Applications must be submitted by the principal investigator (PI). The PI must meet both the following conditions:

1. be certified by the CAMRT or equivalent, and
2. be a current CAMRT member in good standing for the duration of the grant funding.

Collaborators (if any) may be non-members of the CAMRT, but must not be agents of any commercial entity.

• Previous research grant awardees are eligible to apply.
• PIs may not have concurrent CAMRT research grants.
• PIs are limited to the submission of one application as PI per year.
• Applications will be considered for projects that have applied for or received funding from another source

1. Proposals for research related to radiation therapy, dosimetry or medical imaging (including radiography, nuclear medicine, MRI, sonography and advanced specialties) are welcomed for this research grant.
2. Preference will be given to proposals that are clearly aligned with the strategic directions of CAMRT .
3. Proposals related to education, administration or other professional issues in the field will also be considered provided there is a significant research/investigative component.

Members of the research grant committee are not eligible to apply for a grant during their term on the committee.

The Grant Application is available in a fillable PDF format.

Within the Grant Application, applicants are required to complete a detailed Research Proposal describing the scientific project and proposed research activities. The Research Proposal must contain each section listed below (the word count for each section is listed in the form)

• Literature Review
  • Describe the problem and its significance, the gap in knowledge
  • A hypothesis may be included here (if applicable)
• Purpose/Objectives
  • A clear purpose should logically flow from the literature review
• Methods and Materials
  • Describe how the research is planned to be carried out in terms of study design, data collection methods and measures, sample selection, statistics considerations etc.
• Proposed Data Analysis
  • Include a specific plan to analyze data, and draw conclusions from the data collected
• Timeline
• Budget
  • Include justification of items that are not self-explanatory
• References
  • Note that extensive referencing is not required or expected

Project funding is to support the cost of research personnel, equipment and/or supplies. A maximum of $500 may be used for dissemination of results at a conference.

Course/tuition fees are not eligible expenses.

Where the funding request to CAMRT represents only a portion of the cost of a proposed project, this should be stated and an estimated total cost of project should be included. Additional sources of funding that has been received, approved, applied for or is pending approval should be noted.

If a project is deemed the winner of the CAMRT grant competition and its success is dependent on all funding being available, CAMRT will require proof of secured funding from all sources before issuing funds to the successful applicant.

The project timeline should generally not exceed one year. Projects longer than one year may be considered if accompanied by a project plan with timeline and reasoning clearly articulated. In the event that an extension is required, an extension of the project up to a maximum of 3 months beyond the original ending date with no funding implication may be requested. A request for an extension along with a progress report must be made in writing to the chair of the committee. The request must state the reasons for the extension, length of the extension required, and an explanation of how the reasons for the delay have been corrected.

Proposals will be graded and grant recipients selected by the CAMRT Research Grant Committee. At the discretion of the committee, external experts may be called upon to advise or review proposals that are outside the scope of the committee members’ expertise.

Proposals will be evaluated based on three criteria:

1. Applicants and environment

• Experience and/or qualifications of the PI, co-investigators and associated personnel
• Suitability of the research environment
• Access to required resources

• Clear rationale for study and specific objectives of research
• Appropriateness and feasibility of research approach
• Quality of research design, including sampling, recruitment strategy, methods, assessment of reliability, data collection and plan for data analysis
• Soundness of budget, realism of timeline
• Appropriateness of ethical considerations

• Alignment with CAMRT and relevance to the MRT profession
• Addresses a clear gap, with potential to generate new knowledge
• Potential to result in publishable work

The PI is responsible for submitting a final report following the funding period (approximately 1 year) to the Research Grant Committee consisting of an Executive Summary (to be published on the CAMRT website with the PI retaining intellectual rights to work), summary of expenditures, and any dissemination activities.

Successful applicants are additionally expected to endeavor to disseminate research findings at the project’s completion through presentation and publication. Funded research may be considered for presentation at a CAMRT conference or another suitable conference. Should the research not be presented at the CAMRT Annual Meeting, the PI may be offered the opportunity to present the work to the CAMRT community via a webinar (or similar media) which will be facilitated by the CAMRT and Research Grant Committee. JMIRS holds first right of refusal on publication of research results but does not guarantee publication.

CAMRT must be acknowledged as the funding source in any conference presentation or publications in relation to the research project funded.

The decision to award the grant will be reached no later than May 15 annually, and announced at the “Celebration of Excellence” reception, as well as in the CAMRT Newsletter.

Prior to funds being released, the successful PI must return a signed Conditions of Funding that will be provided by the Research Grant Committee.

Following the funding period, and as part of the Conditions of Funding the PI is required to complete a final report consisting of:

1. Executive Summary: a short report (maximum of 1 page, single spaced) summarizing the research problem, project approach, key results, achievement of the aims and significance of the findings to date; written in a non-scientific, non-expert language that is understandable to the general Medical Radiation Technologist community.
2. Project Completion Report: a summary of expenditures and explanation of unexpended funds, if any; a list of research dissemination activities (e.g. presentations, publications); a draft or final version of the publication, if available.

Note that the Research Grant Committee reserves the right to request the return to the CAMRT any unused or improperly spent funds.

This is a blinded example of a past years’ winning application (posted with permission from the applicants). Note that this was submitted prior to the grant form streamlining, so there are two attachments (the form and the proposal) instead of everything in one document.

CAMRT Grant Application Form

Research Proposal

2023 – PI: Kitty Chan; Co-Investigators: Nicole Harnett, Yat Man Tsang;  International Perspective on Advanced Practice (AP) Radiation Therapy Activities.

2022 – PI: Brian Chwyl; Co-Investigator: Jennifer Dewhurst; RadSkills – a pilot project: Investigating online video OERs for teaching radiation therapy clinical skills in a blended learning environment.

2021 – PI: William Tran; Co-Investigators: Mateusz Bielecki, Eileen Rakovitch; An artificial intelligence framework to predict breast cancer response to neoadjuvant stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR): A pilot study. Ahead of print

2020 – PI: Caitlin Gillan; Co-Investigators: Sheena Chung, Paul Cornacchione, Rachel Fleming, Chao Li, Aruna Mahabir, Joanna Talotta, Nicole Harnett; Process optimization in breast imaging: Exploring advanced roles for medical radiation technologists. Full paper

2019 – PI: Tara Rosewall; Co-Investigators: Vickie Kong, Andrew Bayley; Therapist-recorded patient assessment facilitates evidence-based practice: An evaluation of prospectively documented acute toxicity for prostate cancer patients treated with radical external beam radiotherapy from 2001 to 2017.

2018 – PI: Nichole Smith; Co-Investigators: Amy Morris, Jonathan Bower, Melissa Sponagle, Rebeckah Bahr, Janet O’Connor; Collaborators: Mohamed Abdolell, Robert Gilbert; Evaluation of the clinical value of extended field of view vs. standard field of view 18F fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose PET/CT imaging in melanoma patients: A multi-center study. Executive Summary

2017 – PI: Harinder Grewal, MRT(N), CTIC (NM), Co-Investigators: Jisla Mathews, Ravi Menezes, Paul Cornacchione; Consensus-based development of image quality assessment criteria for technologist peer review. Full paper; Executive Summary

2016 – PI: Winnie Li, RTT; Frame-based versus frame-less immobilization for gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery: Patient perspective. Full paper; Executive Summary

2015 – PI: Colleen Dickie, RTT, RTMR; Co-Investigators: Nicole Harnett, ACR, RTT; Lynn Nguyen, RTT; Charles Catton, Michael Sharpe; Online learning module for evidence-based radiation treatment of soft tissue sarcoma. Abstract; Executive Summary

2014 – PI: Elizabeth Lorusso, RTR, RTMR; Co-Investigators: Lyndsay Fitzgeorge; Dose optimization in direct digital radiography: A study of practitioners’ assessments of image quality and perceptions. Full paper; Executive Summary

2013 – PI: Tessa Larsen, RTT; Co-Investigators: Mina Yaver, RTT; Ann Foo, RTT; Evaluation of new bowel and bladder preparation guidelines for radical prostate and prostate bed patients receiving radiation therapy: A pilot study at Peel Region Cancer Center (PRCC). Full paper; Executive Summary

2012 – PI: Michelle Lau, RTT; Employing telemedicine for follow-up of patients after completion of palliative whole-brain radiotherapy for intracranial metastases. Abstract

2011 – Two winners: PI: Kitty Chan, RTT and Co-Investigator: Michael Milosevic, Identifying factors to optimize the efficiency of MRI-guided brachytherapy process for cervical cancer. Full paper

PI: John Hsien, RTT; and Co-Investigators: Rebecca Wong; Tara Rosewall, RTT, FCAMRT, The importance of follow-up care after palliative radiotherapy – The patients’ and caregivers’ perspective. Full paper; Executive Summary