Dr Abubakar Bello talks to ecancer about the Beginning Investigator Grant for Catalytic Research (BIG Cat).

He begins by explaining that the grant has been around for over 10 years (started in 2010) and is a collaboration between the African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC), the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR). The grant is $50,000 for 2 years and is intended to support exploratory data collection by African scientists engaged in cancer research in Africa.

Dr Bello then goes on to say that BIG Cat is being rebranded, with the main change being that AORTIC will now be the primary organisational administrator. AACR will continue its mentorship for the next few years, thereafter it will withdraw and AORTIC will become the sole governing body of BIG Cat.

He concludes by saying other large U.S. organisations have shown interest in supporting the BIG Cat grant. He also mentions that this gives them the opportunity to run clinical trials in Sub-Saharan Africa.