by 2035. But if more states do not ratify the AfCFTA, the trade agreement could be a failure.
This three-year project from Initiative for African Trade and Prosperity (IATP) will promote freedom and prosperity by uniting more than a dozen innovative African think tanks with three esteemed UK-based organizationsthe Vinson Centre for the Public Understanding of Economics at the University of Buckingham, the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA), and the Network for a Free Society (NFS)in the development of a program to promote policy change in the area of trade liberalization. The Vinson Centre will influence public and governmental opinion in favor of the AfCFTA through marketing campaigns, targeted projects, mini-grants to partners in their network, supporting publications in leading media, and distributing educational materials broadly.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
This project has massive potential, as reducing 90+ percent of trade barriers across the continent would mean substantial gains for 1 billion people. Individuals will achieve greater economic freedom, empowerment, and prosperity when they are able to more easily access global networks and benefit from reduced barriers to global exchange. This project has the capacity to change protectionist perceptions so that borders can be opened, and the benefits of greater liberalization can be enjoyed by those living across the region.
In order to change policy, minds and outlooks must be changed first. Hence, the inclusion of a component of this project that teaches individuals the power of free trade and the principles and foundations of free societies. This teaching will be done by distributing mini-libraries of classical liberal texts on CDs, books related to free trade, events (some online with many in-person), and articles across national media outlets. These avenues will in total reach millions of people. The IATP itself will also produce six professionally made videos that can be shared online. Once these videos are shared by partners in their network, it is likely they will at least attract tens of thousands of views. These videos will be intended for both policy leaders and broader audiences across the content that arent necessarily located in target countries.
Read more on the Initiative for African Trade & Prosperity at https://theiatp.org/
Grant Details
Organization: Institute of Economic Affairs
Country: United Kingdom and the African continent
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Greek Economics Olympiad
Center for Liberal Studies – Markos Dragoumis (KEFiM)
Greece has suffered for years from a tumultuous economic crisis spurred on by government debt and fiscal deficits. The Center for Liberal Studies (CLS) strongly believes that a lead contributor to this economic crisis and the subsequent rise of illiberal ideas and policies can be largely attributed to widespread economic illiteracy. To increase economic literacy throughout Greece, CLS is organizing the Greek Economics Olympiad and creating supplemental teaching materials, including a Greek edition of the award-winning economics textbook Economics in 31 Hours. They are also creating 31 basic economics education videos tailored to the Greek context that will be distributed on YouTube (and other platforms) for a high school audience.
CLS determined that the Economics Olympiad was the right initiative to reach their goal of achieving greater economic literacy in Greece through engaging high school students in a high quality and fun competition on basic economic concepts. Supplementary education materials will also serve to further influence Greek high school students.
The Greek Economics Olympiad was organized for the first time in the 2020-2021 academic year by CLS. The competition was launched in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and with the support of the Bank of Greece as well as the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy. The first competition attracted 1,105 students from 135 high schools from all over Greece and one school from the Greek diaspora. The Olympiad competition was mentioned 276 times in Greek media, including major television, radio, newspaper, and web outlets. Moving forward, CLS seeks to replicate and extend this success by increasing student participation while also increasing the quantity of high-quality resources available for students to gain basic economics education.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
There is a pervasive problem in Greece of a lack of basic economic literacy. Currently, throughout a typical education, students may never encounter any training in basic economics whatsoever. This is likely one reason for the great economic challenges Greece faces today. Through this project, students will receive fun, relevant education in basic economic principles which will increase their human capital while at the same time benefit Greek society into the future through a more informed and educated citizenry regarding basic economic principles. The goal of the Greek Economics Olympiad is to equip students to make important decision in both the political and personal realm that are anchored in sound economics. In just 5-10 years, at the current pace, they will have trained more than 100,000 high school students in sound economic principles in a country with a population of just 10 million.
Grant Details
Organization: Center for Liberal Studies Markos Dragoumis (KEFiM)
Country: Greece
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Myne-Poverty Stoplight Integration
Behind Every Door
This project aims to increase personal freedom and activate personal action through an integration of two easily accessible technologies Myne and Poverty Stoplight. Myne is an agency-oriented software using proven gamification techniques to empower participation in personal transformation. Poverty Stoplight is a global movement with an effective bottom-up methodology and technology platform that activates the potential of families to identify and own their poverty-related challenges.
This project aims to address the lack of personal autonomy within the current systems targeted at poverty reduction by joining two technologies, whose values are deeply connected, to achieve individual and system level transformation. The Myne Community App will integrate with the Poverty Stoplight tool, showing the Client Life Map, priorities, and relevant resources. Our goal is to directly connect participants to their individualized resources and show the impact of daily decisions on large goals in a smaller feedback loop. It will include gamification features that are widely used across the for-profit sector but less well utilized in social services. Three pilot projects will focus on key stakeholders: funders, organizations and with a primary focus on participants use and outcomes. Pilots will be in the UK Poverty Stoplight hub, Signal and US, including Texas hub, Dallas Lights.
Myne has three principles that govern its development and are part of its measurement strategy:
- Developing and deepening Ownership of personal choices and sense of agency (it is mine).
- Discovery: the process of collecting, seeing, and reflecting on data about ourselves helps us to understand our behaviors, attitudes, and mindsets better (mining for knowledge)
- Community: a network of trusted relationships that provides a secure environment i.e. our social capital is important (mining is not successfully done alone).
The Myne Community App provides a means to record, track, and measure the smaller actions of our daily lives, the activities we undertake regularly, and the moments that we acknowledge for ourselves. This can then be visualized to show the tangible progress that is happening. While small and often unnoticed, these moments add up to significant change. Similar to a dieter's decision to stick to an eating plan, when the scale begins to show small increments of progress (a visual representation of the progress), these small moments encourage someone to continue on a new path that is right for them.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
We believe Myne and Poverty Stoplight can, together, have a significant local and global impact on the everyday lives of individuals, creating personal freedom through increased agency and ultimately drive systems change at multiple levels.
Myne is a step towards the dignity, confidence, and empowerment that characterizes this enhanced freedom. It shows individuals how their work of showing up, persisting, progressing, and achieving goals within safe relationships can add up to healthier outcomes. For all stakeholders, it encourages participation in an ecosystem that helps families and communities to thrive. Myne shows how small-scale events and activities (that are often overlooked) are significant steps to an individuals achievement (research shows us these are the building blocks of building confidence). Combining this with Poverty Stoplights ability to visualize self-driven goals through its Stoplight Life Map will produce a powerful data-driven, relationship-based, and bottom-up approach to personal liberty and self-directed poverty alleviation.
Without personal autonomy, individuals will show some progress in traditional, particularly data-extractive only programs. However, they are more likely to revert to their previous circumstances as soon as the strict parameters of the program are removed. With personal autonomy, an individual is more likely to experience sustained progress and change as they typically choose goals that will fit within their current parameters.
Daron Babcock, CEO Bonton Farms, and member of Dallas Lights, connects Myne with that principle: We believe deeply in the idea that we should not do for others what they are capable of doing for themselves. However, [sometimes we can] rob them of the dignity, confidence and empowerment that comes with an honorable exchange. TheMyne app would allow us a way to quantify and track the work that is done by people, so we can empirically show them that they are responsible for their success; that it is earned and not gifted.
On a larger level, as more communities begin to use the tool, data points about community, country and regional needs will develop. As multiple nonprofits within a city begin to use the tool, data points will begin to show if self-identified needs have commonality by region. Example: The south side of the city self-reports the need for jobs, whereas the north side of the city reports the need for childcare. Utilizing these data points, funders may target their support to programs that provide assistance with these targeted needs, thereby creating systems level shifts in program implementation.
Grant Details
Organization: Behind Every Door
Country: United States
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Community Independence Initiative
Root Change
The primary means by which low-income populations get ahead economically, or even only survive, is through entrepreneurship and micro-business. This is especially apparent in developing countries: they sell soap, food, concrete blocks, gasoline by the jar, cut hair, and sell what they grow. History has proven that these entrepreneurs have the capacity to grow into more formal businesses in environments where people help one another, pool their funds, and grow their ideas.
This is where the Community Independence Initiative (CII) comes in to create a mutuality rich environment. Their approach is based on peer-driven change, acknowledging that those at the bottom of our economies are the only experts of their lives and are capable of agency. CII identifies local approaches and supports the most effective efforts by highlighting them or investing in them so that peers can follow those same paths. Low-income populations rely on families, not professional staff, to be the advisors, trainers, and role models for peers. They accomplish this work through partnerships with other organizations as well as the innovative, open source ImpactX Mutuality Platform that creates an eco-system with a core principle of working together and helping one another.
Ultimately the vision of CII is to fundamentally change current anti-poverty work of NGOs as well as UN organizations away from top-down, paternalistic approaches towards recognizing and supporting self-help efforts by low-income populations themselves. This model began in the United States under the Family Independence Initiative and is now being expanded internationally through CII by creating a naturally expanding eco-system that encourages and invests in entrepreneurial efforts that combine expectations of self-help and mutuality.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
Local entrepreneurship is one of the few avenues those living in and around poverty have as a tool to get ahead or survive. Philanthropy and government cannot fill that role for the billions struggling directly, but by investing in these self-help efforts, can grow the pie for everyone. There is untapped latent potential that can be unleashed if we treat those struggling with poverty like we treat those in more privileged situations. Rather than being treated as drains on society we need to respect this population as the future builders and makers of their own economies. We are missing the talents, ideas, and energy of 75% of the worlds population.
This project aims at both creating the evidence, backed by data, that can then communicate to a global audience, the potential of entrepreneurship and of humanity when we encourage the poor to work together as peers. CII aims to see this bottom-up practice becoming the gold standard for dealing with poverty and economic mobility.
Grant Details
Organization: Root Change
Country: Global
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Powering Prosperity and Economic Freedom for Women and Youths
Denis & Lenora Foretia Foundation
Today, 48% of Cameroonians are living below the poverty line and 98% of Cameroons businesses are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), 90% of those SMEs are micro enterprises (<5 employees). At the same time, widespread disparities in freedom of economic access exist, especially for women, hindering the contribution of SMEs to contribute to GDP growth. This project addresses the root causes of SME underperformance and job access in Cameroon through programs in the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Center of the Denis and Lenora Foretia Foundation in Cameroon. They build individual capacity of future entrepreneurs while working for overall system change to improve the climate for SMEs and enhance opportunities for women and young people. Moreover, they focus at least 25% of opportunities, including business education, resources, productive employment, fair working conditions and financial services, in conflict zones with Internally Displaced People (IDPs).
The Denis and Lenora Foretia Foundation in Cameroon was founded to catalyze the economic transformation of the country by focusing on social entrepreneurship, science and technology, innovation, public health, and the implementation of progressive policies that together create economic opportunities for all. The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Center aims to create a more robust and diverse middle class in Cameroon through fostering free enterprise.
In order to accomplish this, the Foretia Foundation is creating an advocacy campaign with their coalition of stakeholders to promote economic freedom while deepening the roots of SBEC to receive recognition as a go-to resource for entrepreneurial training and development. Along with measurable policy improvement, training programs and SME support across four regions will result in $3 million in new economic generation, 600+ SMEs improved and 4,500+ workers with entrepreneurial soft skills.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
This project aims at holistically changing the business environment for SMEs in Cameroon and hence making entrepreneurship a viable option of development for its citizens, removing regulatory barriers and empowering individuals to become active contributors to the prosperity of their communities and country. With a specific focus on conflict zones, enhancing economic freedom in these areas, it will help alleviate the tensions that are contributing to ongoing conflict and help establish a lasting and sustainable peace.
Read more on the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Center here
Grant Details
Organization: Denis & Lenora Foretia Foundatio
Country: Cameroon
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Coaching for the realization of education with professional goal
Educa Swiss
There are a growing number of individuals who are highly motivated to take another step in their education but lack the financial means and do not qualify for any of the public or private scholarships. Statistics show that every year approximately 10,000 young people in Switzerland cannot follow through their educational plans due to financial shortcomings.
EDUCA SWISS offers a private sector solution where lenders offer loans to students at socially acceptable interest rates, combined with a philanthropically-funded coaching program, enhancing equal opportunity in Switzerland through access to finance without restrictions regarding financial background, social class, field of study or age. EDUCA SWISS provides loans to individuals in Switzerland who do not qualify for financial support from the government or other private scholarships for their education projects.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
The approach of EDUCA SWISS is giving individuals who lack resources themselves, and do not qualify for any government support in Switzerland, the freedom to follow their educational dreams and allow them to invest in a more prosperous future. It offers an efficient and superior solution to loans or scholarships provided by the Swiss government. The combination of loans and coaching, capital and philanthropic money, allows students to access capital from individuals and institutions at reasonable interest rates and offers an attractive impact investment opportunity at relatively low risk.
EDUCA SWISS is setting an important example in the Swiss education system that market-based approaches work and often create better solutions than government. It further promotes the principles of self-determination and self-sufficiency not only to the students but its broader stakeholder base.
Grant Details
Organization: Educa Swiss
Country: Switzerland
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Enhancing Social Innovation in Conflicted-affected Societies
Rondine Cittadella della Pace
Every year, Rondine Cittadella della Pace (Rondine) recruits 15 young leaders from the most conflict plagued and post-conflict societies to attend their World House Program in Arezzo, Italy. These students matriculate in an M.A. program at an Italian university while simultaneously partaking in Rondines globally recognized peace building process over two years. During their time of study, students develop their own social enterprise idea to implement upon return to their country.
The project aims to empower young peacebuilders and aspiring social innovators to become agents of change, especially in divided communities affected by conflict or post-conflict situations. Rondine believes that Peaceful societies are only possible when individuals are free to make their own choices and economically empowered to do so. Students receive training in conflict transformation and social innovation, as well as personal freedom, free-market economy, and prosperity.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
Rondine has concluded that to sustain peace in conflict-ridden areas, they also need to invest in social and economic development through empowering young people to become agents of change, contributing to peace processes worldwide. Through this approach, Rondine not only contributes to enhancing freedom by promoting peace, but also by advancing local economic development. Rondines World House Program includes a combination of conflict transformation and classical liberal educational activities, with the aim of not only teaching peace, freedom, and classical liberalism, but also encouraging and supporting the development of concrete international project ideas.
Over the course of the project, approximately 50 young people from conflict or post-conflict societies will undergo this training program followed by a mentorship program that is dedicated to the development of their project ideas. Finally, the best project ideas will be selected to receive funding for implementation.
Grant Details
Organization: Rondine Cittadella della Pace
Country: Italy
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
STEREOPAC
Hospital Erasme, Universit Libre de Bruxelles
This trial is a phase II-study testing the combination of mFOLFIRINOX, a chemotherapy already used to treat pancreatic cancer today, and high-dose SBRD (Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy), followed by surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy (if appropriate) in patients with an adenocarcinoma who have not undergone previous treatment for pancreatic cancer. 256 patients will be enrolled in at least 10 Belgian hospitals. The key objectives are to assess efficacy of treatment in improving success rate of the surgical intervention and increases the disease-free survival of patients.
The trial is funded by Anticancer Fund and Rising Tide Foundation within a joint effort aimed at supporting high impact clinical trials testing novel strategies in the treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) and/or biliary tract cancer (BTC*). Additional funds will be provided by the King Baudouin Foundation and Les Amis de LInstitut Bordet.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Jean-Luc van Laethem
Organization: Hospital Erasme, Universit Libre de Bruxelles
Country: Belgium
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2021
Funding Scheme: ACF
Project period: 4 years
ARCHERY
University College of London
A new study testing an innovative approach to radiotherapy treatment planning, the ARCHERY study, is evaluating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to automate several steps in the radiotherapy treatment pathway. It will assess both its quality, time and cost savings compared to the standard manual approach.
Radiotherapy is an effective treatment for many cancers. But planning a treatment that can deliver radiation to the tumour, while avoiding damage to healthy organs nearby, is a labour-intensive and highly skilled process. It requires input from expert clinicians and physicists or radiographers. This process is particularly challenging in low and middle-income countries, where there are not enough people with the necessary training and skills.
ARCHERY will test whether AI can be used to:
- Target and contour organs which need to be treated and others that need to be avoided
- Plan how to arrange the beams of radiation to deliver an effective dose to the target, while not exposing normal tissue to harmful amounts
ARCHERY will compare the quality of plans prepared using AI with current standards of care that use manual approaches. It will also gather data on the time and cost involved, to allow evaluation of the health-economic impact of this approach.
If successful, the approach could transform radiotherapy treatment planning, speeding up the process from weeks to minutes, reducing costs and allowing more patients who need treatment to be treated. It could also help improve the consistency and quality of treatment as well as enable more complex techniques to be adopted.
The AI software being used in ARCHERY has been developed by the MD Anderson Cancer Center. If found it be effective, it will be made available as a web-based not-for-profit service for public-sector and non-profit hospitals in low- and middle-income countries
ARCHERY is the first study of its kind. It will look at treatments for three high burden tumours in a global setting: over 1000 patients with head and neck cancer, cervical cancer or prostate cancer will be enrolled in hospitals in India, South Africa, Jordan and Malaysia.
The ARCHERY study, led by Dr Ajay Aggarwal, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Guys Cancer Centre/LSHTM and coordinated by the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL, is funded by the US National Institute for Health and the Rising Tide Foundation for Clinical Cancer Research (RTFCCR).
RTFCCR supports the prostate cancer arm of the study. This high burden cancer is the most frequently diagnosed in men. In low-and-middle income countries radiotherapy is the major treatment modality for it, given the paucity of urological services and the consequent predominance of advanced cancers. In addition, poor quality radiotherapy planning is directly linked to an increased risk of cancer recurrence and functional morbidity for patients, such as bladder and bowel toxicity and sexual dysfunction. For these reasons, the ARCHERY study represents a great opportunity for enabling implementation of cheaper, easier and more effective radiotherapy practice also for prostate cancer treatment in low- and medium-income countries.
Collaborating centres and partners
- MD Anderson Cancer Center (USA), Dr Laurence Court
- Ghent University Hospital (Belgium)
- UK Radiotherapy Trials Quality Assurance group
- Cape Town University (South Africa), Prof. Parkes and Prof. Simonds
- Tata Memorial Centre (India), Prof. Ghosh-Laskar
- Tata Memorial Hospital (India), Dr Mallick
- King Hussein Cancer Centre (Jordan), Dr Mohamad
- University of Malaya (Malaysia), Prof. Malik
- Stellenbosch University (South Africa)
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Ajay Aggarwal
Organization: University College of London
Country: United Kingdom
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2021
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 5 years
Biopsy, PEER, and 99mTc-sestamibi SPECT/CT to Diagnose Renal Tumors
Loyola University of Chicago
Kidney cancer, also called renal cell carcinoma (RCC), is the 9th most common cancer in the United States. Patients found to have a kidney tumor are usually treated with surgery, but not all kidney tumors are found to be RCC. Some tumors are benign, and the patient may have undergone unnecessary surgery and morbidity which could have been avoided. A problem with identifying who has cancer and who does not before surgery is the limitation of standard imaging and uncertainty on when to use biopsy.
Standard CT or MRI cannot reliably tell apart RCC from benign kidney tumors such as oncocytoma. Renal mass biopsy can be offered, but it can be invasive, non-diagnostic, and limited in how well it samples some tumors. Around 30% of patients where cancer is not found on biopsy may still have cancer based on surgical findings. This is especially common when a biopsy says "oncocytic neoplasm" because benign oncocytoma is hard to tell apart from the chromophobe subtype of RCC. No clinical trials have compared renal mass biopsy to imaging to predict who will actually have cancer at surgery.
The primary aim of our project is to evaluate and compare three different diagnostic approaches to determine if a patient has RCC before surgery. One approach is renal mass biopsy. A second approach will combine the renal mass biopsy findings (where we will stain for a marker called CD117) with an enhancement ratio measured on CT called PEER (tumor:cortex peak early-phase enhancement ratio) that has shown promise in telling apart benign oncocytoma from chromophobe RCC. The third approach will use non-invasive nuclear imaging with sestamibi (99mTc-sestamibi SPECT/CT). We will be able to compare how each of these three approaches does in correctly separating cancer from benign tumors.
The long-term goal of the study is to reduce treatment burden (unnecessary surgery, morbidity, and anxiety) for patients. With these data, we can show which approach is best to identify benign tumors before surgery so future patients diagnosed with a kidney tumor can avoid invasive surgery and have less anxiety about their diagnosis. Patient engagement to measure anxiety, discomfort, preferences, and regret will help us ensure we understand what matters most to patients. Overall, the findings of the present project will improve care for patients diagnosed with a renal tumor by determining how to spare patients from unnecessary surgery, morbidity, and anxiety while ensuring those with cancer are promptly diagnosed.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Hiten Patel
Organization: Loyola University of Chicago
Country: United States
Focus Area: Early Detection
Funding Year: 2021
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 3 years
A technology-enabled approach to enhancing outpatient symptom management in vulnerable cancer patients
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Digital health interventions (DHI), such as remote patient monitoring (RPM) have been rapidly adopted as a strategy for continuing patient-provider communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. These non- invasive approaches use mobile sensors to capture, process, and transmit measures of health states e.g heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature. RPM has already been applied to the successful outpatient of other chronic conditions such as heart failure, diabetes, and chronic lung disease. The current delivery model for cancer care is known to be very challenging for patients and caregivers due to the high rates of treatment related side-effects such as fatigue, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting, pain, and shortness of breath. These symptoms lead to poor quality of life, frequent hospitalizations, caregiver burden, and worse survival. RPM has the potential to significantly improve cancer care by enabling self-care, caregiver engagement as well as the early recognition of symptoms before they escalate.
The hope is that by collecting high-quality data in between clinic visits that are more representative of the daily experiences of patient, we will be able to garner insights that positively impact decision-making with respect to chemotherapyrelated symptoms. However, this accelerated pace of adoption has also meant that the implementation of these clinical innovations did not follow the traditional staged approach of clinical research wherein we seek to establish effectiveness under ideal conditions prior to real-work translation. There is growing concern that an unintended consequence of this widespread implementation of RPM is inattention to vulnerable communities and an ensuing "digital divide that could worsen existing health disparities. This digital divide refers to limited utilization of RPM platforms due to cultural, health literacy, low income, and English proficiency barriers. Therefore, a systematic approach is needed to understand both the effectiveness (i.e. does it work) and implementation (i.e. how does it work in which patient group roles it work best what are the accompanying trade-offs) of RPM. This hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial will accomplish this and improve the value proposition of RPM in oncology. If successful, this project will be broadly applicable to huge populations of cancer survivors in the United States by promoting a care delivery model that is proactive and patient-centered.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Susan Peterson
Organization: University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Country: USA
Focus Area: Implementation Research
Funding Year: 2021
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 3 year
Cancer and Aging Research Group Consortia (CARG) Geriatric Oncology Therapy Optimization (GOTO) Program
City of Hope
Cancer is primarily a disease of aging, with most patients with cancer being age 65 and older. Despite this, older adults remain underrepresented on cancer clinical trials and few clinical trials are specifically designed for this rapidly growing and vulnerable patient group. There is a need to develop more high-quality research studies that address the knowledge gaps for vulnerable older adults not included in most cancer trials. The Rising Tides mission to rapidly develop patient-centered clinical trials is being applied for the first time to older adults with the Geriatric Oncology Treatment Optimization (GOTO) program, presenting an ideal partnership opportunity. The Cancer and Aging Research Group (CARG; mycarg.org), the leading organization for cancer and aging scholarship in the U.S., is creating a national coalition of cancer clinical trials for older adults, the CARG National Consortia for Patient-Centered Geriatric Oncology Trials, with City of Hope National Medical Center serving as the coordination center. Building on the existing infrastructure, the CARG Coalition is developing and implementing 5 patient-centered clinical trials focused on older adults with cancer, all linked to the overall goal of using geriatric assessment (GA) to improve patient outcomes. CARG is a global group of over 600 scholars dedicated to linking together geriatric oncology researchers to improve care for older adults with cancer.
This project leverages the existing CARG infrastructure and personnel to implement 5 clinical trials in different cancers across multiple institutions across the country. Each of the trials ise led by scholars who are both CARG Coalition experts in the specific cancer types studied and in the care of older adults. All the clinical trials will include a collection of measures from the CARG GA, multidisciplinary team interventions, and partnership with patient partners to ensure each clinical trials addresses the needs and desired outcomes that are most important to patients. CARG is closely partnered with a long-standing patient stakeholder group specifically for geriatric oncology, the Stakeholders for Care in Oncology and Research for our Elders board (SCOREboard). From the beginning and throughout the development of this program, we are working with SCOREboard members to ensure that each of the 5 clinical trials in GOTO are patient-centered and address the needs of older adults with cancer. This opportunity from Rising Tide allows us to establish a cancer clinical trial network to conduct collaborative research in older adults across the country, leading to the lasting ability to conduct and coordinate larger trials for older adults with cancer in the future. This program will serve as a national model on conducting clinical trials focused on older adults with cancer.
A sixth arm has been recently added to evaluate the efficacy of geriatric-assessment driven supportinve care for outpatients in Brazil.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: William Dale
Organization: City of Hope
Country: USA
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2021
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 6 year
Empowering Women and Communities through Property Rights
Landesa
West Bengal has digitized most land records and developed an on-line platform for citizens to access records and transfer rights from sale or inheritance. Unfortunately, many of the digitized records are inaccurate. Women are particularly affected, as their names are rarely listed as co-owners or heirs on older records, which means many are not able to legally claim land and leverage it to improve their economic and social conditions. Landesa is an international non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of the worlds poorest women and men by securing land and property rights and improving the institutional environment in countries around the world. They have identified an alternative path to securing property rights in West Bengal building the capacity of rural women who are members of self-help groups providing information and property records updating services, for which they will charge a small service fee. At the same time, community members will gain access to the information they need quickly and at a lower cost by working with a member of their community.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
This project will help to secure the land and property rights of up to 300,000 men and women living in the Indian state of West Bengal by scaling a new, entrepreneurial approach to strengthening land records. A strong and secure system of private property rights is widely recognized as part of the essential foundation of a free and prosperous society. It enables autonomous decision making, allowing individuals and families the freedom to choose how to use the resources they control to improve their lives and, in the process, enabling more and different kinds of entrepreneurship. Importantly, providing more secure rights to property devolves power and enables women and men to have a room, a home, a field, a factory of their own; a place largely free from the interference of those in authority, as is essential to protecting and preserving privacy and freedom (as Hayek says in The Road to Serfdom).
Read more about this project and how it transforms lives of West Bengali communities here
Grant Details
Organization: Landesa
Country: India
Funding Year: 2020
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Liberty in Action
Universidad Francisco Marroquin
There is often a disconnect between classical liberal theory and its application in the real world. At the same time, there is a prevailing tendency for individuals to look towards government as the normative solution to complex social challenges. The Liberty in Action project from Universidad Francisco Marroquin (UFM) will provide a collaborative hands-on, multidisciplinary student experience that will develop bottom-up solutions to social challenges using classical liberal principles. Through the CoLab, students will drive innovative solutions to existing social problems in Guatemala that are private, voluntary, and free-market.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
Each individual is unique, inherently social, and has the capacity for creative activity. The Liberty in Action project, through the CoLab, will place an emphasis on these defining aspects of the human person to develop bottom-up solutions to complex social challenges where top-down bureaucratic programs and schemes have typically served as the default.
The program will impact the landscape of freedom in two tangible ways: (1) students at UFM will increase their appreciation and understanding of market principles through active and experiential learning, and (2) projects developed through the CoLab will accelerate human progress through market-based solutions that reduce the scope and desire of government intervention.
In the long-term, UFM aims to cultivate a mindset shift by demonstrating the viability and practicality of market-based solutions to complex social problems. They aim to reach thousands through market-based interventions that materially improve human lives.
Grant Details
Organization: Universidad Francisco Marroquin
Country: Guatemala
Funding Year: 2020
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Scholarship Program
Fundacion Educacion
High-quality tertiary education provided by private institutions is nearly inaccessible to the vast majority of the population in Latin America. This erects a barrier to disadvantaged youth in Latin
America that proves hard to overcome. Fundacion Educacion, through providing scholarships to young and promising students from low-income families, seeks to unlock the potential of select disadvantaged Latin American youth, cultivating new perspectives that serve as a catalyst for job creation, increase in innovation, and greater economic growth. Students that receive support from Fundacion Educacion sign a so-called Compromiso de Honor through which they commit to voluntarily repay their bursary so that new students can be supported. Rising Tide will finance the tertiary education of 15-20 students over the next three years.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
Access to quality education is foundational for advancing freedom and prosperity. Through this scholarship program, Fundacion Educacion is equipping high-capacity underprivileged youth with the resources they need to realize their potential in the marketplace. As they only partner with local universities and technical schools that are firmly steeped in principles of entrepreneurship, the free market economy, and democracy, scholarship recipients will be inculcated with classical liberal values throughout their tertiary education.
As students complete their education, Fundacion Educacion expects 95% of their scholarship recipients to find well-paid employment with a 98% graduation rate. These students will contribute to the prosperity of their own families as well as their countries' economic and social progress.
Grant Details
Organization: Fundacion Educacion
Country: Latin America
Funding Year: 2020
Project Duration: 4 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
Empowerment of Individuals
The Wildlife Tourism College of Maasai Mara
Basecamp Explorer Foundation
The Wildlife Tourism College (WTC) in Kenya's Greater Maasai Mara region, one of the last major wildlife refuges on earth, aims to develop an innovative, sustainable, long-term method of wildlife conservation which simultaneously maintains economic freedom and mobility for the Maasai people. The WTC is part of a broader initiative in the Mara region to preserve, sustain, and scale the triple-use Pardamat Conservation Area (PCA), where wildlife, livestock and people live together in harmony. The campus merges a teaching college - targeting the 80% of unemployed among Maasais from 18 to 35 years of age paired together with an educational tourism camp for international students and volunteers where profits realized go directly to supporting the college and the community. The hoped-for success of the triple-use conservation area counts on sustainable socio-economic growth through education, employment, and for-profit tourism, all of which the area lacks significantly.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
This project is an example of a non-governmental/private sector solution to a tragedy of the commons situation that had resulted in a loss of biodiversity and wildlife in PCA, which is in turn linked to income loss and limited potential of economic development for the local Maasai community. Based on market mechanisms, a system is developed together with the local communities, that results in socio-economic development through participation in the tourism industry and conservation of the biodiversity and wildlife in PCA.
Grant Details
Organization: Basecamp Explorer Foundation
Country: Kenya
Funding Year: 2020
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Expansion of Self-Reliance Clubs
Freedom & Virtue Institute
The traditional approach to fighting poverty in the United States is through the alleviation of symptoms rather than employing strategies that seek to enhance human flourishing. This approach sees the poor as objectsobjects of pity, compassion, and charityinstead of seeing
the poor as subjects, the protagonists of their own lives. As Ismael Hernandez says, self-reliance is in eclipse todaythis directly affects outcomes in education, health, and security. The Freedom & Virtue Institute has created Self-Reliance Clubs (SRCs) with the goal to integrate efforts within existing school activities by adopting the initiatives and giving them new meaning, empowering students to meet their needs through work. This allows children to better understand work as a means of wealth creation and economic opportunity.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
Many of todays social programs contribute to a prevailing mindset of victimhood and dependency. If this mindset is to be shifted in the future, it must start with childrenthey must be sent a contrary message. A message that tells them they have what it takes to meet their needs, that they are agents of choice.
Through SRCs, the Freedom and Virtue Institute will connect children to practical projects that connect reward to accomplishments. As the SRCs follow students year after year, they continue a journey of engagement and discover that they are engines of wealth creation.
The Freedom & Virtue Institute aims to launch over 200 SRCs and impact up to 5,000 students with their activities over the next three years. This will equip young individuals with character traits and virtues that facilitate enterprise and the love of freedom that motivates them to become free and productive citizens, entrepreneurs, and workers.
Grant Details
Organization: Freedom & Virtue Institute
Country: United States of America
Funding Year: 2020
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Phase III randomized clinical trial for stage III epithelial ovarian cancer - OVHIPEC-2
Copenhagen University Hospital
Over 75% of the patients with epithelial ovarian cancer are diagnosed with advanced disease that has spread beyond the ovaries to the peritoneal surface (stage III-IV). Optimal treatment for advanced disease involves surgery and six cycles of intravenous chemotherapy. The overall 5-year survival is 30-40% for patients with advanced stage disease. The chance of getting recurrent disease within two years is 80%. To improve outcome, additional strategies for these patients are warranted. Supplement with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) to interval debulking surgery (IDS) improve the progression free survival and overall survival in patients with stage III ovarian cancer. The impact of HIPEC in addition to primary debulking surgery (PDS), is still uncertain.
Objective: The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of HIPEC on overall survival when added to primary cytoreductive surgery in patients with FIGO stage III ovarian cancer who are eligible for primary cytoreductive surgery resulting in no residual.
Study design: An international, randomized, un-blinded, phase III trial, including 538 patients with ovarian cancer stage III for whom upfront surgery is feasible.
Intervention: PCS with HIPEC is performed with cisplatin (100mg/m2) for 90 minutes at a temperature of 41-42oC in the abdominal cavity at the end of surgery.
Main study endpoints: Primary endpoint is overall survival. Secondary endpoints are recurrence-free survival, time to subsequent anticancer treatment, toxicity and morbidity. Time to second subsequent anticancer treatment, quality of life analysis and economic- and cost evaluation are exploratory endpoints.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Berit Mosgaard
Organization: Copenhagen University Hospital
Country: Denmark
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2020
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 4 years
Central Pathology Review of FFPE tumor blocks within the POSITIVE study
International Breast Cancer Study Group
Pregnancy is a major concern for premenopausal breast cancer survivors. Conception after breast cancer in women with hormone receptor positive (HR+) disease is affected by the standard 5-10 years of anti-hormonal therapy during which pregnancy is contraindicated.
The POSITIVE study evaluates whether it is safe, in terms of risk of breast cancer recurrence, to temporarily interrupt adjuvant endocrine therapy to attempt pregnancy. It is also an exceptional opportunity to investigate the biology of breast cancer in young patients, a subset that is well-known to be biologically distinct, yet poorly studied particularly at the molecular and genomic level.
The Central Pathology Review is a crucial component of multicenter tumor trials. Therefore, within the POSITIVE Study, it is integral to centrally collect patient tumor tissue and review tumor biological characteristics (such as ER, PR, Ki67 and HER2) alone and in combination with clinical-pathological parameters (grade of tumor, size of tumor, nodal status and patient age). The aim is to evaluate whether treatment interruption for some women with high-risk tumors may be detrimental and whether pregnancy might modify the risk of cancer relapse.
The data obtained will therefore permit individualized assessment of patient outcomes according to the biologic characteristics of the tumor as well as a better understanding of the overall results of the POSITIVE study. In addition, the results of the Central Pathology Review will enable future molecular subtyping in order to better tailor treatment in this population and help future patients fulfill their motherhood wish, without risking breast cancer relapse.
Impact
POSITIVE trial provides prospective data showing that the temporary interruption of endocrine therapy to attempt pregnancy after hormone receptorpositive early breast cancer does not appear to increase the risk of recurrence or of contralateral breast cancer in the subsequent 3 years.
The early results of the POSITIVE trial represent an important breakthrough in the treatment of young women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. It is the first study providing encouraging guidance for women with breast cancer who want to have a baby.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Giuseppe Viale
Organization: International Breast Cancer Study Group
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Disease and Treatment Burden
Funding Year: 2020
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 2 years
TAXIS
University Hospital Basel
Worldwide more than 450000 patients are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. It accounts for one-third of all cancer diagnoses among women and causes more than 130000 deaths per year. Until the mid-nineties, the complete removal of all lymph nodes in the armpit was the standard treatment for patients with breast cancer, causing massive morbidity in one-third of patients with decreased quality of life. Over the past 25 years, this radical operation was slowly abandoned in patients without tumor signs in their lymph nodes. However, it is still standard of care in patients with cancer detected in their lymph nodes before surgery.
This study addresses the questions if radical surgery of the lymph nodes can be safely replaced by a novel limited surgery concept called tailored axillary surgery in combination with radiotherapy, and if this new treatment combination results in better quality of life compared to the standard radical procedure. One half of the 1500 patients will undergo radical surgery and the other half will receive the new combination treatment.
If this study is positive, it is likely to establish a new worldwide treatment standard with less side effects and better quality of life, while maintaining the same efficacy as radical surgery. This would help to decrease surgical overtreatment of patients with breast cancer on a global scale.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Walter Weber
Organization: University Hospital Basel
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2020
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 5 years
Correlative studies of an open label Phase 1 study in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG)
University Children's Hospital Zurich
There is an urgent need to develop and evaluate new therapies for children with brain tumours given their high mortality rates. This is particularly true for Diffuse Midline Gliomas (DMGs), which include Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas (DIPGs), which affect over 2,000 children and young adults in the US and Europe every year. Sadly, despite decades of research, there are no effective treatments for this disease and over 90% of children die less than 2 years from being diagnosed.
Promising drugs and treatment strategies are emerging, but they require extensive research at the preclinical stage. This is both to understand the mechanisms of action of these drugs, but also to identify clinically relevant predictive biomarkers of drug efficacy. Clinically relevant predictive biomarkers allow us to gauge, in real time, how well they will respond to treatment.
Our project's aim is to assess tumor response to therapy. Such studies will allow for designing more effective therapies for patients diagnosed with DMG. Our study is designed as a multi-arm trial based on different disease stages to provide access for the largest possible population of patients. This trial offers a new and promising agent to children in Europe where little to no innovative therapies are available, and limited clinical phase 1 trials are open. The results of our study will have a global impact on treatment strategies for children suffering from DMGs.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Javad Nazarian
Organization: University Children's Hospital Zurich
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2020
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 6 years
Predictors of response to neoadjuvant therapy in melanoma
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Clinical stage III melanoma patients have poor outcomes when treated with upfront surgery and adjuvant therapy. Neoadjuvant, or pre-operative therapy, can potentially improve outcomes for this high-risk patient population. Researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Melanoma Institute of Australia have recently reported that approximately 50% of clinical stage III melanoma patients with BRAF V600 mutated disease achieve a pathologic complete response (pCR) or complete melanoma death, after exposure to neoadjuvant dabrafenib and trametinib (DT) treatment. Patients who do have pCR have improved survival outcomes compared to those that do not have a pCR. We do not understand which features will predict development of pCR but have identified preliminary molecular, immunological and pathologic data in pre-treatment tumors we believe may be predictive of long-term outcomes. Additionally, while pCR patients are less likely to develop relapse than non-pCR patients, there are still some pCR patients who relapse, and we believe there are distinct features in these patients surgical samples that determine subsequent relapse risk. Finally, patients who do not achieve a pCR are at higher risk of developing CNS metastases at time of relapse. We believe there are features in their tumor specimens which evolve over the course of therapy and identification of these factors will predict the risk of CNS relapse. Together, these studies aim to inform mechanisms of treatment response and resistance to BRAF targeted therapy, will enhance the field of neoadjuvant therapy, identify risk of CNS metastasis formation and ultimately improve melanoma patient outcomes.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Rodabe Amaria
Organization: University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Country: United States
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2020
Funding Scheme: MRA
Project period: 3 years
OLIGORARE - Stereotactic body radiotherapy in addition to standard of care
EORTC
Metastatic cancer can range from a single metastasis to widely disseminated metastases, making it the leading cause of cancer death. Oligometastases are considered an intermediate state between locoregional cancer and widespread metastases with a limited number of lesions and organs involved. Retrospective studies have shown that aggressive metastasis-directed therapy (surgery or radiation) added to standard of care systemic therapy achieved long-term survival or even cure in about one quarter of the patients. Evidence is mostly based on the common cancer sites: lung, colorectal and prostate cancers. It has however been proposed that this intermediate oligometastatic cancer stage may also exist in other cancer types, opening a curative window for many more cancer patients.
The 1945-OligoRare is an academic clinical study led by the EORTC in 6 countries in Europe (BE,CH,IT,DE,FR,UK) with a transatlantic collaboration with British Columbia Cancer Agency in Canada. It will be the first study to use the stereotactic body radiotherapy -SBRT- approach (targeted radiotherapy) in cancers where the oligometastatic state is uncommon, thus where data is severely lacking. Patients with oligometastatic cancer, including all solid cancer types except lung, breast, colon and prostate cancer will be eligible.
Its primary objective is to assess if the addition of SBRT improves the overall survival compared to the standard of care treatment alone, in eligible patients with a maximum of 5 oligometastatic lesions. A total of 200 patients will be recruited over a period of 5.5 years.
Further information can be found here
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Matthias Guckenberger
Organization: EORTC
Country: Belgium
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2020
Funding Scheme: ACF
Project period: 5 years
SHortening Adjuvant PHoton IRradiation for Breast Cancer: The SAPHIRe Trial
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Women found to have breast cancer in their lymph nodes are often advised to receive radiation therapy to the lymph nodes to decrease the chance of cancer recurrence and improve survival. Because of the length of treatment (at least five weeks) and the side effects of treatment (tiredness, arm swelling, and skin and tissue changes), some women who may benefit from radiation therapy do not receive it.
An innovative shorter-duration radiation treatment regimen that delivers larger daily doses of radiation to the lymph nodes (called hypofractionation) may allow women to get the radiation they need while reducing the duration and toxicity of treatment. The SAPHIRe trial (Shortening Adjuvant PHoton IRradiation) is a randomized, clinical trial of shorter-duration (three-week) versus standard-duration (five-week) radiation therapy in 842 patents receiving radiation therapy to the lymph nodes for invasive breast cancer conducted at academic and community practices across the United States. The women who choose to take part in this trial will be assigned to one of these two treatments and will complete questionnaires about their side effects, physical function, quality of life, and financial well-being. They will also be evaluated for treatment complications, development of arm swelling (lymphedema), and cancer status. The trial is designed to demonstrate shorter-duration radiation to the lymph nodes provides similar cancer control while reducing the side effects and burden of treatment.
The development of a less toxic, less costly, more convenient, shorter-duration regimen is expected to reduce the burden of treatment and increase the utilization of curative radiation.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Karen Hoffman
Organization: University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Country: United States
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2020
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 5 years
Investing in Agricultural Enterprises to Build Rural Prosperity in Colombia
Root Capital
Colombia is the worlds third largest producer of coffee by volume, and a leader in quality; the coffee sector is the largest source of rural employment. And yet, farmers contend with significant challenges: small plots of land, high costs, stagnating yields, and stifling government intervention. Colombias National Federation of Coffee Growers (the Federation) provides government subsidies to farmers, including low-cost credit and free inputs, on the condition that farmers export exclusively through the Federationmaking those farmers subject to its largely undifferentiated international marketing strategy, and hurting the relative competitiveness of those who seek out other options.
Root Capital is aiming to unlock local prosperity by empowering enterprises representing thousands of small farmers to fulfill their potential in rural communities where the governmental structures of the Federation have often hindered their prospering. The credit plus capacity model helps eliminate obstacles for creative individuals in remote rural communities by equipping coffee enterprises to pursue an alternate, market-driven path through business advisory services in combination with access to finance.
No matter an enterprises stage of growth, increased access to credit builds the essential foundation for independence, competitiveness, and resilience. Root Capitals loans enable enterprises to pay their supplying small farmers higher prices for premium coffee than the Federation offers, and to pay them upfront and on time for their crop. These practices lead farmers to sell their crop consistently to the enterprise, and helps the enterprise hone the quality of its supply, boosting its reputation and market share with specialty coffee buyers.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
Investing in underserved agricultural enterprises by building their entrepreneurial capacity and increasing their access to finance transforms individual lives: it enhances enterprises ability to create opportunity for thousands of people in rural communities, through quality employment for enterprise workers and improved market access for farmers. With growth and increased capacity, enterprises can improve farmer livelihoods while also increasing resilience, sustainable resource use, and market-driven social impact.
Grant Details
Organization: Root Capital
Country: Colombia
Project Name: Investing in Agricultural Enterprises to Build Rural Prosperity in Colombia
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Entrepreneurship Mini Quest Curriculum
Acton Academy Foundation
Research shows that Americans have become more risk-adverse, less adventurous, more static, and less entrepreneurial. The share of Americans under 30 who own a business has fallen 65 percent since the 1980s. This decline in entrepreneurship in America is a troubling sign. The Acton Childrens Business Fair is reigniting the entrepreneurial spirit in the United States by inspiring children to develop a taste for entrepreneurship at a very young age. Moreover, it showcases the power of entrepreneurship for tens of thousands of visitors worldwide. Since the Acton Childrens Business Fair was started in 2007, it has grown to 455 fairs around the world, serving 23,022 young entrepreneurs in 206 cities and 12 countries.
The Acton Childrens Business Fair of Washington, D.C. is a one-day showcase of the power of entrepreneurship for children. Children ages 6-14 create a business, sell to real customers, and keep the profits. Organizers provide outdoor tents and tables. Along the way children learn about entrepreneurship, but more importantly, about themselves and their character. Over the past four years, the Acton Childrens Business Fair of Washington, D.C. has grown to become the largest one-day childrens entrepreneurship event in the world, hosting around 125 young entrepreneurs who serve over 3,000 customers each year.
To further deepen childrens entrepreneurial understanding, Acton Academy is developing a new prototype curriculum an Entrepreneurship Mini-Quest. It will guide children in a four-week series of fun challenges that help them create a business for the Acton Childrens Business Fair, sell to real customers, connect their activity to larger principles of entrepreneurship, and reflect on lessons learned.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
With entrepreneurship on the decline in the United States, this project inspires and empowers children to view themselves as active protagonists instead of passive participants. By convincing children that problems are best solved by private individuals engaging in peaceful, voluntary transactions, the Acton Childrens Business Fair cultivates a mindset shift that will make bureaucratic top-down solutions to social problems unattractive for these students in the future. As children participate in an open market, selling their goods to customers, they are forced to make difficult decisions, engage in peaceful and voluntary transactions, and fail or succeed on their own. Through this, children learn that they have the power to write their own story and that they are free persons with creative capacity.
Grant Details
Organization: Acton Academy Foundation
Country: United States
Funding Year: 2020
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Eradicate Barriers to Economic Freedom for Women
Atlas Network
Although extensive data on economic freedom is available, much of it lacks on-the-ground expertise and the moral commitment to reforming discriminatory and oppressive policies that disproportionately affect women. Atlas aspires to change that by providing real-world examples that document how economic liberty empowers and elevates women by creating opportunity, growth, and prosperity. Their vision is to break down the legal obstacles that prevent women from equal rights and opportunities. Using their successful grant program Liberating Enterprise to Achieve Prosperity (LEAP) as a model, they're challenging their partners to (1) identify projects that would improve their country's rank on the Gender Disparity Index and other indices, (2) create and implement reform strategies, and (3) publicize non-governmental solutions that help reduce poverty among women.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
In too many countries, women find themselves enslaved by circumstance rather than free to make autonomous decisions. This project aims to reduce the opportunities and reasons for authorities to repress women as they try to better their lives. Solutions designed to improve the rights and living standards of women often focus on doling out more aid money, only to fail because local policies and customs prevent women from taking advantage of their own talents. This project would illustrate the value of targeting specific repressive public policies that make it impossible for women to forge their own paths out of poverty.
Atlas Network believes that institutional change is unlikely to last if imposed by outsiders who are unfamiliar with local customs. Change must be developed from within, both to ensure buy-in and, more importantly, to discover the unique cultural mechanisms necessary for informal norms to transition smoothly to well-functioning formal systems. By working with local institutions to build support for change, the project is laying a lasting foundation for freedom to flourish.
Grant Details
Organization: Atlas Network
Country: United States of America
Funding Year: 2019
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Career Pathway Grants in Symptom Management
Conquer Cancer Foundation
Career Pathway Grants in Symptom Management
The goal of this program is to recruit and retain individuals committed to conducting symptom management research. This unique approach will support young physician-scientists at a critical time in their academic careers when they transition from training to principal investigators and begin to set up labs of their own.
The recipients of the 2020 Conquer Cancer Rising Tide Foundation for Clinical Cancer Research Career Pathway Grants in Symptom Management are:
Antonio Di Meglio, MD, Institut Gustave Roussy
A Comprehensive Bio-behavioral Approach to Tackle Cancer-related Fatigue in Breast Cancer Survivors
Mentor: Ines Vaz-Luis, MD, PhD
Nicole Grogan, MD, University of Michigan Cancer Center
A Single Center Phase 2 Trial to Evaluate Use of Cannabidiol (CBD) to Treat Aromatase Inhibitor-Associated Musculoskeletal Symptoms (AIMSS) in Early Stage Breast Cancer Patients
Mentor: Norah Lynn Henry, MD, PhD
Daniel Lage, MD, MSc, Massachusetts General Hospital
A Care Transition Intervention for Hospitalized Patients with Advanced Cancer
Mentor: Jennifer Temel, MD
Risa Wong, MD, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
SuPPORT: Screening for Psychosocial Distress in Prostate Cancer and Offering Referrals for Treatment
Mentor: John Gore, MD, MS
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Nancy Daly
Organization: Conquer Cancer Foundation
Country: United States
Focus Area: Disease and Treatment Burden
Funding Year: 2019
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 4 years
Optimizing Neurofeedback to Treat CIPN
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is often a side effect of cancer treatment and can diminish a patients quality of life (QOL) by affecting everyday activities such as driving a car, putting on clothing, using utensils, and walking. CIPN also leads to treatment delays, dose reductions, and chemotherapy discontinuations which negatively affect treatment outcomes. Only two therapies have been shown to be effective to treat CIPN, neurofeedback (NFB) and duloxetine. Neurofeedback is a treatment that is customized to the individual, relatively inexpensive, non-invasive, and provided alongside conventional medicine. It is a reward system comprised of a brain-computer interface where participants are taught to change activity in brain regions that contribute to symptom perception. In our prior studies of NFB to treat CIPN, we found that patients with CIPN can learn to control activity in brain areas that are associated with CIPN, leading to QOL improvements such as restoration of normal exercise and recreational activities. This project aims to address three major obstacles to clinical improvement in CIPN symptoms. First, this project will help us understand CIPN at the level of individual brain function and will explore neurofeedback training in conjunction with duloxetine to maximize benefit to patients. Second, we will also discover the optimal amount of neurofeedback sessions needed to result in long-term relief of CIPN in a large group of participants and across socioeconomic groups. Lastly, this project will provide valuable information on the interplay between pain perceptions, treatments, and brain function.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Sarah Prinsloo
Organization: The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Country: United States
Focus Area: Disease and Treatment Burden
Funding Year: 2019
Funding Scheme: American Cancer Society
Project period: 4 years
ECHO Telementoring to Improve Quality Palliative Care in Underserved Areas
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Patients with advanced cancer frequently experience severe multiple physical, emotional symptoms. These are associated with major morbidity in cancer care, poor quality of life, and impact overall survival. Their family members also experience physical and emotional distress. At the same time, patients and their families need to discuss the goals of care and to participate in advance care planning. These issues are even more urgent in medically underserved regions of low middle-income countries. Provision of access to quality palliative care can address these needs effectively. One of the main reasons is the lack of health professional education, training and support to health care providers taking care of this vulnerable patients. There is a great need to train the physicians, nurses, volunteers helping the patients with life limiting illnesses (palliative care clinicians) with skills required to provision of quality palliative care. We are proposing a collaborative ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) telementoring project between the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Aga Khan University(Kenya), Korle-Bu Hospital (Ghana), University College Hospital(Nigeria), Tata Memorial Hospital (India), and The African Cancer Institute (South Africa). The Palliative ECHO will consist of one-hour, twice monthly teleECHO clinics with participants ECHO. We will also examine the effects of ECHO on patient quality of life symptoms and caregiver experience over a period of 1 year.
Impact
A total of 270 patients completed the assessments, of which 58% were female, with a mean age of 56 years. The top four cancer types were breast (24.3%), gastrointestinal (20.9%), genitourinary (20.1%), and gynecological (15.7%). The ECHO palliative care intervention was associated with significant improvements in patient outcomes, including quality of life (QOL) and symptom distress.
Fifteen ECHO-Palliative Care participants were enrolled in the study: four each from Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana, and three from South Africa. Of these participants, 40% (N=6) were female. Fourteen participants were physicians, and one was a nurse. Significant improvements were also found in the health care professionals reported perceptions and practices following one year of the ECHO-Palliative Care intervention.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Yennu Sriran
Organization: The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Country: United States
Focus Area: Disease and Treatment Burden
Funding Year: 2019
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 2 years
Scholarships for Low-Income, High Potential Indian Girls
Leadership Foundation of India
According to government reports, deep-rooted gender inequality is the most pervasive form of inequality that operates in India across all classes, castes, and communities, posing a big challenge to India's potential to translate economic growth into inclusive development. To diminish gender differences in households and society, policies need to address the combined influence of social norms and beliefs, womens access to economic opportunities, the legal framework, and womens education and skills. To limit the reproduction of gender inequality across generations, it is important to reach adolescents and young adults because this is the age when they make decisions that determine their acquisition of skills, future health, economic prospects, and aspirations.
The Leadership Foundation of India invests in and empowers the next generation of women leaders in India. It primarily carries out this mission through support of its partner institution, Avasara Academy, a first-of-itskind secondary school for exceptionally talented girls in Pune, India. With a mission to empower girls of promise to lead lives of distinction and impact, Avasara Academy was established in 2011. It welcomed its first cohort of 50 students in 2015. This grant will allow 214 girls to attend the Avasara girls school over a 3 year period.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
When you give a girl, regardless of her economic status, the highest quality education possible, and equip her with skills to lead her community, she will not only change the minds of those around her, she will change the world.
Empowering young girls through scholarships to Avasara Academy will increase womens voices in society while fostering and training future women leaders. An education at Avasara Academy will facilitate the transition from school to work through job and life skills training programs and shift aspirations from exposure to role models who challenge prevailing social norms.
Grant Details
Organization: Leadership Foundation of India
Country: India
Funding Year: 2019
Project Duration: 4 years
Funding Areas
Empowerment of Individuals
Empowering Young Learners with Spoken English & Libertarian Values
Center for Civil Society
The ability to fluently read, write and speak English has emerged as a crucial determinant of opportunity, choice, employability, social inclusion and mobility in India. There are growing aspirations for English speaking even among Indias poorest - demonstrated by increasing parental preference for private schools perceived as sites for better learning and opportunity primarily because of English education. With the recent trends in the Indian economy towards service industries, there is also an increasing market demand for an English-speaking workforce. However, a large proportion of Indias people cannot read, write or speak the language - only 4 percent of the population speaks the language fluently. English language education continues be poor in low income schools with poorly trained teachers, misaligned assessments, and lack of investments. Education in India, along with the popular media and public discourse also continues to harbor a predominantly statist and socialist bias with the result that young students and teachers have had little exposure to libertarian ideas and values and an understanding of their potential to transform their lives and life chances.
The project aims to train 5,000 teachers to improve spoken English skills for students currently attending low-fee private schools in India incorporating classical liberal content into the curriculum. The project will create a mobile-based app called Bolo English with conversational English and libertarian content while also conducting in-person training for teachers and students.
Learn more about Bolo English here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZYxkCJ7A_U.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Through English proficiency, the project seeks to foster better opportunities for education and employment, as well as social inclusion and mobility amongst low-income communities. This project from the Centre for Civil Society addresses these two pervasive challenges in Indian society: (1) poor knowledge of English, particularly in disadvantaged communities, and (2) a prevalent bias towards Nehruvian socialism.
Grant Details
Organization: Center for Civil Society
Country: India
Funding Year: 2019
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Enhancing Freedom Through Quality Improvements in Low-cost Private Schools
University of Buckingham
Despite the success of low-cost private education in the developing world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, governments often attempt to hinder their growth and flourishing. One of the most frequent criticisms is that the teachers within these schools do not have the same level of training and certification as those in government schools. Critics also argue that even if most research shows that the pupils in these schools outperform those in public schools, the quality of education remains low across both sectors.
The University of Buckingham, in partnership with the Association for Formidable Educational Development (AFED) in Nigeria, and the Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA) in India is seeking to address this significant challenge by bringing an internationally recognized, educationally effective, technologically innovative, and affordable training program for educators in the low-cost private sector. The program will empower teachers and school managers and increase the quality of teaching and learning in these schools.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
The project will demonstrate to governments the commitment of the low-cost private sector to improving the quality of teaching and learning in their schools, and thus allow private school associations to argue the case for a more liberal regulatory framework. A leaner regulatory framework will empower educational entrepreneurs and school managers with the freedom to innovate and experiment.
These schools also operate under regimes where the Rule of Law is not necessarily observed, which increases the likelihood of bribery and corruption, as regulations tend to be arbitrarily applied. One way of reducing corruption is to reduce the purview of the state; this project will facilitate that process by showing that self-regulation within the private sector can lead to higher standards of education through international teacher accreditation.
The teacher training program will improve teachers potential for living independent and self-determined lives by increasing their sense of self-efficacy and self-confidence, as well as their teaching skills and marketability. Better teaching and learning outcomes in these schools will also increase the dignity and self-respect of the children involved, and better their opportunity for obtaining gainful employment, further education study or entrepreneurship. Each of these will impact on their families freedom too.
Grant Details
Organization: University of Buckingham
Country: Nigeria & India
Funding Year: 2019
Project Duration: 4 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Identifying Best Practice for Empowerment Through Entrepreneurial Freedom
University of Newcastle
It is often believed that those living in informal settlements or in households with low socio-economic status are reliant upon the state or charitable means for basic quality services. This representation of development typically hides the story of community solutions. This project focuses on three informal settlements in Delhi, India. It aims to show how communities overcome the absence of basic quality service provision by providing services themselves through community and private means as well as by developing approaches to enterprise and employment that circumvent the need for formal provision.
What is important for development is freedom of choice and freedom to control ones own life. This project will promote best practice from the communities that stimulate sustainable lives overcoming barriers to employment and entrepreneurial activity. Newcastle University in partnership with Kings College London, St. Marys University, the Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence (CURE), and Indus Information Initiatives will provide knowledge for change, knowledge to inform, and knowledge to empower individuals to control their own lives.
You can find more information about this project here.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
This project will promote and enhance individual freedom in a number of ways, first it will discover how individuals, enterprises, and communities are able to provide basic services for themselves, promoting policy change that will put such private solutions at the heart of public policy. Second, by spreading best practice, it will ensure that communities can better adapt to the circumstances in which they find themselves and live lives that are characterized by gainful employment and enterprise, thus promoting empowerment, resilience, and reduced dependence. Third, by spreading best practice, it will promote approaches to providing essential basic services through the community and private enterprise. Ensuring accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability of these services for all community members including young people, women, and migrants.
Grant Details
Organization: University of Newcastle
Country: India
Funding Year: 2019
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
System Change
High fiber diet to enhance the microbiome in immunotherapy
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Patient outcomes in metastatic melanoma, the most deadly of common skin cancers, have improved dramatically with the approval of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). Nonetheless, not all patients benefit from these therapies and actionable strategies to enhance the effectiveness of ICI are urgently needed. This study seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the role of a whole foods, plant-based, fiber-rich diet on the microbiome and anti-tumor immunity in patients receiving immunotherapyTo test the impact of a whole food, high-fiber diet on systemic and anti-tumor immunity in patients with metastatic melanoma on anti-PD1.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Jennifer Leigh McQuade
Organization: University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Country: United States
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2019
Funding Scheme: Seerave Foundation
Project period: 3 years
A combined budding/T-cell score in pT1 and stage II colorectal cancer (CRC)
Bern University Hospital
In colorectal cancer, the most important parameter for prognosis and determining patient management is tumor spread according to the Tumor-Nodal- Metastasis (TNM) classification. However, the TNM system may show considerable differences in tumors within the same stage. Therefore, additional biomarkers for a more personalized risk stratification in certain CRC patient groups are needed.
Tumor budding, namely single tumor cells and small clusters of tumor cells at the invasive tumor front, is such a biomarker. However, tumor buds do not account for other factors, such as the bodys protective response. Especially T-cells, a type of inflammatory cell, have been extensively examined as a protective factor. Our own preliminary data demonstrates that a combined assessment of tumor budding and T-cell infiltrates in CRC (termed the Budding/T-cell Score or BTS) may better reflect how aggressive a tumor is than either marker alone.
In this project, we want to further investigate the BTS using graph-based deep learning. On images of slides used to diagnose CRC, graph-based representations are created based on detected tumor buds and T-cells. We believe that this approach will be beneficial for the combined assessment of tumor buds and T-cells, because it captures not only the raw count of the cells but also their structural arrangement, which, we hypothesize, might play a central role for predicting important information for patient treatment. In a third step, geometric deep learning, which extends deep learning beyond the domain of Euclidean geometry, is applied to the graphs to predict clinical endpoints, such as survival time.
Impact
Within this project, a dataset was created containing slides and tissue microarrays, with relative patients data (gender, age, disease status and disease outcome), annotated using an automated approach. For the pT1 cohort, the team could demonstrate that the algorithm outperforms current risk stratification methods. It can be used as an additional tool to include in discussion at tumor boards.
For the stage II cohort, the model performed only slightly better than current risk stratification methods. The team is planning to work on improving the model performance. The developed framework for GNN experiments, as well as the dataset has been freely shared with the research community. The team published 4 papers and 2 are in preparation.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Heather Dawson
Organization: Bern University Hospital
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2018
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 3 years
Neurocognitive & Quality of Life (QOL) in proton/photon pediatric brain tumor survivors
Massachusetts General Hospital
Brain tumors are the most common solid cancers affecting children and adolescents. Medulloblastoma and ependymoma are common brain tumors that require treatment with radiation following surgical resection. While radiation is an essential component of curative treatment, radiation to the developing brain contributes to adverse health effects that can impair quality of survivorship. There are two major types of external-beam radiation: photon-based and particle (proton) radiation. Both radiation modalities are alike in their cure rates and biological effectiveness.
However, compared with photons, proton radiation has better physical properties that localizes the radiation dose in the tumor target while sparing proximal normal tissues. We need to follow patients for a long time after treatment to determine if the dosimetric advantages of protons translate to an improvement in health outcomes. Supported by the Rising Tide Foundation, our study compares neurocognitive function and quality of life between brain tumor survivors greater than five years out from treatment with protons at Massachusetts General Hospital or with photons at Emory University Hospital.
Participants complete a comprehensive clinical evaluation, neurocognitive assessment, and PedsQL survey. DICOM radiation treatment plans are collected to assess dosimetric differences to the brain and its sub-regions. We hypothesize that patients treated with protons will have better neurocognitive outcomes and quality of life scores than patients treated with modern photon radiation due to the ability of protons to spare more normal brain. Our research will guide future treatment decisions and advocate for access to the radiation technology that maximizes quality of life for survivors.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Torunn Yock
Organization: Massachusetts General Hospital
Country: United States
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2018
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 10 years
CD38-targeted immuno-PET imaging to prevent myeloma relapse
University of Miami
This phase I/II proposal will assess the dose and safety of a combination of an antibody currently used for the treatment of multiple myeloma with a radiolabel element that will generate images on PET scan for disease detection and treatment response monitoring
The central hypothesis is that targeted imaging of CD38, which is expressed on the surface of virtually every myeloma cell, will allow non-invasive immuno-PET imaging of myeloma in human patients.
This would be a transformative, non-invasive strategy for the detection of myeloma and treatment response monitoring.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Ola Landgren
Organization: University of Miami
Country: United States
Focus Area: Early Detection
Funding Year: 2018
Funding Scheme: LLS
Project period: 5 years
SAKK 01/18: Reduced intensity radio-chemotherapy for stage IIA/B seminoma
University Hospital Basel
Every year around 450 men in Switzerland develop testicular cancer, which is the most common type of cancer in men aged between 18 and 35. About half of those tumors are seminomas, most of which diagnosed with the tumor confined to testis and cured by removal of the affected testis. Around 15% of all patients do however present with disease which has spread to lymph nodes in the abdomen and pelvis, thus classified as having stage II disease and requiring further treatment. Standard therapy for a stage IIA or IIB seminoma is chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The two standard treatments are not usually combined. Although these treatments are extremely effective, they are intensive and bear the risk of long-term side-effects such as damage to the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, intestines and the inner ear, or the development of a second cancer. As the patients are often young, it is particularly relevant to reduce the risk of these side-effects as much as possible. The trial SAKK 01/18 is thus examining a new therapeutic approach: the combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, with a much weaker form of each therapy being used. This combination is designed to produce high rates of local control (by means of radiotherapy) and the eradication of micrometastases (by means of chemotherapy). Additionally, the trial aims to investigate how treatment affects the patients quality of life. SAKK 01/18 is the follow-on project to the completed trial SAKK 01/10 trial. The trial is running in Switzerland and Germany and 135 patients will be included.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Alexandros Papachristofilou
Organization: University Hospital Basel
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2018
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 6 years
Development of Alternative Ablation Device
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for action towards achieving the global elimination of cervical cancer. A strategy for achieving this goal was ratified by member states in August 2020. The WHO plan calls for an aggressive approach of vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV), the single cause of cervical cancer, and screening and treatment of precancerous lesions caused by HPV infections before they progress to invasive disease. In low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), which bear 90% of cervical cancer incidence globally, it is estimated that these goals will not be reached until 2120 a century from now. One way to markedly shorten this timeline is to provide widespread high-performance testing for cervical precancer followed by immediate treatment of any abnormalities.
Currently, the most commonly used method of treatment of pre-cancer is using gas-based cryotherapy. Although gas-based therapy is effective, it is difficult to have widespread scale-up because gas tanks are heavy and difficult to transport, tanks need to be refilled and equipment requires maintenance to function properly. The purpose of this study is to examine alternatives to gas-based cryotherapy including non-gas-based cryotherapy (funded by NIH) and thermal ablation (funded by rising tide). This is a randomized controlled trial which will compare cure rates of high-grade cervical precancer after treatment with cryotherapy and the 2 alternative approaches. Upon successful completion of this trial low-cost, portable, effective treatment for cervical pre-cancer will be clinically validated. Clinically validated tools for treatment of pre-cancer are crucial for worldwide elimination.
Impact
The trial enrolled and provided free medical exams and treatment by expert gynecologists to 1,131 women with high-grade cervical precancer.
The main hypothesis of the non-inferiority of the experimental treatments was confirmed. Qualitative analysis of patient reported outcomes showed positive results. The preliminary thermal ablation evidence collected in this trial resulted in the successful approval of another 5-year grant from NIH to further optimize the device.
Furthermore, additionally funds were obtained to assess moving from cryotherapy to thermal ablation in a real-life LMIC field setting. The technology is being refined to enable clinicians to treat various lesions quickly, aiming for same-day screening and treatment. This approach could improve treatment adherence and address the challenge of patient follow-up in LMICs by reducing logistical and socioeconomic barriers. This could be particularly beneficial for cervical cancer prevention.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Miriam Cremer
Organization: Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Country: United States
Focus Area: Early Intervention
Funding Year: 2017
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 4 years
Phase 2 Study of PARP inhibition and Anti-PD-L1 Therapy in BRCAmt TNBC
Yale University
Within the past decade, the growth of immunotherapy as a method to treat cancer has been astounding. However, while new immunostimulatory therapies have shown great success in the treatment of many types of breast cancer, not all types of cancer respond. A major challenge remains identification of mechanisms to effectively treat the majority of patients with so-called "non-inflamed" breast tumors. Work in the laboratory has shown that the DNA repair ability of a tumor may impact its potential for immune recognition and sensitivity to immune therapies. We hypothesize that enhanced DNA damage and cell death induced by DNA damage repair inhibition in tumors will also enhance anti-tumor immune responses. To examine this, we are conducting a clinical trial exploring the DNA damage repair inhibitor olaparib either alone or in combination with the human monoclonal antibody atezolizumab in patients with BRCA1/2 mutated locally advanced or metastatic non-HER2-positive breast cancer. In addition to producing a prominent clinical advancement, the Rising Tide award is allowing us to perform experiments to demonstrate fundamental concepts linking DNA repair, specific genomic landscapes, and anti-tumor immune response. Ultimately, the results from this study have the potential to impact patient care by supporting the clinical development of a novel and biologically driven treatment combination to treat breast cancer.
Impact
The combination of various molecular and cellular assays allowed the investigator team to extract extremely valuable information from the enrollment of patients in the trial, even if the clinical trial aims were not reached. Results of the assays indicate an immunostimulatory effect of Olaparib on tumor tissue. These observations were published on Biochem Pharmacol, 2021, Differential immunomodulatory Effect of PARP Inhibition in BRCA1 deficient and competent tumor cells." by Alvarado-Cruz I. et al. Whole genome DNA sequencing, whole exome sequencing, and mRNA sequencing data is being integrated and analyzed.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Patricia LoRusso
Organization: Yale University
Country: United States
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2017
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 2 years
A randomized, open-label trial of a Multimodal Intervention versus standard care in cancer patients with Cachexia
University of Edinburgh
This multinational, phase III clinical trial seeks to investigate the hypothesis that a multimodal intervention delivered during chemotherapy in the advanced lung or pancreatic cancer is effective in preventing and/or delaying cancer cachexia, and as a consequence, will improve weight, food intake, physical function and quality of life.
If proven positive, the proposed cachexia intervention can be immediately adopted into current practice and can be easily implemented across the healthcare system to become the new standard of care.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Marie Fallon
Organization: University of Edinburgh
Country: United Kingdom
Focus Area: Disease and Treatment Burden
Funding Year: 2015
Funding Scheme: Marie Curie UK
Project period: 4 years
Epigenetic therapy to sensitize patients with advanced NSCLC to chemotherapy and immunotherapy targeting reversal of immune tolerance
John Hopkins University
The team had found in an earlier study that epigenetic therapy appears to sensitize patients to subsequent treatments including chemotherapy, and very excitingly, to immunotherapy, targeting reversal of immune tolerance.
Two new clinical trials will investigate an approach to reverse gene silencing associated with increased tumor growth using DNA methyltransferase inhibitor (azacitidine) and histone deacetylase inhibitor (entinostat). The first clinical trial will investigate the proposed therapy to address chemoresistance and the second trial will sensitize patients for immunotherapies. If validated, the study could in a delimited time span, introduce new therapies to radically alter the management of cancers like NSCLC.
Impact
The laboratory correlatives are an opportunity to identify mechanisms of response and which patients may benefit from this combination. The clinical trial did not meet its primary endpoint of improved 32-week PFS or increased RR.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Stephen Baylin and Julie Brahmer
Organization: John Hopkins University
Country: United States
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2014
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 4 years
Europe
Austria
Free Market Roadshow 2023
Austrian Economics Center (AEC)
The Free Market Roadshow - running for 15 years with dozens of partners throughout Europe - is a strong network of influential organizations and individuals advancing individual freedom on the continent. The joint effort of leading organizations and universities in Europe conducts an annual series of events to spread the word of freedom and prosperity to empower individuals. Prior to the pandemic, the roadshow reached 45 cities in one-year with 10,000+ attendees.
The Free Market Roadshow (FMRS) has a continuous ambition to build new networks and coalitions helping to spread the message of individual and entrepreneurial freedom, sound policy, self-responsibility and free speech all with the goal of reaching new audiences. They will host between 35 and 45 events in 2023 and hope to achieve nearly 10,000 attendees. In 2023, they will focus on growing their impact and attendee engagement, while experimenting with content innovations to attract non-traditional audiences.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Their innovative concept of touring capitals and important university cities in Europe and beyond has proven to reach the private sector (entrepreneurs and businesspeople) and empower the next generation (students). With its large network, the FMRS can play a crucial role in advancing ideas that will lead to general freedom and prosperity.
Grant Details
Organization: Austrian Economics Center (AEC)
Country: Austria
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Private Sector Solutions
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Belgium
Metastasis-directed therapy in oligoprogressive castration-refractory prostate cancer: a randomized phase 3 trial: MEDCARE
University Hospitals Leuven
Patients with metastatic prostate cancer are treated with systemic therapy, being hormonal therapy (palliative androgen deprivation therapy (pADT) with or without androgen receptor targeted agent (ARTA)) with or without chemotherapy (docetaxel). With time the sensitivity to this hormonal therapy will eventually disappear due to the out-selection of refractory tumor clones. At that time, new or progressive castration-refractory lesions become visible on imaging while the other lesions are still controlled with the ongoing systemic treatment. This disease status is defined as metastatic castration-refractory prostate cancer (mCRPC). For such patients presenting with progressive CRPC, the standard treatment is to start next-line systemic therapy (NEST) or maintain a wait-and-see policy until a point where the number of active metastasis increases, new symptomatic metastatic lesions appear, or the severity of symptoms worsens (e.g., due to growth of existing metastases). If there is a maximum of 3 progressive lesions (oligoprogressive disease), our previous research has demonstrated that metastasis-directed therapy (by targeted radiotherapy or metastasectomy) of these progressive lesions leads to a progression-free period of 17 months, in which patients do not need NEST. Additionally, quality-of-life is maintained.
Whether this increased progression-free period will result in an improved overall survival is not yet objectivated. The latter can be achieved by performing a large, randomized phase 3 trial, which is the aim of the current MEDCARE trial. MEDCARE is a randomized, open-label trial in which two equally sized groups will be compared and a total of 246 patients will be needed.
- Arm A: standard approach (active follow-up or treatment with next-line systemic therapy): to be decided upon at the multidisciplinary board.
- Arm B: metastasis-directed therapy by metastasectomy of targeted radiation therapy while continuing current systemic therapy.
The targeted radiation therapy will be performed using stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). SBRT is a specialized, technologically advanced type of external beam radiation therapy that irradiates the metastatic spot to a lethally high radiation dose. It is performed using daily image-guided radiotherapy which assures high precision, leading to better sparing of nearby healthy tissues. Consequently, SBRTinduced side effects are rare and absent in most cases. If metastasectomy (surgical removal of the metastasis) is chosen, the surgeon will determine the technique which would yield the best results. If possible, minimally invasive surgery will be the preferred option. The aim of MEDCARE is to investigate whether metastasis-directed therapy to the oligoprogressive diseases can prolong overall survival when compared to the standard-of-care approach.
In addition, side effects, quality-of-life and cost-effectiveness treatment will be prospectively evaluated during the study. As MEDCARE tries to prolong the patients life through metastasis-directed therapy, it potentially results in a huge benefit for patients suffering from metastatic castration-refractory prostate cancer. Possible (but minor) disadvantages of participating in this study are the time lost by the patient in filling out questionnaires (min 10 minutes each follow-up visit) and additional visits to the departments of radiation therapy and/or urology.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Gert de Meerleer
Organization: University Hospitals Leuven
Country: Belgium
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2023
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 6 years
REMBRANDT
Radboud University Medical Centre
The REMBRANDT trial addresses a heavy burden for the pancreatic cancer patient population. The only curative treatment option for pancreatic cancer is pancreatic surgery, in the vast majority of cases comprising pancreatic head resection. In this complex surgery, a surgeon removes the pancreatic head, the duodenum and part of the bile duct. After removal, they perform a surgical reconstruction in which three new connections (i.e. anastomoses) are being made.
This operation is associated with postoperative complications, such as delayed gastric emptying (DGE) and anastomotic leaks (e.g. postoperative pancreatic fistulas (POPF)). DGE is characterized by prolonged requirement of a nasogastric tube, inability to tolerate solid foods, vomiting and gastric distension. It is a burden for patients, impedes their recovery and may hamper the ability to undergo adjuvant chemotherapy.
A possible mean to prevent these complications after pancreatic surgery is by adding an extra anastomosis after reconstruction for pancreatic surgery, the so-called Braun anastomosis.
Working together with the patients association Living with Hope, dr. van Laarhoven and his team aims at evaluating the effectiveness of the addition of the Braun anastomosis after standard Child reconstruction in pancreatic head resection in reducing the incidence of delayed gastric emptying (DGE) and anastomotic leaks (e.g., postoperative pancreatic fistulas (POPF)).
REMBRANDT is a randomized-controlled patient-centered trial testing for superiority of the intervention. It involves 15 centers in the Netherlands, all part of the Dutch Pancreatic Cancer Group (DPCG). It plans to recruit a total of 256 patients, 128 per arm.
The ultimate goal of this study is to ameliorate the procedure of pancreatoduodenectomy with Child reconstruction so to decrease its burdensome postoperative complications.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Kees van Laarhoven
Organization: Radboud University Medical Centre
Country: The Netherlands
Focus Area: Disease and Treatment Burden
Funding Year: 2022
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 4 years
STEREOPAC
Hospital Erasme, Universit Libre de Bruxelles
This trial is a phase II-study testing the combination of mFOLFIRINOX, a chemotherapy already used to treat pancreatic cancer today, and high-dose SBRD (Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy), followed by surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy (if appropriate) in patients with an adenocarcinoma who have not undergone previous treatment for pancreatic cancer. 256 patients will be enrolled in at least 10 Belgian hospitals. The key objectives are to assess efficacy of treatment in improving success rate of the surgical intervention and increases the disease-free survival of patients.
The trial is funded by Anticancer Fund and Rising Tide Foundation within a joint effort aimed at supporting high impact clinical trials testing novel strategies in the treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) and/or biliary tract cancer (BTC*). Additional funds will be provided by the King Baudouin Foundation and Les Amis de LInstitut Bordet.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Jean-Luc van Laethem
Organization: Hospital Erasme, Universit Libre de Bruxelles
Country: Belgium
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2021
Funding Scheme: ACF
Project period: 4 years
OLIGORARE - Stereotactic body radiotherapy in addition to standard of care
EORTC
Metastatic cancer can range from a single metastasis to widely disseminated metastases, making it the leading cause of cancer death. Oligometastases are considered an intermediate state between locoregional cancer and widespread metastases with a limited number of lesions and organs involved. Retrospective studies have shown that aggressive metastasis-directed therapy (surgery or radiation) added to standard of care systemic therapy achieved long-term survival or even cure in about one quarter of the patients. Evidence is mostly based on the common cancer sites: lung, colorectal and prostate cancers. It has however been proposed that this intermediate oligometastatic cancer stage may also exist in other cancer types, opening a curative window for many more cancer patients.
The 1945-OligoRare is an academic clinical study led by the EORTC in 6 countries in Europe (BE,CH,IT,DE,FR,UK) with a transatlantic collaboration with British Columbia Cancer Agency in Canada. It will be the first study to use the stereotactic body radiotherapy -SBRT- approach (targeted radiotherapy) in cancers where the oligometastatic state is uncommon, thus where data is severely lacking. Patients with oligometastatic cancer, including all solid cancer types except lung, breast, colon and prostate cancer will be eligible.
Its primary objective is to assess if the addition of SBRT improves the overall survival compared to the standard of care treatment alone, in eligible patients with a maximum of 5 oligometastatic lesions. A total of 200 patients will be recruited over a period of 5.5 years.
Further information can be found here
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Matthias Guckenberger
Organization: EORTC
Country: Belgium
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2020
Funding Scheme: ACF
Project period: 5 years
Bosnia & Herzigovina
Denmark
Future of Free Speech Project
Justitia
Freedom of expression and internet freedom have been in global decline for more than a decade, endangering one of the most important and contested values of human civilization. In a global survey with 50,000 respondents in 33 countries, Justitia found that support for free speech in the abstract is very high but drops substantially when put to the test against controversial speech and trade-offs.
Freedom House's 2021 report found that authorities in at least 48 countries pursued new rules for tech companies on content, data, and competition over the past year. With a few positive exceptions, these rules are being exploited to subdue free expression and gain greater access to private data. Large tech companies have undermined the practical exercise of free speech of millions of people around the world through increasingly opaque and inconsistent enforcement of constantly changing content moderation standards.
The current threat to free-speech is prevalent in democratic societies. Democracy across the globe depends on vibrant and free exchange of ideas, information, and cultural understanding that can only occur if people feel free to engage across diverse attitudes and opinions. Providing a freedom-oriented way to reduce harms and build a more resilient citizenry is critical if we are to prevent growing risks of censorship under new technological capacities.
This project will create a free-speech toolkit of non-restrictive measures, designed to combat harmful speech by focusing on constructive counter speech. The objective is to build a resilient culture of free speech able to withstand the challenges arising from the revolution in communication technology, declining respect for free speech in democracies, and the spread of authoritarianism.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
This project offers an alternative to government censorship by empowering individuals and local communities to make decentralized decisions about content moderation at the expense of centralized censorship by private mega-platforms and/or governments. This project challenges the prevailing narrative that free speech is a threat to society by putting forth concrete outputs empowering governments, companies, civil society organizations, and minority groups to use freedom of expression as a non-restrictive way to efficiently combat hatred, disinformation, and authoritarian propaganda in the digital age.
Justitia believes that individual rights and human dignity can be exercised only in a society where one can freely express and contribute to the marketplace of ideas with their thoughts on religion, philosophy, and politics without the oppressive policing of contrary and unpopular opinions that challenge preconceived ideas. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass said that To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. This project will demonstrate that free speech is a right of the speaker and a collective right of everyone to receive information.
Grant Details
Organization: Justitia
Country: Denmark & Global
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Private Sector Solutions
Phase III randomized clinical trial for stage III epithelial ovarian cancer - OVHIPEC-2
Copenhagen University Hospital
Over 75% of the patients with epithelial ovarian cancer are diagnosed with advanced disease that has spread beyond the ovaries to the peritoneal surface (stage III-IV). Optimal treatment for advanced disease involves surgery and six cycles of intravenous chemotherapy. The overall 5-year survival is 30-40% for patients with advanced stage disease. The chance of getting recurrent disease within two years is 80%. To improve outcome, additional strategies for these patients are warranted. Supplement with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) to interval debulking surgery (IDS) improve the progression free survival and overall survival in patients with stage III ovarian cancer. The impact of HIPEC in addition to primary debulking surgery (PDS), is still uncertain.
Objective: The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of HIPEC on overall survival when added to primary cytoreductive surgery in patients with FIGO stage III ovarian cancer who are eligible for primary cytoreductive surgery resulting in no residual.
Study design: An international, randomized, un-blinded, phase III trial, including 538 patients with ovarian cancer stage III for whom upfront surgery is feasible.
Intervention: PCS with HIPEC is performed with cisplatin (100mg/m2) for 90 minutes at a temperature of 41-42oC in the abdominal cavity at the end of surgery.
Main study endpoints: Primary endpoint is overall survival. Secondary endpoints are recurrence-free survival, time to subsequent anticancer treatment, toxicity and morbidity. Time to second subsequent anticancer treatment, quality of life analysis and economic- and cost evaluation are exploratory endpoints.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Berit Mosgaard
Organization: Copenhagen University Hospital
Country: Denmark
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2020
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 4 years
France
Germany
Hekaton Cities
Prometheus Institute
Decades of overregulation and a misguided planning culture have made cities increasingly slow and exclusive, rather than places of openness, creativity, and exchange.
This project will advance an explorer mindset versus the planner mindset. By building a 100-day accelerator for change entrepreneurs, the Prometheus Institute will help five projects begin with meaningful funding, project management training, and mentoring to eliminate significant obstacles to individual ingenuity. It will inject practical values of entrepreneurship and polycentricity into urbanism.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Through this project, Prometheus will champion liberal solutions to urbanism and undermine the planner mindset that has dominated the field for decades. By supporting entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into reality, Prometheus will open up possibilities for bottom-up private sector solutions to tackle urban problems and influence policy leaders toward more liberal city-planning approach.
Grant Details
Organization: Prometheus Institute
Country: Germany
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Teaching Freedom
Private Sector Solutions
Greece
Greek Economics Olympiad
Center for Liberal Studies – Markos Dragoumis (KEFiM)
Greece has suffered for years from a tumultuous economic crisis spurred on by government debt and fiscal deficits. The Center for Liberal Studies (CLS) strongly believes that a lead contributor to this economic crisis and the subsequent rise of illiberal ideas and policies can be largely attributed to widespread economic illiteracy. To increase economic literacy throughout Greece, CLS is organizing the Greek Economics Olympiad and creating supplemental teaching materials, including a Greek edition of the award-winning economics textbook Economics in 31 Hours. They are also creating 31 basic economics education videos tailored to the Greek context that will be distributed on YouTube (and other platforms) for a high school audience.
CLS determined that the Economics Olympiad was the right initiative to reach their goal of achieving greater economic literacy in Greece through engaging high school students in a high quality and fun competition on basic economic concepts. Supplementary education materials will also serve to further influence Greek high school students.
The Greek Economics Olympiad was organized for the first time in the 2020-2021 academic year by CLS. The competition was launched in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and with the support of the Bank of Greece as well as the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy. The first competition attracted 1,105 students from 135 high schools from all over Greece and one school from the Greek diaspora. The Olympiad competition was mentioned 276 times in Greek media, including major television, radio, newspaper, and web outlets. Moving forward, CLS seeks to replicate and extend this success by increasing student participation while also increasing the quantity of high-quality resources available for students to gain basic economics education.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
There is a pervasive problem in Greece of a lack of basic economic literacy. Currently, throughout a typical education, students may never encounter any training in basic economics whatsoever. This is likely one reason for the great economic challenges Greece faces today. Through this project, students will receive fun, relevant education in basic economic principles which will increase their human capital while at the same time benefit Greek society into the future through a more informed and educated citizenry regarding basic economic principles. The goal of the Greek Economics Olympiad is to equip students to make important decision in both the political and personal realm that are anchored in sound economics. In just 5-10 years, at the current pace, they will have trained more than 100,000 high school students in sound economic principles in a country with a population of just 10 million.
Grant Details
Organization: Center for Liberal Studies Markos Dragoumis (KEFiM)
Country: Greece
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Italy
Enhancing Social Innovation in Conflicted-affected Societies
Rondine Cittadella della Pace
Every year, Rondine Cittadella della Pace (Rondine) recruits 15 young leaders from the most conflict plagued and post-conflict societies to attend their World House Program in Arezzo, Italy. These students matriculate in an M.A. program at an Italian university while simultaneously partaking in Rondines globally recognized peace building process over two years. During their time of study, students develop their own social enterprise idea to implement upon return to their country.
The project aims to empower young peacebuilders and aspiring social innovators to become agents of change, especially in divided communities affected by conflict or post-conflict situations. Rondine believes that Peaceful societies are only possible when individuals are free to make their own choices and economically empowered to do so. Students receive training in conflict transformation and social innovation, as well as personal freedom, free-market economy, and prosperity.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
Rondine has concluded that to sustain peace in conflict-ridden areas, they also need to invest in social and economic development through empowering young people to become agents of change, contributing to peace processes worldwide. Through this approach, Rondine not only contributes to enhancing freedom by promoting peace, but also by advancing local economic development. Rondines World House Program includes a combination of conflict transformation and classical liberal educational activities, with the aim of not only teaching peace, freedom, and classical liberalism, but also encouraging and supporting the development of concrete international project ideas.
Over the course of the project, approximately 50 young people from conflict or post-conflict societies will undergo this training program followed by a mentorship program that is dedicated to the development of their project ideas. Finally, the best project ideas will be selected to receive funding for implementation.
Grant Details
Organization: Rondine Cittadella della Pace
Country: Italy
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Lithuania
From UBI to You and I: Defending Human Dignity and Liberty
Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI)
Calls for Universal Basic Income (UBI) as an imperative solution to globalization-driven social and economic changes are mounting in Europe. The COVID-19 crisis intensified fears that technological progress would put the livelihoods of millions at risk, to the point of homelessness and starvation. Public support for UBI is now at 50 per cent and is much stronger among young people in Central and Eastern Europe. UBI is entering the political mainstream as governments and private organizations have introduced pilot programs.
LFMI acknowledges that there is polarization over the debate on UBI among classical liberal/libertarian circles and aims to promote more unified cultural narratives toward agency-based solutions to human flourishing. LFMI will bring together an international multidisciplinary team of esteemed researchers to survey, acknowledge, and respond to the concepts around UBI from libertarian/classical liberal authors and other scholars from philosophy, psychology, anthropology, history, economics, and political science.
From this, they will synthesize findings to formulate conclusions and craft fresh agency-centric narratives at the intersection of disciplines countering UBI and other universal welfare schemes. LFMI will publish a multidisciplinary collection of original essays and a practical guide with a mind map and interdisciplinary arguments They will contribute a systemic analysis of the impact on the institutional conditions relating to money, labor markets, and economic sustainability LFMI will build a microsite that will serve as a repository for interested stakeholders in academia, think tanks, media, politics, business, and civil society. Targeted marketing and communication campaigns will be conducted in Poland and Lithuania to test broader messaging around UBI among diverse circles of thought leaders and opinion makers.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
By facilitating intersectoral collaborations and enriching the intellectual and cultural discourse with new arguments, LFMI seeks to bridge the gap over UBI and shift popular narratives and policy away from statist to agency-centric solutions.
Grant Details
Organization: Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI)
Country: Lithuania & Poland
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Teaching Freedom
Norway
RAINBO blue - De-escalation of adjuvant treatment in POLE mutated endometrial cancer
Oslo University Hospital
Cancer of the lining of the uterus (endometrial cancer, EC) is the most common gynecological cancer in Europe, with almost 4000 new cases every year in the Nordic countries alone. More and more women will be diagnosed with this disease in the years to come due to the increase of risk factors such as obesity. In this RAINBO blue study we want to find out whether we can de-escalate treatment in women with a specific mutation (so-called POLE mutation). We hypothesize that they can be cured with surgery alone and can be spared for the short- and long-term side effects of chemotherapy or radiation after surgery.
The greatest challenge in the treatment of women with endometrial cancer is the lack of reproducible pathological classification. We can therefore not predict accurately enough if a woman has a high risk of the cancer returning after surgery or not. This leads to a tremendous variation in how women are treated after surgery and some women may be overtreated. A pragmatic molecular classification system [Proactive Molecular Risk Classifier for Endometrial Cancer (ProMisE)], has identified four subtypes (POLE mutated, p53 aberrant, mismatch repair deficient and a group with no specific molecular profile [NSMP). This classification system enables consistent classification and provides higher precision in prognosis, both in the risk of relapse and survival. Broad implementation of this molecular classification will help us to better tailor treatment after surgery, taking the patients risk of relapse into account. One of the molecular subgroups, women with POLE mutations (POLEmut), often have aggressive pathological features in the cancer tissue but clinical outcomes are universally good. it is unclear whether chemotherapy or radiation after surgery prolongs survival in these patients. Given the substantial acute and long-term side effects of pelvic radiation chemotherapy, there is high unmet need to identify which women can be spared for more treatment after surgery. As this group seems to have very good survival, we hope, that these women can be cured with surgery alone.
RAINBO blue, is a multi-center prospective international study including patients with POLE mutated endometrial cancer. In the study, patients are treated with surgery alone and treatment after surgery is de-escalated. We will study the clinical outcome, quality of life as well as how de-escalation impacts health care costs.
Molecular classification is still not widely implemented in the Nordic countries and we lack precision in diagnostics and treatment. Participation of the Nordic countries in RAINBO will certainly speed up implementation of state-of the art molecular diagnostic. Further, this study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of using molecular classification to de-escalate treatment after surgery in women with endometrial cancer. RAINBO blue will also generate data on patient decisional conflict, quality of life and economic implications of molecular classification-driven care that will inform future patient education and resource utilization
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Kristina Lindemann
Organization: Oslo University Hospital
Country: Norway
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2023
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 5 years
Poland
Freedom Games
Liberte! Foundation
Based on open dialogue and free discussion, Freedom Games, hosted by Liberte!, is one of the premier classical liberal events in Europe. Since 2014, the annual three-day festival has taken place in Lodz, Poland.
With a program of over 100 sessions featuring 400 speakers and drawing a diverse crowd of approximately 2,000 attendees, the event is a catalyst for change. It aims to change minds and foster a community of engaged freedom supporters in Poland and beyond. With a mix of in-person and online sessions, the event reaches a broad audience, including those from across the political spectrum who may not have been exposed to classical liberal ideas before.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Freedom Games is committed to teaching freedom by bringing together thousands of people to learn, network, and explore classical liberal ideas. The event offers a rich variety of over one hundred panels, debates, lectures, TedX-style talks, networking sessions, music concerts, and more, providing an exciting array of ways for thousands of participants to find out more about the ideas that underpin free and prosperous societies.
Grant Details
Organization: Liberte! Foundation
Country: Poland
Funding Year: 2024
Project Duration: 4 years
Funding Areas
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Freedom Games 2023
Liberte! Foundation
Freedom Games is a yearly gathering in Lodz, Poland of renowned international experts and intellectuals using various conference formats from lectures to panel discussions to discuss key challenges Western societies face in the 21st century, offering a creative space for exchanging ideas on culture, economics, business, and public life with the end to advance a more free and prosperous society.
The key output of the project is the organization and execution of one edition of Freedom Games: at least 3 days of events with more than 250 speakers and at least 60 sessions available both online and in-person in a dedicated conference space, with more than 1 million online viewers of Freedom Games streaming and videos, and at least 1,500 in-person attendees.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
The Freedom Games forum has developed to become a powerful tool for promoting free-market ideas and personal freedoms while confronting individuals with other ideological currents. The 2023 Freedom Games event will show ideas important for Liberte! Foundations mission like free markets, rule of law, entrepreneurship, and the importance of big cities as engines of development and personal freedom, while supporting the idea of local governments to avoid centralization.
Grant Details
Organization: Liberte! Foundation
Country: Poland
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Teaching Freedom
Re-opening Poland: The Roadmap for Polish Immigration Policy
Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju (Civil Development Forum)
This multi-phased project of the Civil Development Forum combines research with advocacy aimed at liberalizing Polish immigration policies based on the effective reforms introduced to support Ukrainian refugees in the country. The publication and promotion of recommended legal changes in the area of migration policy would support the comprehensive framework for (non-EU) foreign employment and entrepreneurship in Poland.
The main goal is to break bureaucratic barriers and introduce changes to migration policy in Poland to enhance the smooth and effective influx of migrants. The Civil Development Forum aims to establish new narratives for the ongoing and high-priority debate on immigration in Poland. They will collaborate with local communities and governments to identify barriers and bottlenecks between local and central institutions on the regulation of the labor market and migrant entrepreneurship to create recommendations for changes in the legal system. These recommendations will reach policy- and decision-makers in Poland to influence public debate on the topic of immigration policy and ultimately change the existing approach. Through workshops, conferences, and public meetings, they will reach intellectuals, scholars, and media and business representatives, as well as local government authorities and community leaders.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
Ludwig von Mises wrote that, The principles of freedom, which have gradually been gaining ground everywhere since the eighteenth century, gave people freedom of movement. Freedom of movement gave rise to modern economic growth, unprecedented improvements in the mass standard of living, and an escape from poverty. Hindering movement can take many forms, from closed borders to various discriminating regulations that hamper buying or renting an apartment, taking up a job, or starting and running a business. Whenever there are regulations discriminating against immigrants, the basic freedom of movement is violated.
The Civil Development Forum aims to remove existing impediments to immigration in Poland by showing the benefits from immigration for both the host society and incomers, identifying barriers faced by immigrants, and offering recommendations to improve policy for employment or starting a business. If policy changes are successfully implemented, this project would lead to systems change and greater freedom, by widening the right of both residents and migrants in Poland to enter mutually beneficial relations. Migrants would be empowered through the right to use their knowledge and professional qualifications in the same way as Polish citizens. Overall, a better understanding of immigration and friendlier legislation in the labor market and for entrepreneurship will lead to a more peaceful and prosperous society.
Grant Details
Organization: Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju (Civil Development Forum)
Country: Poland
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Switzerland
Education Program For Teachers: Creative Kids Fair @SmartFeld
Association Smartfeld
Entrepreneurs testing innovative ideas in an open marketplace is crucial for creative destruction, economic growth, and societal progress. Yet, entrepreneurship is not a subject taught in Swiss primary schools. Fortunately, through its Creative Kids Fair @SmartFeld, Association Smartfeld is looking to change this. By encouraging primary-school-aged children with the opportunity to come up with a product idea, refine the innovation, create the good, and then providing a space for students to sell their products at an annual fair, Association Smartfeld hopes to get Swiss children excited about the ideas and skills of entrepreneurialism.
Together with the Rising Tide Foundation, Association Smartfeld will conduct workshops with teachers focusing on practical ways of integrating entrepreneurship into classrooms across Swiss Primary schools. This will also ensure teachers have the skills and confidence to work with their students to participate in the annual creative kids fair.
Contribution to Enhancing Freedom
This project helps to empower educators with the confidence and skills needed to teach and integrate entrepreneurship into Swiss classrooms. Similarly, the project empowers the entrepreneurs of tomorrow by equipping students with new ideas and skills to test their ideas, gain confidence, and propose new ways of creating goods that can serve others.
Grant Details
Organization: Association Smartfeld
Country: Switzerland
Funding Year: 2023
Project Duration: 2 years
Funding Areas
Empowerment of Individuals
Time4 – for individual, self-determined, self-learning, free young people
Verein "Respektierung & Wahrung Natürlicher Lernprozesse"
Many young people in Switzerland feel that the traditional pathways offered through government education are not right for them. They increasingly choose educational pathways that are outside of the traditional system. However, support for young people that choose such a self-determined educational path has been very limited in the country. Time4 offers these young people an alternative development and education path compared to traditional vocational training, apprenticeships, or middle school. The participants of Time4 plan their educational path themselves but are supported by the Time4 team and their peers in the reaching of their self-set goals.
Time4 is now working to scale its offer in supporting them along their self-determined learning paths. Designed for young people who have a strong intrinsic motivation for learning and don't fit the paths designed by public education, the program offers support through in-person meetings, clear goal-setting and monitoring. They may go and learn a new language, set up their own company, or present their art to the public often things that were previously considered not possible.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
Time4 offers an alternative to public education in Switzerland. It offers young people an environment in which they can follow their individual learning pathway towards earning their own living. This rpgram challenges the traditional system of education and offers a unique alternative with the potential to become more mainstream in the long-term.
An increasing number of young people are struggling with the pre-defined educational pathways, ending up demotivated and without objectives, as a self-determined learning path is not currently an option in the system. Time4 adds this new perspective to the Swiss educational landscape and offers young people the level of support and assurance needed that will allow them to follow pathways in a flexible manner that were unthinkable in the traditional education system. Time4 offers young people a framework in which they can discover, refine, and deepen their interests and talents. Thanks to individual, self-defined work steps and learning objectives, the young people can follow their own needs and wishes. They are given the time they need to tackle their own small and large tasks, make their own decisions, and manage the resulting consequences themselves. In it they grow up to be free and empowered adults.
Grant Details
Organization: Verein "Respektierung & Wahrung Natrlicher Lernprozesse"
Country: Switzerland
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
Systems Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Educational Video Series
Institute for Swiss Economic Policy
Objective education materials allow students to better understand the consequences of economic policies, making abstract policies such as taxes or government spending more tangible. This project, with a promising new player in the Swiss research context of economic policy, involves the creation of a twelve-part video series titled Taxes, debt and Switzerland simply explained - covering a variety of topics, including inequality, pensions, federalism, democracy, taxes, government spending, etc. The videos are aimed to be highly tangible for the student, which is ensured by starting each video lesson with a focus on how the topic is impacting the student.
The video series provides an essential individual learning opportunity for students supporting them in their recognition and understanding of economic policy interrelationships. Each five-minute video will have supporting content that includes a written summary of the topic covered and a series of exercises to ensure student understanding of the concepts introduced. The videos will be distributed through the new Swiss online learning platform Evulpo, where they will be freely available to students. Evulpo, is a young, dynamic, and fast-growing Swiss start-up that operates as a digital learning platform offering free explanatory videos, summaries, and exercises linked to the Swiss Governments education agenda for public schools.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
A free and solid basic education in economic policy issues is important for the preservation and development of our prosperity and society. This school-supplementary content from an independent authority guarantees, in addition to the scientific foundation, the greatest possible individual freedom in the acquisition of new knowledge and in the understanding of economic contexts.
Grant Details
Organization: Institute for Swiss Economic Policy
Country: Switzerland
Funding Year: 2022
Project Duration: 1 year
Funding Areas
Teaching Freedom
IELSG37 - Ukraine
Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC)
Primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) primarily affects young patients, particularly females in their 3rd to 4th decade of life. It is usually characterized by the presence of a bulky mass in the chest. Even with aggressive immunochemotherapy, the mass often does not completely disappear. Patients with refractory or relapsing disease typically have poor outcomes, so consolidation radiotherapy has been widely used to improve cure rates during initial treatment. However, this approach carries a higher risk of long-term complications such as heart diseases and second cancers.
To address the necessity of radiotherapy, the International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group (IELSG) initiated the IELSG37 randomized study. The objective was to determine whether mediastinal irradiation could be omitted in patients who achieved complete metabolic remission, as determined by a PET/CT scan, after conventional immunochemotherapy. The primary endpoint of the study was progression-free survival (PFS) at 30 months from randomization for patients who were PET-negative at the end of frontline immunochemotherapy.
The IELSG37 study is the largest prospective trial ever conducted in PMBL, which is a relatively rare condition (constituting less than 5% of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases). Over 545 patients from 74 centers in 13 countries participated in the study. Among the contributing countries, after Italy and the United Kingdom, Ukraine played a significant role in patient recruitment.
In a disease where progression or relapse beyond two years from initial treatment is extremely rare, the PFS data from the IELSG37 study are highly mature. At least 97% of patients have been followed for a minimum of 30 months after randomization. The observed difference in 30-month PFS between the radiotherapy arm (98.5%) and the observation arm (96.2%) was not statistically significant and clinically not relevant. This lack of clinical significance is supported by the fact that the 3-year overall survival was identical in both arms, at 99%. These findings suggest that omitting radiotherapy in patients who achieve complete remission is a safe approach. However, longer and careful follow-up is necessary to assess the impact of late events. The Project CCR-22-110 aims to support the collection of long-term follow-up information from the 25 Ukrainian patients enrolled in the trial.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Emanuele Zucca
Organization: Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC)
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Other Areas
Funding Year: 2022
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 6 years
Surgical versus conservative therapy for breast cancer related lymphoedema
University of Basel
The LYMPH Trial Comparison of operative versus non-operative treatments for chronic breast cancer-related lymphedema
One in five breast cancer survivors will develop chronic breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL). Chronic lymphedema results in swollen arms because water is stored in the tissue and does not drain away properly. Lymphedema is usually treated with conservative therapy, i.e. regular lymphatic drainage and the wearing of compression garments. However, many positive reports have been made worldwide using surgical treatment for lymphedema. Unfortunately, there is a lack of scientific data conclusively supporting these reports. Therefore, in our study, we investigate whether surgical treatment of BCRL significantly improves the quality of life of patients compared to conservative therapy alone. We will also investigate the relationship between the costs and benefits of surgical treatment. In our study, patients will be randomly assigned into two groups: (1) Group A, will receive surgery for lymphedema followed by standard conservative therapy. The surgical procedures include `lymphovenous anastomosis` and `vascularised lymph node transplantation`, (2) Group B, will receive conservative therapy only. Once the primary endpoint of one year has been reached, patients in Group B may opt to have surgery, an option made possible within the framework of our pragmatic study design. Participation in this study lasts 10 years, with the actual intervention and follow-up examinations taking place within the first 2 years and additional observations taking place once annually for another 8 years. We believe that robust scientific evidence through this study could bring surgical intervention for BCRL into more routine clinical practice, thus potentially increasing patient life quality to the highest standard possible.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Elisabeth Kappos
Organization: University of Basel
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2022
Funding Scheme: Swiss Cancer Research
Project period: 5 years
Influence of a home-based nutrition and exercise programme including an application for monitoring on quality of life in advanced cancer outpatients
Tumor Center, Kantonsspital Winterthur
Patients with advanced tumors are at particular high risk for malnutrition, both because of their disease and the anticancer therapy. Consequently, they may suffer from weight loss, decline in physical function due to muscle wasting, and reduced tolerance and response to anticancer treatment. A program combining nutrition and exercise could be an effective and safe strategy to prevent or treat malnutrition in cancer patients. The goal of the study is to investigate the effect of a nutrition and exercise program on the quality of life of patients with advanced tumors of the lung or the gastrointestinal tract.
These patients are often treated as outpatients, are still pursuing a profession and are active in their families and social lives. Thus, to facilitate participation, a home-based setting was chosen, and a smartphone app for data recording and monitoring was developed exclusively for this study.
Patients that participate in this study are randomly assigned to either the intervention or the control group. Participants in the intervention arm have at least two appointments each with a nutritionist and a physiotherapist. Furthermore, they receive a nutritional supplement high in protein and with added leucine and HMB (beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate, a leucine metabolite). Patients in the control arm meanwhile continue their standard therapy. Participants in both study arms record data with our study smartphone app. Assessments take place at week 0 (baseline), after the 12 weeks intervention and at week 24 as a follow-up.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Miklos Pless
Organization: Tumor Center, Kantonsspital Winterthur
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Disease and Treatment Burden
Funding Year: 2022
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 1 year
Coaching for the realization of education with professional goal
Educa Swiss
There are a growing number of individuals who are highly motivated to take another step in their education but lack the financial means and do not qualify for any of the public or private scholarships. Statistics show that every year approximately 10,000 young people in Switzerland cannot follow through their educational plans due to financial shortcomings.
EDUCA SWISS offers a private sector solution where lenders offer loans to students at socially acceptable interest rates, combined with a philanthropically-funded coaching program, enhancing equal opportunity in Switzerland through access to finance without restrictions regarding financial background, social class, field of study or age. EDUCA SWISS provides loans to individuals in Switzerland who do not qualify for financial support from the government or other private scholarships for their education projects.
Contribution to enhancing freedom
The approach of EDUCA SWISS is giving individuals who lack resources themselves, and do not qualify for any government support in Switzerland, the freedom to follow their educational dreams and allow them to invest in a more prosperous future. It offers an efficient and superior solution to loans or scholarships provided by the Swiss government. The combination of loans and coaching, capital and philanthropic money, allows students to access capital from individuals and institutions at reasonable interest rates and offers an attractive impact investment opportunity at relatively low risk.
EDUCA SWISS is setting an important example in the Swiss education system that market-based approaches work and often create better solutions than government. It further promotes the principles of self-determination and self-sufficiency not only to the students but its broader stakeholder base.
Grant Details
Organization: Educa Swiss
Country: Switzerland
Funding Year: 2021
Project Duration: 3 years
Funding Areas
Private Sector Solutions
System Change
Empowerment of Individuals
Teaching Freedom
Central Pathology Review of FFPE tumor blocks within the POSITIVE study
International Breast Cancer Study Group
Pregnancy is a major concern for premenopausal breast cancer survivors. Conception after breast cancer in women with hormone receptor positive (HR+) disease is affected by the standard 5-10 years of anti-hormonal therapy during which pregnancy is contraindicated.
The POSITIVE study evaluates whether it is safe, in terms of risk of breast cancer recurrence, to temporarily interrupt adjuvant endocrine therapy to attempt pregnancy. It is also an exceptional opportunity to investigate the biology of breast cancer in young patients, a subset that is well-known to be biologically distinct, yet poorly studied particularly at the molecular and genomic level.
The Central Pathology Review is a crucial component of multicenter tumor trials. Therefore, within the POSITIVE Study, it is integral to centrally collect patient tumor tissue and review tumor biological characteristics (such as ER, PR, Ki67 and HER2) alone and in combination with clinical-pathological parameters (grade of tumor, size of tumor, nodal status and patient age). The aim is to evaluate whether treatment interruption for some women with high-risk tumors may be detrimental and whether pregnancy might modify the risk of cancer relapse.
The data obtained will therefore permit individualized assessment of patient outcomes according to the biologic characteristics of the tumor as well as a better understanding of the overall results of the POSITIVE study. In addition, the results of the Central Pathology Review will enable future molecular subtyping in order to better tailor treatment in this population and help future patients fulfill their motherhood wish, without risking breast cancer relapse.
Impact
POSITIVE trial provides prospective data showing that the temporary interruption of endocrine therapy to attempt pregnancy after hormone receptorpositive early breast cancer does not appear to increase the risk of recurrence or of contralateral breast cancer in the subsequent 3 years.
The early results of the POSITIVE trial represent an important breakthrough in the treatment of young women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. It is the first study providing encouraging guidance for women with breast cancer who want to have a baby.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Giuseppe Viale
Organization: International Breast Cancer Study Group
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Disease and Treatment Burden
Funding Year: 2020
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 2 years
TAXIS
University Hospital Basel
Worldwide more than 450000 patients are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. It accounts for one-third of all cancer diagnoses among women and causes more than 130000 deaths per year. Until the mid-nineties, the complete removal of all lymph nodes in the armpit was the standard treatment for patients with breast cancer, causing massive morbidity in one-third of patients with decreased quality of life. Over the past 25 years, this radical operation was slowly abandoned in patients without tumor signs in their lymph nodes. However, it is still standard of care in patients with cancer detected in their lymph nodes before surgery.
This study addresses the questions if radical surgery of the lymph nodes can be safely replaced by a novel limited surgery concept called tailored axillary surgery in combination with radiotherapy, and if this new treatment combination results in better quality of life compared to the standard radical procedure. One half of the 1500 patients will undergo radical surgery and the other half will receive the new combination treatment.
If this study is positive, it is likely to establish a new worldwide treatment standard with less side effects and better quality of life, while maintaining the same efficacy as radical surgery. This would help to decrease surgical overtreatment of patients with breast cancer on a global scale.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Walter Weber
Organization: University Hospital Basel
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2020
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 5 years
Correlative studies of an open label Phase 1 study in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG)
University Children's Hospital Zurich
There is an urgent need to develop and evaluate new therapies for children with brain tumours given their high mortality rates. This is particularly true for Diffuse Midline Gliomas (DMGs), which include Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas (DIPGs), which affect over 2,000 children and young adults in the US and Europe every year. Sadly, despite decades of research, there are no effective treatments for this disease and over 90% of children die less than 2 years from being diagnosed.
Promising drugs and treatment strategies are emerging, but they require extensive research at the preclinical stage. This is both to understand the mechanisms of action of these drugs, but also to identify clinically relevant predictive biomarkers of drug efficacy. Clinically relevant predictive biomarkers allow us to gauge, in real time, how well they will respond to treatment.
Our project's aim is to assess tumor response to therapy. Such studies will allow for designing more effective therapies for patients diagnosed with DMG. Our study is designed as a multi-arm trial based on different disease stages to provide access for the largest possible population of patients. This trial offers a new and promising agent to children in Europe where little to no innovative therapies are available, and limited clinical phase 1 trials are open. The results of our study will have a global impact on treatment strategies for children suffering from DMGs.
Grant Details
Grantee Name: Javad Nazarian
Organization: University Children's Hospital Zurich
Country: Switzerland
Focus Area: Therapy Optimization
Funding Year: 2020
Funding Scheme: RTFCCR open call
Project period: 6 years