News & Announcements
See below for recent happenings and exciting progress from the Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment.
CARE Fund is part of the King County Employee Giving Campaign
October 2, 2023
The Andy Hill CARE Fund will be included for the first time in the King County Employee Giving Campaign beginning October 2, 2023.
King County employees have an opportunity to join with the CARE Fund to promote cancer research in Washington through workplace giving. For those who wish to make a memorial or tribute gift to honor or remember a loved one, friend, or colleague, we will work with you to inform those you would like notified of your gift in a way that is meaningful to you and to them.
CARE Fund will double your impact on cancer research, as your gifts will be matched 1:1 with funds from the State’s public investment for Andy Hill CARE Fund’s cancer research grants.
To make a gift through the King County Employee Giving Campaign, use CARE Fund’s Charitable ID number: 10151.
Those who are not in the campaign can make gifts directly to CARE Fund.
Thank you for considering the Andy Hill CARE Fund in your charitable giving.
CARE Fund Partners with Rivkin Center to Fund Ovarian Cancer Research
September 13, 2023
September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month! The CARE Fund Board of Directors is proud to announce an exciting new partnership, the Rivkin Center/CARE Fund Award.
The Rivkin Center and the Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment (CARE) Fund will jointly invest $1M in ovarian cancer research in Washington state, creating a pioneering public-private partnership. Because state and private investments are matched dollar for dollar, applicants are not required to provide a separate match. The partnership will create a replicable model for other states.
The Rivkin Center/CARE Fund Award opportunity is now open. Eligibility is limited to Washington state investigators only. Applications must be submitted by December 1, 2023, at 5 p.m. EST.
Learn more about the application process, eligibility, and award details here.
Currently, there is no effective screening test to catch ovarian cancer in its earliest, most treatable and most survivable stages. With “silent symptoms” that can be easily missed, or mistaken, ovarian cancer often goes undetected until it has reached an advanced stage. That is why about 80 percent of women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed at advanced stages when chances of cure are poor. Ovarian cancer remains the deadliest gynecological cancer.
The Rivkin Center is a Washington nonprofit organization with an accomplished history of funding promising research in ovarian cancer.
CARE Fund looks forward to future partnerships to promote cancer research and to the resulting improvements in health and wellness for Washington’s communities.
Have an application inquiry? Please contact Dr. Jackie Lang at jackie.lang@rivkin.org.
RFP Opportunity for Scientific Peer Review
September 13, 2023
THIS OPPORTUNITY IS CLOSED.
On behalf of its sponsored project, the Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment (CARE) Fund, Evergreen Social Impact is soliciting proposals from those qualified and interested to:
Facilitate and conduct the scientific and technical evaluation of grant proposals for cancer research and recommend grants to be made by CARE Fund; and
Advise the CARE Fund on scientific and other matters in furtherance of grantmaking to support and promote cancer research in Washington State.
The selected contractor will work in partnership with CARE Fund staff to provide scientific peer review services and consultations to CARE Fund to result in the objective, independent, scientific peer review of grant proposal applications to the CARE Fund. The results of the peer review will be used by CARE Fund to make grant award decisions. The anticipated duration of the contract is through June 30, 2025.
Proposals should be submitted via email, no later than 4:00 PM (PT), October 11, 2023 with “Scientific Peer Review Services RFP” in the subject line, to Peter Choi at peter@wacarefund.org. Questions regarding this RFP may also be addressed to this same email address. Full RFP for download.
CARE Fund Announces Over $2 Million in Breakthrough Seed Funding
August 7, 2023
The CARE Fund Board of Directors is proud to continue a record-breaking year of investments in cancer research, announcing over $2 million in a new funding category, Breakthrough Seed Funding.
The purpose of the Breakthrough Seed Funding grant is to encourage and support life science companies, entrepreneurs, innovators, and researchers who seek to explore and develop innovative ideas and strategies to substantially advance cancer research and care from etiology to survivorship. These projects have the potential for high impact breakthroughs in cancer research and care that will extend understanding or uncover new pathways beyond the span of the project.
The CARE Fund congratulates the inaugural grantees in this category, to support early-stage research projects that are pursuing promising areas of cancer research.
Institute for Systems Biology (Principal Investigator: Wei Wei, PhD)
Unraveling Tumor-Immune Microenvironment by a Novel Spatial Assay Registering Cellular Metabolic Functions with Underlying Omic Profiles at Single-Cell ResolutionPhase Genomics, Inc. (Principal Investigator: Stephen Eacker, PhD)
An AI-based Platform Cytogenomic Risk Assessment in Colorectal CarcinomaSeattle Children’s Research Institute (Principal Investigator: Shannon Oda, PhD)
Developing Adoptive Cell Therapy Engineering Strategies to Catalyze and Diversify Endogenous Antitumor Immune ResponsesUniversity of Washington (Principal Investigators: Christopher Blosser, MD; Shreeram Akilesh, MD, PhD)
Role of Complement C3 in Kidney CancerUniversity of Washington (Principal Investigator: Jennifer Nemhauser, PhD)
A Synthetic Genetic Platform to Deliver Higher Precision Care for Recurrent or Refractory Cancers with Wnt Pathway ActivationUniversity of Washington (Principal Investigator: Wesley Van Voorhis, MD, PhD): Selective Glycolysis Inhibitors (SGIs): Enabling Clinical Development of Novel Small Molecules for the Treatment of Advanced Prostate Cancer
CARE Fund Expands Investments with Over $30M in Grant Awards
June 8, 2023
In 2022 the Washington State legislature made a commitment to improving the lives of Washingtonians through an historic investment in cancer research through the CARE Fund. The CARE Board solicited community feedback through a Request For Information. Four Requests for Proposals (RFPs) were opened this cycle ranging from cancer research projects aiming to address cancer disparities, to strengthening the state’s cancer research infrastructure, and making early investments in life science start-up companies.
The four RFPs generated greater response than any in the CARE Fund’s history, totaling 43 proposals with over $42 million in requests. The state’s appropriation to the CARE Fund resulted in grants for cancer research across the state, east and west of the Cascades.
Today the CARE Board is proud to announce 32 grants totaling $30,683,000 million, to advance cancer research in Washington. Awardees are listed in the links below:
To support cancer research projects that aim to address cancer disparities for population groups, two awards in Population Health.
To support projects that enhance clinical trial site capacity or infrastructure to conduct cancer clinical trials or address patients’ barriers to participation, six awards in Inclusion and Diversity in Clinical Trials.
To bolster Washington State’s cancer research ecosystem by supporting efforts to plan, develop, or support shared resources that will advance cancer research in Washington State, eight awards in Shared Resources and Infrastructure.
To support early-stage companies and innovative researchers to translate promising research into the development of tools, devices, or therapeutics related to cancer, 16 awards in Life Science Start-up and Development.
The CARE Fund Board of Directors is grateful to the legislature and the Governor for making these funds available, to the community for your input and direction, and the CARE Fund staff for their work in implementing the opportunities.
In the coming weeks, we will also announce awards in our first cycle of Breakthrough Seed Funding, to support early-stage research projects that are pursuing promising areas of cancer research.
We look forward to the results of this investment in cancer research to improve the quality of life for the people of Washington.
We Need Your Input
May 11, 2023
We need your help to improve our outreach across the cancer research community by taking a brief survey. Please provide your response by May 26, 2023. Thank you.
CARE Fund Announces Grant Awards Totaling $1.74M
February 28, 2023
Distinguished Researchers grants bolster cancer research in Washington State by providing matching funds to recruit best-in-class talent from around the globe, and support newly recruited researchers to lead advances in cancer research. Top scientists move the research economy forward, creating laboratories and other jobs, raising awareness of cancer research, and bringing additional research funding into the state.
The Distinguished Researchers Program will match, dollar for dollar, commitments by Washington research companies, organizations, universities, and research institutions, up to $500,000 per researcher, to add value to recruitment/start-up packages that bring early-career and established cancer researchers to Washington.
The CARE Fund Board of Directors is pleased to announce three Distinguished Researchers grant awards to the following:
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Christina Termini, MM, PhDSeattle Children’s Research Institute
Jay Sarthy, MD, PhDSeattle Children’s Research Institute
Molly Taylor MD, MS, MS
Click here to learn more about the Distinguished Researchers awardees.
Originally sparked by the need to nimbly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on cancer care, Emergent Issues in Public Health grants provide up to $250,000 per award to support research that aims to address an emergent issue regarding cancer and public health. Research may relate to the next phase of COVID-19 and cancer research, or other cancer research related to an emergent public health issue.
The CARE Fund Board of Directors is pleased to announce an Emergent Issues in Public Health grant to:
University of Washington
Principal Investigator: Linda Ko, MPH, PhD
Building Capacity of Bilingual and Bicultural Community Health Workers to Implement Evidence-based Cancer Prevention and Control Interventions to Promote Health Equity
The CARE Fund applauds these awardees for their important work to advance cancer research to improve the quality of life for the people of Washington.
Click here to learn more about the project that will be supported by the Emergent Issues in Public Health grant.
RFP Opportunity for Awareness Study
February 9. 2023
On behalf of its sponsored project, the Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment (CARE) Fund, Evergreen Social Impact is soliciting proposals for a consultant to work in partnership with staff to conduct an awareness study for its sponsored project, the Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment (CARE) Fund, to result in analysis and recommendations to raise awareness of the CARE Fund in order to expand the applicant pool and to increase projects that address disparities.
Proposals should be submitted via email, no later than February 28, with “Awareness Assessment” in the subject line, to Joseph Sparacio at joseph@wacarefund.org. Questions regarding this RFP may also be addressed to this same email address.
Full RFP here.