St. Andrews is perhaps best known internationally as the Home of Golf, although its historical significance stretches back many centuries before the first recorded mention of the game (Figure 1). Nestling on the east coast of the county of Fife in Scotland, the city endures fierce North Sea gales in winter, is shrouded in the thick sea mists known locally as “haar” when warm air meets the cold waters along the east coast, yet also basks in warm sunshine and balmy summer days that bring tourists in their thousands. The ancient university, dating back to the 15th century, is central to the city, and its students make up a large and colorful proportion of the population. St. Andrews was one of the original four Scottish universities (along with Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh) at a time when neighboring England, 10 times the size, boasted of but two (Oxford and Cambridge).
Figure 1.
A general view of St. Andrews.
St. Andrews is also the home of the Association for International Cancer Research, a Scottish charity dedicated to supporting the best scientific research into the causes of cancer, wherever in the world it is carried out. The association is unique in many ways, not least being that it is the only major funder of cancer research with its headquarters in Scotland. Most of the major cancer charities are English-based, with their headquarters in London. The Association for International Cancer Research, albeit by a quirk of fate, is firmly ensconced north of the Border, in St. Andrews, although it started out, like so many others, in London.
The association was founded in 1979, the brainchild of an American, Franklin Salisbury, and was originally known as NFCR (Cancer Research) in recognition of Franklin Salisbury?s American foundation, the National Foundation for Cancer Research. The new British charity had its head office in London, and was based at Brunel University. Its aim was to raise funds in the UK in order to fund innovative scientific research in Europe.
After a hesitant start, the charity was reorganized in 1984, and renamed the Association for International Cancer Research. A new Board of Trustees was appointed, and one of these Trustees, the late Dr. Colin Thomson, was asked to take over responsibility for running the charity. Dr. Thomson was a highly respected research chemist at St. Andrews University, and it is thanks to him and to his wife, Maureen (currently serving on the Board of Directors), that the association got off to such a good restart. It is also due to this chance circumstance that the association moved to St. Andrews, and became in due course a Scottish charity.
Originally set up with a grant from Franklin Salisbury, the association, in its first few years, had approached the business of fundraising rather timidly, and had not achieved much success in building a fund to support research. The restart in 1984 saw a different result. The Board of Directors took the bold decision to raise significant sums of money in a short period, not through the traditional methods of British charities (charity shops, sales catalogues, networks of fundraisers organizing local events, street collections, and national events like the London Marathon), but through a direct mail program.
The use of direct mail by charities, while not entirely new, was not widespread in Britain at the time, and many doubted whether the association could raise funds in this way. The association was fortunate, however, in that it employed a remarkable young man and his direct marketing company to establish and develop a successful direct mail program. The first mailings were launched in 1984, and the program has evolved steadily ever since. The link between Andrew Orme and his company, DMS of Cheltenham, England, is as strong today as it was when the program was first launched, and the association's direct mail program is one of the most successful in the country, regularly achieving response rates that are the envy of the direct marketing industry.
The income generated by the direct mail program for a long time represented nearly 90% of the association's total income, but the development since 1999 of a donor recruitment program to secure a large base of donors supporting the association through monthly, quarterly, or annual standing orders and direct debits has both increased the net annual income and reduced the reliance on the direct mail program, which now represents some 65% of the total net income.
The association's success in raising money is reflected in its grants award program. In 1984, the association awarded around £50,000 for research grants. In 2001, it provided £6.8 million for 221 projects in 18 countries. As most projects last for 3 years, the £6.8 million expenditure in 2001 represents a commitment of some £20 million over a 3-year period.
The Association for International Cancer Research's remit is to support the best scientific (as opposed to clinical) research into the causes of cancer, wherever it is carried out. Cancer recognizes no boundaries — geographical, political, or racial — and, in turn, the association recognizes no boundaries in the fight against cancer. Unlike other major funding bodies, the association does not set priorities for spending, nor does it target specific cancers for funding. Applications are invited from researchers in any country for research into any form of cancer, no matter how common or rare. The only criteria are the quality of the science, the relevance to cancer, and nonduplication of work already carried out.
Applications are peer-reviewed by experts in the relevant scientific field, and are then assessed in committee by the association's Scientific Advisory Committee. The Scientific Advisory Committee is made up of 14 of the most eminent research scientists in Europe, and currently has members from England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. The association does not employ the Committee members, nor are they paid, but serve voluntarily for 3 years. Without their invaluable contribution, the association could not function at all.
The Scientific Advisory Committee holds a Grants Allocation Meeting twice a year. At each meeting, the committee assesses, over 2 days, up to 150 applications. Every application is considered, the referees? reports discussed, and the applications graded and scored in order of merit. The association then awards grants in the order of merit, as far as available funds allow. When awarding funds, only the first year funding of the 3-year projects is considered; the subsequent years? funding being guaranteed by the award. Thus, when the association awards grants totaling £2.5 million each year, it is in fact guaranteeing some £7.5 million for the successful applicants. Typically, this represents 60 to 70 new projects (30–35 out of the 150 applications at each of the Grants Allocation Meetings).
Up until 2002, the association awarded grants for 3-year basic research projects. In 2003, it will introduce a new Fellowship Program, where a 6-year research fellowship will be awarded each year. Funding will cover salaries for the Research Fellow and two research assistants, an equipment grant, laboratory consumables, and travel funds to attend international conferences. Initially restricted to research in UK institutions, the program, if successful, will be considered for countries outside the UK at some point in the future.
The association also pays heed to applications for innovative science, and from younger, recently qualified researchers. All other things being equal, if two applications are graded equally highly, extra weighting will be given to recently qualified researchers trying to establish a research career over more established researchers, or to innovative science over a more conventional project.
The association's unique approach to funding, whereby it eschews setting priorities, makes it one of the few sources of funding for many of the rarer forms of cancer. Its rigorous assessment procedures also give confidence that the projects supported are among the best in the world. All in all, the association's approach to funding — accepting applications from any country in the world, in any form of cancer, and giving weighting to young researchers and innovative science — makes it unique. In many ways, it can be termed the “Heineken of the research world” in that it reaches parts no other funding body reaches. To many scientists around the world, St. Andrews has now become synonymous, not with golf or the university, but with an outward-looking, positive organization eager to fund the best research in the fight against cancer. The Association for International Cancer Research is St. Andrews' latest contribution to the world community.