Improving Care of Early Breast Cancer (EBC) Patients in Europe - 2023 RFP Project - Call for Grants

Download the Request For Proposal by clicking here
Letter of Intent Deadline: 16 July 2023
Letter of Intent Submission via this form (click here)

Introduction

Sharing Progress in Cancer Care and Lilly are collaborating and seeking grant proposals in support of improving care of Early Breast Cancer (EBC) patients in Europe.

Thanks to a Quality Improvement Grant from Lilly, we are seeking independent projects with systematic and continuous actions that lead to measurable improvements in the delivery of care and health status of targeted patient groups within specific health systems. Proposals that have the most potential to directly impact the quality of care for EBC patients within European health systems will be prioritised.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) aims to encourage European Healthcare Systems, Cancer Care Centres or Networks to submit Letters of Intent (LOIs) describing concepts and ideas for the implementation of strategies which will measurably improve the quality of care of early breast cancer (EBC) patients.

Scope 

SPCC and Lilly are committed to funding projects that:

• Bring the health care team together, including innovative organisations, to understand gaps in practice and develop strategies to improve care/address the gap.
• Further identify quality and performance gaps in the treatment of EBC with deeper analyses and understanding of gaps and needs of those targeted and/or included in the intervention. These can encompass a broad set of areas.
• Facilitate health care systems and providers to engage patients, their caregivers, and families in shared decision-making.
• Use evidence-based educational strategies that are aligned with the desired results of the intervention.

It is not the intent of this RFP to support clinical research projects. Research projects, such as those evaluating novel therapeutic or diagnostic agents, will not be considered.

Clinical Practice Gaps

A gap in clinical practice is considered to be the difference between current practice and the optimal standard of care. Gaps are associated with a combination of:

• Clinician factors (e.g., knowledge, competencies, attitudes, or preferences);
• Patient factors (e.g., access to care, clinical characteristics, comorbid conditions, preferences, Quality of Life (QOL), work, family);
• Clinician and patient communication (e.g., clinical trial recruitment, genetic counselling, access to genetic testing);
• Health system organisation including care processes (integrated breast cancer care vs. practice-based EBC care), resources, availability of all required aspects of care including access to genetic testing.

Gaps in clinical practice may relate to the ability or competencies of the health care professionals themselves, the abilities, or competencies of the systems in which they work to promote or allow proper management, or other factors related to the external environment or patient population.

This RFP seeks to provide funding to projects that, ultimately, are aimed at helping health care providers deliver the best treatment to each patient at the optimal time.

Needs may include, but are not limited to, improved provider knowledge regarding clinical aspects (i.e., pathology and mechanism of action and toxicities of treatment choices) and extend to organisational, logistical, as well as technological gaps.

Areas of Interest

• Optimal treatment strategies to individualise care for patients with EBC through timely and measurable improvements in the identification of biological and clinical features indicating a higher risk of recurrence;
• Delivering optimal treatment regardless of HCP discipline and wherever there is a point of interaction for a patient with EBC (surgeons, gynaecologists, oncology nurses/pharmacists);
• Leveraging a multi-disciplinary team and approach to improve patient quality of EBC delivery of care;
• Therapy management strategies supporting adherence and persistence to treatment;
• Supporting patient education and HCP communication, shared decision-making best practices and tools for discussing treatment goals and risks/benefits of treatment;
• Patient reported outcomes in EBC patients.

LOIs addressing topics in addition to those listed above will be considered. A plan for long-term sustainability should be included within the submission. 

RFP Target Group

European institutions and networks (members or not of OECI) will be considered as well as professional societies and patient advocacy groups.

Collaboration between institutions and across European countries is strongly encouraged in order to foster the interactive sharing of knowledge and expertise, and to utilize the combined strengths of members. Also, partnerships between clinically focused academic/research centres in the areas of healthcare management, health policy and health economics and other organisations with a mission related to health care improvement are also encouraged. Investigators can be of any health care professional background.

Please note – to ensure this unique independent program is aligned with various country-specific legal and compliance requirements, we are only accepting proposals from Germany, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, and Italy at this time.

Panel of Expert Reviewers

Luis Costa, Oncology Division, Hospital Santa Maria, Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte; Faculty of Medicine, Universidade de Lisboa; Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Faculty of Medicine, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Amanda Drury, EONS Board, Chair of the Research Working Group, Dublin, Ireland
Martina Fontana, EUROPA DONNA Policy and Research Officer, Milan, Italy
Joseph Gligorov, Hospital Tenon Ap-Hp, Paris, France
Nadia Harbeck, Breast Center, LMU University Hospital, Munich, Germany
Roberto Orecchia, IEO European Institute of Oncology IRCCS, Milan, Italy
Frederique Penault-Llorca, Jean Perrin Center, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Isabel T. Rubio, Breast Surgical Unit, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Madrid, Spain

Letters of Intent/Proposals

This RFP model employs a 2-stage process:
Stage 1 is the submission of the LOI. If an LOI is selected, the applicant will be invited to
Stage 2 to submit a full programme proposal into the Lilly Grant Office portal.

Key Dates

Letter of Intent Deadline: 16 July 2023

Anticipated Letter of Intent Notification Date: 6 October 2023

Full Proposal Deadline: 17 November 2023
*Only accepted LOIs will be invited to submit full proposals.

Anticipated full proposal notification date: by end of February 2024

Anticipated period of performance: from Q2 2024 to Q4 2025 (projects may have a shorter timeline).

Budget Guidance

The total available budget related to this RFP is approximately $500,000 USD. Individual projects requesting up to $250,000 USD (including direct and indirect costs) will be considered; smaller, lower-cost projects are also strongly encouraged. Institutional overhead and indirect costs may be included within the grant request but the inclusion of these costs cannot cause the amount requested to exceed the budget limit set forth in the RFP.

The grant amount Lilly will be prepared to fund will depend upon the evaluation of the proposal and costs involved, and this amount will be stated clearly in the Letter of Agreement.

Should a grant be awarded as a result of this RFP, certain payments may be subject to reporting by Lilly pursuant to the U.S. Physician Payment Sunshine Act (“Open Payments”) - a subpart of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 or other applicable countryspecific reporting requirements.

The “Improving Care of Early Breast Cancer (EBC) Patients in Europe – 2023 RFP Project” will be conducted in accordance with the EFPIA code requirements. More information via working-together-for-patients-grants-anddonations.pdf (efpia.eu).

Submission Instructions

Letter of Intent (LOI) should be submitted using this form (click here to access) no later than 11:59 pm U.S.Eastern Time (New York) on 16 July 2023 / 05:59 am CEST (Central European Summer Time) on 17 July 2023.
Complete all sections of the linked form referring to the included guide and available in the Appendix of the RFP.