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    • Evaluation Procedure

    EIG Cancer Research and Scholarship Foundation
    Policy on Research
    November 2020

    1. Research and advancing education
    The objective of the EIG Cancer Research and Scholarship Foundation (the ‘Charity’) is to advance education for the public benefit. It achieves this objective by providing, in the context of cancer studies, grants to PhD students and to post PhD researchers, typically university professors and their teams and Higher Education Institutions, who are carrying out advanced studies and research at the forefront of advancing learning and education within the field of cancer studies.
    Research has always been an essential way of furthering these purposes, but research per se is not always charitable and not all research is carried out for the public benefit. This policy statement provides guidance as to when undertaking research will be in furtherance of the main charitable aim of advancing education.

    2. Research

    2.1 Research will normally qualify as charitable only if: Any private (non-charitable) benefit must be legitimately incidental to the achievement of charitable aims for the public benefit.

    2.2 There cannot be an automatic presumption either of public benefit or that private benefit is incidental. It has always been the case, however, that educational charities have to be able to demonstrate that their research is charitable.

    2.3 The trustees retain overall responsibility for ensuring that research funded by their charity meets the requirements. They must fulfil their duties by exercising reasonable diligence and care, and acting in good faith, having properly informed themselves and taken account of all relevant factors before making any decision.

    2.4 Research contributes to society:

    • the subject matter of the proposed research is a useful subject of study.
    • it is intended that knowledge acquired as a result will be disseminated to others.
    • the research is conduct ed for the benefit of the public or a section of the public.
    • through the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest levels of excellence.
    • by its quality and depth and a close inter-relationship between teaching, scholarship, and research combined with strong support for individual researchers as well as research groups.
    • by seeking to relate to wider society by various means, including the contribution to society through the pursuit, dissemination, and application of knowledge.

    3. Criteria for establishing that research as a valid charitable activity
    Research is not, in itself, a charitable aim or activity. To be charitable, research carried out or funded by a charity must both fall within its aims and powers and be carried out for the public benefit. It follows that the research must fulfil each of the criteria set out below:

    • Research must be in a subject or be directed towards establishing on outcome, which is of value and calculated to promote in a meaningful and direct way the particular charitable aims indicated in the object of advancing or enhancing knowledge and understanding in on area which education may cover for the public benefit.
    • Research into a subject may be of public benefit whether or not it is directed at testing a particular hypothesis and (if it is so directed) regardless of whether any particular hypothesis which the research sets out to test is proved valid or invalid. In any case knowledge and understanding should be advanced or enhanced.
    • Research must be undertaken with the intention that the useful knowledge acquired from the research will be disseminated to the public and others able to utilise or benefit from it.
    • Any research which results in useful knowledge must be disseminated. This includes making the knowledge available or otherwise accessible.
    • In some circumstances, particularly where the charitable aims go beyond the advancement of education, knowledge acquired as a result of research can be ‘disseminated ‘ through the practical application of the research results where this is done for the public benefit.
    • This applies equally to research results whose value is immediately apparent and maybe of practical application, and to research results which simply add to the store of useful know ledge and which may be developed further by subsequent research.
    • Research must be justified and undertaken for the public benefit and not solely or mainly for self- interest or communal consumption.
    • Public benefit may arise from research in a variety of ways. In many cases, the dissemination of the useful knowledge gained will constitute adequate public benefit.

    4. Dissemination of research findings
    Useful know ledge gained from research must be made available to the public. A broad view is to be taken in determining what research results are useful and what amounts to adequate dissemination. The approach to dissemination should be justifiable in the circumstances. Useful results may be described as those that increase knowledge and understanding or produce other outcomes for the public benefit whether these are of immediate practical application.
    The obligation to disseminate and make publicly available the useful results of research may be met by trustees in a variety of ways:

    • through teaching.
    • through formal publication of papers in academic journals or the issuing of other published material covering the research and its results, such as books, booklets, magazine articles, papers, or sundry note s. Such material may be produced in electronic form.
    • Where the results of research may be of limited interest, this obligation can be discharged through ensuring that public access given to the material. It is acceptable to restrict access to higher education institutions and other educational research establishments for persons who have sufficient reason to study the material concerned. However, in such cases, material should be catalogued, and its existence made publicly known.
      To be justified as a charitable activity, the charity will need to agree on the public dissemination of the results within the appropriate academic timeframe, normally within six months of the research being completed or the outcomes of value occurring; the longer any delay in publication beyond the normal academic timetable, the greater the burden of proof on the charity to show that the delay is reasonable.

    5. Research and public benefit
    Public benefit is the legal requirement that every organisation set up for one or more charitable aims must be able to demonstrate that its aims are for the public benefit if it is to be recognised This is known as the ‘public benefit requirement’.
    Public benefit is assessed in the light of contemporary social and economic conditions and generally accepted informed views. The benefit must be identifiable and related to the charity’s aims (and balanced against any detriment or harm). It must essentially be a public benefit, with beneficiaries appropriate to the aims and not unreasonably restricted or excluding those in poverty from the opportunity to benefit. And any private benefits must be incidental.

    • In such a case, if the research is to be undertaken in furtherance of educational aims for the public benefit, then:
    • there must be appropriate arrangements in place making provision for:
      -dissemination of the useful results of research within a reasonable time; and
      -the protection of any intellectual property rights the charity has established.
    • it must be clear that any private benefits accruing to individuals or non-charitable or commercial entities are incidental to the delivery of the public charitable benefit, on the basis of information available to the charity at the time.

    6. Incidental private benefit
    For a private benefit to be incidental, the trustees must be satisfied, and must be ab le to demonstrate, that it was:

    • necessary (either in furthering the char it is objects or as a consequence of doing so),
    • reasonable (in relative amount) and
    • in the interests of the charity, in the circumstances.
      Private benefits will be incidental if it can be shown that they directly contribute towards achieving the charity’s aims and/or are a necessary result or by-product of carrying out those aims. In general, a private benefit is a necessary result, or by-product, of carrying out a charity’s aims if:
    • it follows from some action that is taken, and is only taken, with the intention of, furthering the charity’s aims; and
    • the amount of private benefit is reasonable in the circumstances (based on what the charity could have reasonably known at the time).
      If a private benefit does not meet these conditions, then it will be a non-charitable aim in its own right and not incidental. It would be a breach of trust if the trustees decided to carry out activities that resulted in these benefits.

    7. Funding research
    In deciding whether to fund research, charity trustees must discharge their duty to their charity with a reasonable degree of diligence:

    • They must ensure that any decision that they take regarding the undertaking of research is legally sound and, if later challenged, can be justified.
    • Be clear that promoting the particular research in question falls within the aims of the charity (which includes ensuring that the research is for the public benefit) and within their powers as charity trustees. That is a matter of maki ng the connection between carrying out the charity’s aims within the trustees’ powers in the governing document on the one hand and the objectives and anticipated outcomes of the research (as at the time of their decision) on the other.
    • Their decision must be a proper exercise of their discretion as charity trustees. It follows that trustees should seek to ensure that the research effectively furthers the charity’s aims (and its conduct is well-managed and cos t-effective, and proposals and results are properly evaluated to ensure quality).
    • The trustees must act in good faith. They must adequately inform themselves (from information that could reasonably be known at the time) in order to make the decision and take into account all relevant factors. They must disregard any irrelevant factors.
    • Their decision must be within the range of reasonable decisions that a reasonable trustee body could have made.
    • The trustees must also take steps to manage any conflicts of interest that arise. A conflict of interest is any situation where a trustee’s personal interests, or interests that they owe to another body, may (or may appear to) influence or affect the trustee’s decision making.
      Trustees may exercise their powers to delegate decisions about individual contracts or research proposals. They remain responsible for ensuring that proper decisions are made.

    8. Decision making – Grants
    The trustees (or those individuals to whom they have properly delegated the decision) have a duty as part of prudent decision making to adequately inform themselves before making the decision, and not to take into account irrelevant factors.
    EIG Cancer Research and Scholarship Foundation

    Whether a factor is relevant or not will be a matter of judgement in the circumstances. The considerations may be many and complex. The charity’s objects and powers will virtually always be the overriding considerations. Other relevant considerations may include establishing good relations with government and other (commercial) funder s and research partners.

    The trustees must examine the details of the grant applications, taking further proper professional advice as needed and ensure that grants are only authorised if:

    • The research was in an area which furthered the aims of the charity.
    • The research was for the public benefit (with any private benefit being incidental).
    • The terms ag reed by the charity were reasonable in relation to the circumstances that could be known by the charity at the time; and
    • The charity’s interests were protected.
    • There are adequate records of the decision-making process, and
    • There is appropriate supervision and training of the charity ‘s staff involved in authorising contracts .

    9. Further Guidance
    Further guidance may be found in the Charity Commission publication ‘Research by Higher Education Institutions’