SPARK Award

Please submit your SPARK proposal by December 15th, 2025. 

Before you can make a submission, you will be prompted to log in or set up an account with Oxford Abstracts.

What is the SPARK award? 

The “SPARK” award aims to foster early-stage scientific ideas and collaborations. Interested parties should submit a proposal that outlines their idea, addresses how it is innovative and considers a holistic approach to breast cancer prevention. The most promising proposals will be selected to prepare a more detailed pitch deck, and finalists will be invited to present their ideas live in front of an outstanding panel of judges at the RISE UP for Breast Cancer meeting to be held in San Francisco, CA from February 19-21st, 2026. Selected SPARK awardees will receive up to $50k to develop their ideas and build the collaborations needed for future progress.

What are we looking for? 

The SPARK Award is designed to ignite early-stage scientific ideas and foster collaborations that can reshape the future of breast cancer prevention. We are interested in proposals that emphasize biological insight, mechanistic understanding, and innovative scientific approaches, even if they are preliminary or high-risk.

We encourage bold, hypothesis-driven science that takes a holistic view of prevention and has the potential to open new directions for research. 

Eligibility: Competition is open to anyone with a great scientific research idea from any place in the world. Investigators can be involved on more than one proposal, and we encourage early-stage investigators and individuals from all backgrounds to apply. 

Examples from last year’s SPARK winners

• Organizing a clinical trial for use of mifepristone as a breast cancer prevention treatment
• Understanding the role of weight-loss drugs on biomarkers of cancer risk, and to identify biomarkers to help predict patients most likely to achieve weight loss at levels that would be sufficient to decrease their cancer risk. 
• Leveraging a unique, female-tailored implant that delivers a low dose of testosterone combined with an aromatase inhibitor (T+Ai), seeking to restore hormonal balance in cancer-prone tissues. 
• An app to design tailored fitness plans to accommodate the specific needs and limitations of cancer patients, helping patients regain mobility and function lost during treatment. 

Submission Requirements 

Required questions include (3 page max): 

1. Describe your idea to better incorporate breast cancer prevention into women’s health products and/or the standard of care for women today? 
2. How is it done today and what are the limits of current practice? 
3. What is new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful? 
4. What impact do you think this will have on women’s health writ large?  
5. Who is on your team and how will this team help you to make this idea transformational? 
   1. Please include the NIH bio sketch for academic investigators 
6. How have or how will you engage community voices in your work? Why does this idea matter to the community writ large?  

• Other information:  
• length: 2 pages, narrow margins 
• references: references should be listed at the end and do not count towards the two-page length. 

Budget: please indicate generally how you plan to spend the funds (skeleton budget only) 

Judging Criteria

1. Problem: does the team clearly define their problem? How well does the solution fit the stated problem? 
2. Responsiveness to the call: Does it have the potential to leverage what we know about breast cancer biology, treatment, and hormonal management to better approach breast cancer prevention, treatment, and/or the quality of life of breast cancer survivors? 
3. Transformative potential on women’s health: Does the idea aim to integrate knowledge across women’s health providers and stakeholders? 
4. Technical feasibility: Is the design feasible? Has the team considered major technical challenges and reasonable plans to solve them?
5. Community engagement: Does this solution work to engage their target audience and community? Is it easily utilized? 
6. Accessibility: Did they consider how their solution can be implemented or utilized by diverse stakeholders? Does this solution disrupt systems that create inequities? 
7. Team: Does the team have the necessary skills, expertise, and/or experience? 

Please submit your SPARK proposal by December 15th, 2025. 

Before you can make a submission, you will be prompted to log in or set up an account with Oxford Abstracts.