MIB Agents is a leading pediatric osteosarcoma nonprofit dedicated to Making It Better for our community of patients, families, medical professionals, researchers, and industry partners through programs, education, and research. We are devoted to creating and instilling hope
with and for our inclusive and collaborative osteosarcoma community. We do this through mutual trust, transparency and compassion.

The OutSmarting Osteosarcoma Young Investigator (YI) Hope Award is a $50,000 grant over one year to any young investigator with a compelling study that will Make It Better for osteosarcoma patients.
Awards may be sponsored by one MIB Agents Family Fund or individual donor, which is co-branded in honor of the Family Fund.
The number of grants by award type will be determined based on budget and program goals during programmatic review.

FUNDING PRIORITIES
To have the most immediate impact on patient care and outcomes, MIB Agents funding
priorities are:
● Late stage translational research - research may lead to clinical benefit or a clinical trial in less than five years.
● Studies with promising preclinical data that have a specific funding need to secure an IND and move forward to clinical trial.
● Specific funding gaps in clinical research. Examples include correlative studies associated with and/or prior to an already funded clinical trial.
● Projects that facilitate and enhance collaboration and shared learnings.

FOCUS AREAS
Proposals should address at least one of these focus areas:
● Children, adolescents & young adults
● Decreasing toxicities
● Immunotherapies
● Molecularly targeted therapies
● Precision medicine
● Systemic therapy combinations
● Preventing metastasis
● Treating recurrent disease

APPLICATION PROCESS
Investigators who are interested in applying for the OutSmarting Osteosarcoma 2025 grant must submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) in Proposal Central by the October 25, 2025 deadline.
Applicants who submit a LOI and are approved will then be invited via email to submit a full application in ProposalCentral by the January 26th deadline. Invited applications must reflect the same project described in the approved LOI.
Please refer to the LOI and Application Submission Requirements section for more details.

REVIEW PROCESS AND EVALUATION CRITERIA
LOI Review Process
LOIs will be reviewed by the MIB Agents OutSmarting program team for eligibility, adherence to submission requirements, and how well the project addresses the MIB mission, funding priorities, and focus areas. LOIs that meet these requirements will then be assigned to scientific peer review.
Peer reviewers will score LOIs on innovation, translational potential, and impact. LOIs that score above a threshold will be invited to submit a full application.
 

Invited Applications Review Process
Invited applications are evaluated with a two-tier review process. First, proposals undergo independent peer review by the MIB Agents Scientific Review Committee and are scored based on scientific merit. Family Funds and donors contributing more than $5,000 to the annual award are invited to participate in the review process as stakeholder reviewers, scoring
proposals on patient impact. The Scientific Review Committee is composed of peer reviewers who are subject matter experts and Family Fund stakeholder reviewers.
Proposals scoring above a predetermined threshold are eligible for funding and will be required to present their proposed work via video conference call with the MIB Research Advisory Committee and all MIB Agents Family Funds. After applicants have had the opportunity to share their proposal with the MIB Agents community, the proposals move onto Programmatic Review, where grant recipients will be selected by the MIB Research Advisory
Committee based on scientific review recommendations, how well the proposals address MIB priorities, goals and programs, and available funding. The Research Advisory Committee is composed of the MIB Agents Leadership Team, the Family Funds Advisory Council, and the Junior Board Advisory Council President and Vice President.
In the case of an award funded by one Family Fund or individual donor, the sponsoring Family Fund will be included in the programmatic review process.
The two-tier review process results in a robust and collaborative review process that uniquely incorporates patient and family perspectives.
Peer reviewers will use the NIH 9-point rating scale to score full applications on the standard
NIH criteria:
● Significance
● Investigator
● Innovation
● Approach
● Environment

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
● The recipient is highly encouraged to attend the FACTOR 2025 conference for an in-person check presentation.
● The recipient must be available in person to present work underway and completed at the FACTOR 2026 Conference, and may use grant funds for travel to the FACTOR 2026 conference.
● At 6 months post-funding, the recipient must submit a progress report detailing progress on aims as well as a budget report and host an on-site lab site visit/6-month check-in with MIB Agents representatives. For co-branded grants, a 1 hour update will also be scheduled on Zoom with the funder.
● At 13 months post-funding, the recipient must submit a progress report detailing progress on aims as well as a budget report. Results of the study funded by an OutSmarting Osteosarcoma grant must be made available to share regardless of the outcome of the research and will be shared with the community via the MIB website.
For co-branded grants, a 1 hour update will also be scheduled on Zoom with the funder.
● Post award, recipients will also be asked to submit a brief annual report each year to help us track funding impact.
● PI must also present a summary of outcomes on the MIB Agents OsteoBites series.
● Any resulting materials (including publications, presentations, posters, press releases, website content, interviews, abstracts, and articles) featuring results of the study funded by a MIB Agents OutSmarting Osteosarcoma grant should acknowledge MIB Agents. Please share copies with christina@mibagents.org.

RESOURCE SHARING PLAN
MIB Agents is dedicated to encouraging collaboration among our community of patients, caregivers, doctors, and researchers. To that end, we require a resource-sharing plan included in the application.
● Please describe the data generated by your research, how it will be FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable), and your plan for sharing and dissemination.
● Please describe how the data will be shared both during and after the award. Awardees are required to place data into a publicly accessible repository (e.g., dbGaP for genomics, cBioPortal, Osteosarcoma Explorer). Discuss any intellectual property considerations and how they will be addressed. For any algorithms or tools developed, please discuss what software license will be leveraged and why.
● Finally, please describe your plan to share your research findings with the wider scientific community. We highly encourage that the study data be submitted to the following directories and repositories:
○ Directory: The Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCD) Data Catalog
○ Data Repository: A data repository relevant to the type of data generated, that is publicly accessible - such as one of the repositories included in the CCDI.
○ Visualization platform: The Osteosarcoma Explorer
PAYMENT
● Allowable Costs
○ Travel to FACTOR 2026 (up to $700 for airfare)
○ Fringe up to 30% of salary requested
○ Publication and meeting-related printing costs
● Unallowable Costs
○ Equipment purchases not included in the original budget
○ The formation of a new organization
○ Planning stages of research
○ Overhead or indirect costs
○ Secretarial/administrative salaries
○ Student tuition
○ Office and laboratory furniture
○ Office equipment and supplies
○ Recruiting and relocation expenses
○ Non-medical services to patients
○ Construction, renovation, or maintenance of buildings/laboratories
○ Professional association membership dues
○ Scientific publication subscriptions

● Payment Schedule
○ Funds are distributed at 3 milestones
■ 50% upon signing of agreement
■ 40% after status report is submitted 6 months after grant start date
■ 10% after status report and end of grant deliverables (written summary
and MIB OsteoBites) are submitted 13 months after grant start date
● If work is not completed within the 12 month award period, then unused funds must be returned to MIB Agents unless a no-cost extension has been granted.
● If work is not initiated within 3 months of award start, then the full award amount must be returned to MIB Agents unless a written explanation of delays is submitted to and approved by MIB Agents at least 2 weeks before the 3 month milestone. A no-cost extension is required only if the delays will affect the study end date.
● No-cost extensions may be considered with a written request at minimum 60 days prior to the original end date.
● Funds are non-transferrable
○ Unused and remaining amounts of $100+ must be returned to MIB at the end of the grant year.
○ If a Primary Investigator grantee transfers or terminates from his sponsoring institution during the course of the grant award period, the grant will immediately terminate and all monies need to be returned to MIB Agents.
Funds can only be transferred to another institution with the written approval of the MIB Agents Research Advisory Committee. The transfer, if approved, will require a close-out financial report from the original institution. The new
institution will be required to submit an application along with a budget to be
reviewed and approved by the MIB Agents Research Advisory Committee prior to the commencement of this research project at the new institution.

CONTACT
For any questions about the MIB Agents OutSmarting Osteosarcoma grant program, please feel free to contact Christina Ip-Toma by email at christina@mibagents.org.
For technical questions regarding the online submission process, please contact ProposalCentral Customer Service at (800) 875-2562 or via email at pcsupport@altum.com, during business hours, Monday–Friday, 8:30 AM–5:00 PM (Eastern Time). There is no technical support available on weekends or holidays.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Complete online application instructions can also be found at the following links:
● How to Register your Institution with ProposalCentral (Grants and Contracts Officials Only)
● How to Register as a ProposalCentral user
● How to Add Other Support
● How to Add Publications
● How to Create an Application using ProposalCentral