Israel Cancer Research Fund

ICRF channels private philanthropy into competitive cancer-research grants for Israeli scientists working in Israel.[4] Its programs include early-career awards, project grants, research professorships, collaborative funding, postdoctoral fellowships, and support for researchers returning to Israel.[7]

For the 2026–27 funding year, ICRF announced $5.35 million in new grants for 38 projects. Together with 57 renewed grants, the organization reported 95 active awards representing $5.84 million in research funding that year; the new awards represented a $7.25 million multiyear investment.[3]

ICRF was established in the mid-1970s by American and Canadian physicians, scientists, and lay leaders who sought to prevent promising Israeli cancer researchers from emigrating to foreign universities because of inadequate domestic funding for doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career scientists.[8] Cell biologist and immunologist Charlotte Friend was one of the fund's original organizers. She promoted an objective award process and helped recruit leading cancer researchers to its scientific advisory body.[9]

The organization developed chapters in major North American cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, and locations in Florida and Connecticut, as well as a chapter in Jerusalem.[8] A 2012 Brandeis University report included ICRF in its Medical category of American Jewish organizations supporting Israel.[10] By 2017, ICRF was reported to have awarded more than 2,400 grants totaling nearly $64 million and to have expanded its fundraising activity in Israel while continuing to raise most of its funds in North America.[11]

ICRF's stated mission is to support high-quality cancer-related research conducted by Israeli scientists working in Israel.[6] An Israeli government document associated with the Gesher Award describes ICRF as a voluntary charitable organization whose income derives from private donations and whose principal goals are advancing cancer research and training Israeli scientists within Israel.[4]

A distinctive feature of ICRF's model is its direct support of individual scientists rather than physical infrastructure, without deduction of institutional overhead.[5][6] ICRF says that funding scientists in Israel involves approximately 30 percent less overhead than research funding in North America.[5] The organization describes itself as institution-neutral: applications are judged on scientific merit, the quality of the proposal, and the prospective impact of the scientist rather than on affiliation with a particular university or hospital.[6]

ICRF's grant programs span several categories designed to support scientists at different career stages. Professorship Grants provide US$550,000 over five years, while Project Grants offer US$198,000 over three years. Clinical Research Career Development Awards and Research Career Development Awards each provide US$148,500 over three years, and Postdoctoral Fellowships offer US$99,000 over the same period. Acceleration Grants of US$154,000 over two years are reserved for highly innovative approaches intended to advance new ways of thinking about cancer biology and therapeutics. Collaborative Funding Awards reach US$495,000 over three years.[7]

Several collaborative programs extend ICRF's reach through partnerships with other institutions. The Jacki & Bruce Barron Cancer Research Scholars' Program, run jointly with City of Hope, provides $300,000 for one year to co-investigators in the United States and Israel and includes an annual symposium. The Max Ritvo, Alan Slifka & Desiree Dato Fund, established with the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation and the Alan B. Slifka Foundation, provides $250,000 over two years for U.S.-Israeli teams studying fusion-oncoprotein cancers or the roles of epigenetic dysfunction and the tumor microenvironment in metastasis. The ICRF-Conquer Cancer Career Development Award provides $200,000 over three years to Israeli clinical investigators establishing independent, patient-oriented clinical or translational research programs.[7]

The Gesher Award, developed with Israel's Ministry of Science and Technology, offers up to NIS 300,000 over three years to outstanding Israeli cancer scientists living abroad who wish to return to Israel and establish independent research programs. The partnership provides matching funds, research support, and a living stipend for returning postdoctoral researchers.[4][7] The government program document states that eligible applicants must be Israeli citizens conducting cancer research in Israel at qualifying academic, public, semi-public, university, or hospital research institutions; visiting scientists and industrial-sector researchers are excluded.[4]

Donors who sponsor named awards receive letters from the supported scientists describing their work and may visit their laboratories in Israel by prior arrangement.[7]

ICRF's peer-review process is modeled on procedures used by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.[12] The organization says its Scientific Review Panel brings together more than 40 prominent U.S. and Canadian scientists and oncologists who collectively donate approximately 2,000 hours each year to reviewing and discussing applications.[6] Three panels—covering clinical applications, basic research applications, and high-level grants or special initiatives—meet annually in March. Multi-year grants already in progress are reviewed each year and continued only when progress reports are satisfactory.[6]

Review criteria include scientific merit, originality, importance to understanding or treating cancer, the applicant's qualifications, available facilities, and budget.[6] For the Gesher program, panel recommendations were submitted to an International Scientific Council, while awards required approval by the ICRF Board of Trustees and the Ministry of Science and Technology.[4]

In February 2025, ICRF appointed Dr. Arnold Baskies as chair of its international board of trustees. He succeeded Bryna Goldberg, who remained on the executive committee as vice chair, while Alan Herman served as executive director.[12] The Toronto chapter's team page separately lists Goldberg under the title International Chair and Alison Himel as President. Its Scientific Advisory Council includes Dr. Neil Berinstein, Dr. Rena Buckstein, Dr. Allan Kagal, Dr. David Malkin, and Dr. Keith Meloff.[13]

ICRF has raised money primarily in North America while developing additional fundraising activity in Israel.[11] It is listed alongside the Israel Cancer Society and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation among charitable organizations supporting medical research within Israel's broader research system, which also receives support from government ministries, international agencies, foundations, and private donors.[14]

Community fundraising has taken varied forms. In 2012, Israeli athlete Tom Peled organized Bike for the Fight, a bicycle ride from Los Angeles to New York City benefiting ICRF. After his 58-year-old father died of cancer in 2011, Peled had bicycled 3,000 miles across Europe before channeling that experience into the transcontinental American fundraiser.[1]

ICRF's 2026–27 funded-researcher listings included scientists at Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Hebrew University Medical School, the Technion, and the Hadassah Medical Organization.[15]

At Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, ICRF-funded projects have included Moshe Elkabets's study of stromal-cell mechanisms of resistance to anti-EGFR therapies in head and neck cancer; Tomer Cooks's research into fibroblast reprogramming by extracellular vesicles from pancreatic tumors with mutant p53; Ran Taube's investigation of P-TEFb and SEC as targets in leukemia; Aeid Igbaria's work on ER-to-cytosol signaling as a mechanism of chemoresistance; Noah Isakov's study of the dual function of TCF-1 in lymphoma development; and Roi Gazit's multi-year project on models for leukemia in immunocompetent mice.[16][17][18][19][20][21]

ICRF also helped fund a Tel Aviv University study in which researchers 3D-bioprinted an active and viable glioblastoma model. Other funders included the Morris Kahn Foundation, the European Research Council, the Israel Cancer Association, the Israel Science Foundation, and Check Point Software Technologies.[22] A partnership with the U.S.-based Cancer Research Institute has also jointly funded immunotherapy research in Israel.[11]

For the 2025–26 funding year, ICRF supported 74 grants—25 new and 49 continuing—valued at more than $4.5 million.[2] The 2026–27 grants covered artificial intelligence, advanced imaging, liquid biopsy, genomics, single-cell analysis, microbiome research, immunotherapy, precision medicine, and fundamental cancer biology. Highlighted projects addressed early cancer detection through metabolic and structural MRI, the effects of chemotherapy exposure in utero, blood-based single-cell diagnosis of acute leukemia, and the relationship between diet, gut bacteria, and the efficacy of anticancer drugs.[3]

ICRF-funded scientists have been associated with advances involving DNA methylation, BRCA, RAD51, and bone-marrow transplantation, as well as three FDA-approved cancer therapies: Doxil, Gleevec, and Velcade. Scientists supported by the fund have received two Nobel Prizes and nine Israel Prizes.[2]

Sources differ on ICRF's precise founding year. The Jewish Women's Archive states that the fund was established in 1975, while a 2016 report gave 1977 as the year in which American and Canadian physicians, scientists, and lay leaders founded the organization.[9][8] The available material does not resolve the two-year discrepancy.

Cumulative funding figures reflect their respective reporting dates. A 2017 account reported more than 2,400 grants totaling nearly $64 million, while a 2019 report placed cumulative spending at approximately $72 million.[11][23] In 2025, ICRF announced that it had surpassed $100 million across nearly 3,000 grants. By September 2026, it reported a lifetime investment of just under $109 million across more than 3,000 grants.[2][3] The increasing totals are therefore time-specific rather than internally contradictory.