tour de cure grants

SmartyTip: Don’t miss any of your deadlines! This is one of the busiest times of the year for applications that are due by June 30 (end of financial year for many funders). Plan ahead now to avoid any rush and submit your application well before its due date.

• Tour de Cure

Welcome to Tour de Cure's online grant application service, powered by SmartyGrants.

  a nnual grants round 2024-2025 opened on 1st august 2024, tour de cure’s mission has always been to change cancer outcomes for australians. funding australia’s researchers, scientists and clinicians is how we build towards better treatment, diagnosis, prevention, and care. .

We were proud to be opening shortly a new Annual Grant Round for 2024, thanks to our passionate community, partners and fundraisers continued to support.

This year we will be welcoming Grant applications in these categories: 

• Senior Research  
• Mid-Career Scientist/Researcher  
• Early Career Scientist/Researcher 
• Postgraduate Research Students, PhD Scholarship 
• Pioneering 
• Prevention 

The Tour de Cure Grants Committee maintains an ethical, independent, and transparent selection process whilst reviewing the grant applications. Tour de Cure is committed to funding innovation and excellence. We aim to see our finite funding resources leveraged as much as possible, supporting the best Australian-based projects and researchers. Tour de Cure is a cancer agnostic organisation, in that our aim is to cure all cancers and accordingly, we consider applications for research in any cancer type. 

Our ability to continue to raise funds from our generous supporters is based on us demonstrating in the selection process that the Committee select the best projects possible and ensuring proper ongoing project governance. All Grant applications are evaluated on merit.  

An EOI (Expression of Interest) application is required for all research grant categories, these go through a first round reviewed and recommendations are made by The Grants Committee. The successful applicants are notified and then required to complete a Full Grant Application process, these are vigorously reviewed, and recommendations are made by The Grants Committee to the TDC Board by Late November for final decisions.  

Successful applicants will be announced in late-December 2024. Funding takes place in March 2025. Funding is provided as either a one-off payment or paid by one or more instalments.  

Timeline for Tour de Cure 2024/2025 Annual Grant Round: 

• 1 August - 21 August (AEST) - Annual Grant Round Open for EOI’s  
• September - October  - Full Grant Application (requested from Successful applicants)   
• After Mid-December - Successful Grantees notified 
• March 2025 - Payment made to Grantee 

We are incredibly grateful for the ongoing support and generosity of our Tour de Cure family, researchers, research institutes, community, and corporate partners. They have been unwavering in their support for us, and our common goal of Curing cancer, Changing lives. 

The Tour de Cure Grant Guidelines are available here - Tour de Cure Grant Guidelines

All information regarding the Tour de Cure Grants Program is available on our website here - Apply for a TDC Grant

Translational Cancer Research Pipeline Categories here - TCR Categories

CV example here - NHMRC CV

More information will be available from June 2024 for the next TDC Grant Round

 If you have any queries about grants or funding, please contact Jos Kevan at jos@tourdecure.com.au   or call on 02) 8422 1139 or 0412 414 949  Please note my working days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

There are no rounds available for Tour de Cure at the moment.

Technical assistance

• SmartyGrants
• Phone: 03 9320 6888
• Email: [email protected]
• Technical help guide for applicants

Grant information

• Phone: 02 8073 4000
• Email: [email protected]

2024 Tour de Cure Grant Scheme

Tour de Cure offers annual grants for cancer research, support, and prevention projects.

Expression of Interest (EOI) are now open for Tour de Cure Grants and close on August 21, 2024. Successful EOIs proceed to a full application, with final decisions announced in December 2024. Funding is issued in March 2025.

Please note that institutions are limited to 3 EOI's per category.

For more details, please visit:  Apply for a Grant (tourdecure.com.au)

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Tour de Cure Cancer Research Scholarship

Open for application 26 April - 31 May 2023 Value: $112,500 stipend + $12,500 dept maintenance      (includes required $25,000 institution co-contribution)

Together with the Foundation for Surgery, Tour de Cure generously funds the Tour de Cure Cancer Research Scholarship to improve cancer outcomes and help find a cure for cancer.

Tour de Cure holds cycling tours and events across Australia to raise funds for research that prevents cancer and the related health consequences, develops new treatments or medicines, improves cancer detection and diagnosis, improves quality of life, improves understanding of different cancers and supports clinical trials.

Research activity needs to focus on a cancer research project undertaken at an approved research institute in Australia under the supervision of an experienced investigator.

Recipients are required to: - present their research at the annual meeting of the Surgical Research Society of Australasia (or an agreed equivalent) at least once during, or in the 12 months following, the scholarship period. Please also refer to: - the Scholarships and Grants program  research scholarship policy (PDF 284.15KB) - the scholarship   guideline (PDF 113.21KB) Funding conditions The scholarship is valued at $125,000. A maximum of $100,000 ($90,000 stipend plus $10,000 departmental maintenance) will be funded from the Tour de Cure Cancer Research Scholarship Corpus. Recipients are required to procure $25,000 ($22,500 stipend plus $2,500 departmental maintenance) from their Research Department. This condition will be waived if the scholar receives additional research funding to the value of, or greater than $25,000. Additional funding would need to include a stipend component to offset the research department's responsibility for paying a percentage of the scholar's stipend.

RACS Fellows, Specialist International Medical Graduates on the pathway to RACS Fellowship (SIMGs) and SET Trainees* may apply. * SET applicants are ineligible for this scholarship

Application requirements

Your application is to include: - your career and employment details - your research proposal including: your project aim and research questions; research objectives; scientific literature references; research design and plan. - a list of (up to) your five most important publications including their URL / DOI (optional) - a list of (up to) your five most important conference presentations (optional) - proposed budget - names and correct email addresses for two referees (recommenders) – one of whom is your supervisor – who will then receive an invitation to view parts of your online application and provide a recommendation.

Selection is assessed via written application with shortlisted applicants invited to interview. The selection panel is comprised of representatives of the ANZ Scholarship and Grant Committee and the Board of Tour de Cure. Awarding Payment is made directly to the administering institution in one instalment by 1 March in the scholarship year.

Visit  Tour de Cure  and their  Funding Opportunities page .

Please read this  Surgical News   article about Tour de Cure (PDF 1.12MB) . 

The following  Surgical News  articles feature previous recipients of this scholarship:

Anthony Glover (PDF 1.02MB) , 2016 recipient, April 2017 edition Andrew Gogos (PDF 798.51KB) , 2015 recipient, October 2015 edition Lipi Shukla (PDF 273.56KB) , 2014 recipient, April 2016 edition

• To apply Application is via the Scholarships and Grants Program online platform, RACS Unlock, hosted by Survey Monkey Apply. You may register as an applicant on RACS Unlock at any time, however applications will not display on your dashboard until the Scholarships and Grants Program application opening date in April. There is no need to re-register if you already have a RACS Unlock registration. Please note: emailed applications are not accepted. Follow this link to RACS Unlock
• Contact Scholarship and grant team Phone: +61 8 8219 0924 Email:  [email protected]

Tour de Cure

Celebrating 25 years riding strong and changing the future of diabetes.

In 1991 the American Diabetes Association made the decision to harness the thrill of cycling with fundraising and the Tour de Cure came to life. In just 25 years event participants have raised over $250 million towards the mission of the Association, to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes .

The Tour grows each year and with it gains thousands of supporters in the fight to Stop Diabetes. Take a look at the incredible advancements and accomplishments the Association has made over the last 25 years through funds raised by our remarkable participants.

American Diabetes Association Advances

Discovery, innovation, and progress timeline.

© 2023 American Diabetes Association

All rights reserved. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy .

The American Diabetes Association is the nation's leading 501(C)3 nonprofit charity providing diabetes research, information and advocacy.

Tour de Cure is the premier fundraising campaign of the American Diabetes Association ® , now with virtual engagement designed for anyone and everyone to participate. The campaign has been expanded to include more members of our community and bring them together to learn about diabetes, healthy living and to support people living with diabetes. Tour de Cure is a unique opportunity for businesses, clubs, friends and families to form virtual teams with the vision of a life free of diabetes and all its burdens.

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Tour de Cure funding to boost cancer research at the Centenary Institute 

Three grants from Tour de Cure in 2024 will enable world-leading research in three dedicated cancer areas. The first, the development of spatial transcriptomics to identify immune cell interactions associated with tumour recurrence in liver cancer. The second, will explore stopping tumour growth by blocking symbiotic interactions between cancer cells, and the third will exploit the protein ZNF185 as a new therapeutic vulnerability in pancreatic cancer.

The three Centenary Institute scientists and projects to be supported by Tour de Cure to boost their research in 2024 are:

Dr Chuck Bailey, Centre for Rare Diseases & Gene Therapy

Awarded a ‘Matching Grants – Research’ Grant, $50,000 over one year.

Project Title: Exploiting ZNF185 as a new therapeutic vulnerability in pancreatic cancer

The project will aim to identify why some pancreatic cancer sufferers have poorer survival rates than others.

Research has identified a protein called ZN185 which is a plasma membrane protein (expressed on the outer surface of cells), involved in maintaining normal structural integrity within the cell via its interaction with the actin cytoskeleton, a skeleton or ‘scaffolding’ within the cells. This interaction with actin is essential for how a cancer cell ‘senses’ the environment around it and elicits invasive properties. 

In pancreatic cancer, ZNF185 influences the mobility and invasive capacity of cancer cells, acting as a vital ‘signal transducer’ in this process, receiving signals from the nucleus and communicating them to actin (and vice versa). This project will examine whether interfering with this communication network in pancreatic cancer will prevent the aggressive nature of cancer growth and spread from the primary site (i.e. metastasis). Notably, ZNF185 is a marker of poor prognosis, with those PDAC patients with high tumoural ZNF185 expression exhibiting significantly poorer survival. This project offers a new and innovative approach to a significant unmet need in pancreatic cancer.

“This project will also be co-funded by Tour de Rocks . Through this partnership with Tour de Cure we hope to make amazing advances to one day make a difference in the lives of patients and people affected by pancreatic cancer,” said Dr Chuck Bailey.

Associate Professor Guy Lyons, Centre for Cancer Innovations

Awarded a ‘Pioneering Research’ Grant, $50,000 over one year.

Project Title: Stopping tumour growth by blocking symbiotic interactions between cancer cells

This grant will enable Associate Professor Lyons to research the mechanisms of how cells change from being normal to becoming cancer producing cells. Cells of a tumour can have different roles, and they communicate and work as a collective to grow and to spread. This project will research how these cells talk to one another and find ways to disrupt the communications so these cells can no longer help each other to spread and grow throughout the body. 

Previous studies have identified that cells in oral cancers that express the mutant protein called Hras produce a factor that enables other cells in the cancer to grow more quickly. Research will look at the interaction of how they become more malignant more quickly and target drugs to block the growth and in turn create better treatments and outcomes for cancer patients. 

Associate Professor Lyons commented, “We’re delighted to have been awarded this grant from Tour de Cure. It will enable us to identify the mechanisms that the responding cancer cells use which promote growth through a different mechanism than currently targeted molecules. This funding will help us find new ways of targeting cancers.”

Dr Felix Marsh-Wakefield, Senior Research Officer, Centre for Cancer Innovations

Awarded an ‘Early Career Research’ Grant, $50,000 over 1 year.

Project Title: Using spatial transcriptomics to identify immune cell interactions associated with tumour recurrence in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Liver cancer in Australia is one of the most common cancers and remains one of the deadliest, with a mortality rate of approximately 80%. This is despite an increase in available therapeutics. Most patients will have a liver resection to remove the cancer, but almost half of these patients will go on to have a tumour recurrence within 1-5 years.

The grant will support Dr Marsh-Wakefield to develop a new technique called spatial transcriptomics to investigate the immune cells within liver cancer to identify different cell subsets associated with tumour recurrence. This will allow doctors to more easily predict which patients will go on to develop tumours again after liver resection in the hopes to develop more effective treatments for liver cancer and uncover novel therapeutic targets and decrease the mortality rate.

Dr Marsh-Wakefield said, “This grant will support us to develop spatial transcriptomics. This technique is still very new and allows us to look at individual transcripts (RNA) on tissue sections so we can identify the transcriptome of single cells on the tissue. We’re then able to identify cell interactions as well as give us an idea of the potential function of individual cells where they reside in tissue in the hopes that we can decrease the mortality rate of liver cancer.”

Since its inception in 2007, Tour de Cure has raised over $117 million for cancer research, which has funded 975 cancer projects, and led to 141 major cancer research breakthroughs.

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A Beyond Epic 2024 Weekend!

Thank you to the 1,674 cyclists, over 230 volunteers, and countless donors and sponsors for your support. We’re so grateful you joined us on this journey, no matter the weather.

You've helped raise over $7.3 million this year, bringing the event’s fundraising total to $131 million since its inception in 2009.

Registration for 2025 Now Open

Secure your spot for next year’s Tour de Cure presented by Wheaton Precious Metals, and become a part of B.C.’s largest cycling fundraiser. All funds raised support the BC Cancer Foundation, and your participation will help power cancer research in B.C.

To participate in the Tour de Cure, each participant registers online and commits to raising a minimum of $2,500.

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• Two-day epic adventure on Aug. 23-24, 2025
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• Aug 23, 2019

Orda Cave: Underwater Gem of Siberia, Russia

Updated: Aug 27, 2019

Orda Cave is a gypsum crystal cave located underneath the western Ural Mountains in Russia. The cave was formed in gypsum during the Permian period (Perm is the period of the Paleozoic era –and got its name in honor of the Russian city of Perm). The mouth is near the shore of the Kungur River just outside Orda, Perm Krai in Russia.

A local myth tells of the "Lady of the Orda Cave" who is said to live in the caves. In 2013 Natalia Avseenko, a former free diving champion, was featured in a photographic series designed to illustrate the legend.

The length of this cave is 5,150 meters. The limit is not defined yet as exploration is ongoing. It is full of big chambers and rooms, some of which are the size of a football field. It is also a the cave which resembles maze. Many groups spend days inside the cave, gradually exploring more and more of the system.

Victor Lyagushkin, a journalist and underwater photographer, led around 150 expeditions into the caves over a six-month period in 2011.The photographs taken by his team were published in the Orda Cave Awareness Project alongside stories from other divers who had visited the cave system.During the dives Lyagushkin used a funnel system to direct the air bubbles to the mouth of the cave and away from the delicate gypsum, fearing that it might easily be damaged.The diving team were also the first people to produce a spherical panorama of an underwater cave.

Although the water is extremely cold, averaging only 40 F (4 degrees C), the mineral-rich area surrounding the cave filters the water and makes it very clear. Divers have a visibility of over 50 yards (46 m) and it almost doesn’t get blurred when diving.

Dry suits are absolutely necessary and sidemount rigs will allow easier access when penetrating the narrowest sections of the cave. Proper training in drysuit diving, cave diving and sidemount diving are essential.

On the good side - the cave is shallow enough, with average depths of 15 meters with no significant currents. You can penetrate far from the entrance and still not get on the decompression.

On the other hand - the walls and the ceiling (sulfate rocks) are very fragile. The time of the dive is limited to low water temperatures and equipment configuration: from 30 minutes to 2 hours. The side aisles have thick layers of silt which can be stirred up easily.

Diving Orda Cave

Still there are very few people who have seen the beauty of this cave. Low temperatures, complexity of the dive, particular equipment configuration sort out many divers. The cave was only discovered in the middle of the last century, and people started visiting it only recently – about 20 years ago.

Those who have been diving there describe it as "Enomorous Cosmos Under the Ice". My friend, Nazar Karmakov, who has done some of his cave training with Cave Gravity in Yucatan caves: " While diving caves of Yucatan, I felt in love instantly with cenotes, their light play, unreal formations and the beauty of halocline. It is hard to get impressed by any cave after diving Yucan caves. But when I dove Orda, I was mesmorzid by the size of the cave, by the ideal shapes of white gypsum, almost too ideal looking rocks. It would be incorrect to compare Yucatan caves to Orda Cave. While I felt in love with caves in Yucatan from the first dive, Orda Cave is Cosmos, probably the only cosmos in Russia that there is..."

Check out the video below directed by Stratis Kas at www.intothewild.tech who offers guided tours of the Orda Cave as well as full dive and stay packages. The video perfectly shows what a day of diving in the Orda Cave looks like. Just a walk to the cave entrance in the winter times is an adventure itself. Snow extending to the horizon, fresh and crisp Siberian air and getting under the ice crust to see the gypsum cave - captivating.

The water is freezing but nevertheless the cave has tiny living inhabitants such as a blind sand hopper (Amphipod Crangonyx).

You can dive the cave all year around. There is also cave diving training available on the location. Training in these conditions must be tough but it will surely make you a more confident diver.

To get to the Orda Cave, you can fly to the airport of the city of Perm which accepts direct flights from Moscow. You stay overnight at either the village of Orda or the city of Kungur. Both places are a car ride from the airport. The village of Orda is the closest to the cave entrance, which is just a few hundred meters away.

By Marina Kaufman

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