We also wanted to collaborate with organisations who share our goals. We have signed an official partnership agreement with Tackle Prostate Cancer, and have joined collaborative, sector-wide groups such as the AMRC and NCRI.

One of the core principles set out in our research strategy was to encourage research that aims to reduce the cost of prostate cancer treatment in the long term, and questions were asked during our last grant selection process about how accessible a treatment resulting of each project would be. However, we have potential to improve in this area, including to expand on this if we broaden into funding qualitative research as a result of the grant call we have just launched.

In our research strategy, we set out the three main criteria for grant selection: scientific merit as judged against our research strategy; collaboration with others; and intellectual innovation and when appropriate, the formulation of a path to translation. All three were implemented in the selection process during our 2019 grant call.

Patient relevance was also included. Our patient panel reviewed lay summaries of the applications and provided comments. One senior researcher said he had never received patient comments before, and he appreciated the opportunity and the perspective it gave him.

We are committed to ethically conducted research, a robust but rapid process of scientific peer review and an open access philosophy. Our grant call was fully AMRC compliant and you can see what the scientists who went through the process thought of it – and of us – in this short video below.

As an organisation, we appreciate how difficult in can be, especially for those in the early stages of their career, to gather enough preliminary data required for larger grants. To tackle this, we awarded three pilot awards, two of which went to young researchers. We have also provided our researchers with a networking opportunity, and are planning and budgeting to offer training.

We also recognise the importance of adjusting our strategy to improve impact as we gather evidence on which areas need more funding. We are actively analysing the whole sector to identify where the greatest need is, and have already gained valuable insights into potential knowledge and funding gaps – for example, through the survey we ran last winter – and will be able to share these soon.

We are very proud of how far we have come in just a year: increasing and broadening the research projects that we fund; putting collaboration at the heart of our organisation; and improving and implementing the key processes that underpin our work as a research charity.

We are now launching a new grant call and we will continue to implement the core principles set out in our research strategy. By engaging and empowering researchers, we will improve survival and quality of life for those who already have prostate cancer, and find a cure for prostate cancer for the next generation.