Dutch cancer charity KWF is to change its criteria for judging subsidy requests to focus more on the likely impact on patients, the organisation said on Friday.

The fund distributes between €100m and €120m in research grants every year.

‘We always used to assume that the results of the research would reach the patient some how,’ director Michel Rudolphie said in a statement. ‘In the meantime, we know this does not always happen efficiently. So we are now going to more actively manage the entire process – from the fundamental research to the clinical phase.’

Results

Currently many grants go to projects which are not expected to show results for 20 years. The KWF says it will continue to fund long-term projects but wants to partly refocus on research that can be translated more quickly into practical solutions.

The KWF is also to monitor the progress of research projects more closely, which could result in grants being reduced or stopped altogether. The organisation also wants to make sure there is a wide diversity of projects.

Patients are also to be given more say. The KWF’s patients’ advisory board is to be given a role in deciding which research should get funding, with the exception of long-term projects.

Eventually, the fund aims to make sure that part of the proceeds of research it has funded goes back into research. ‘This means patients will doubly benefit from our new approach to research funding,’ the organisation said.