Message from Alan Herman, ICRF Executive Director – July 2026

This week marks an exciting milestone as ICRF begins the process of announcing the first awards of our 2026-2027 funding cycle. With an initial commitment of $4.9 million, ICRF has now invested more than $100 million in groundbreaking cancer research, supporting over 3,000 research projects since our founding. I am excited to share more details in the coming days. These are milestones we can all celebrate because they represent lives changed, discoveries made, and hope for patients and families around the world.

But these numbers tell only part of the story.

This year, our Scientific Review Panel identified 38 outstanding research proposals worthy of funding. Thanks to your generosity, we are able to support 25 of these exceptional projects today. Yet another 13 highly rated projects remain unfunded. Over the coming months, our fundraising teams across the United States, Canada, and Israel will continue working tirelessly to secure the resources needed to bring these innovative ideas to life.

The need for ICRF has never been greater. Each year we receive an increasing number of outstanding grant applications from Israel’s leading scientists. At the same time, traditional sources of research funding continue to decline, and many Israeli investigators face additional barriers to international funding opportunities because of the rise in antisemitism around the world. These challenges make ICRF’s mission more essential than ever.

For more than 50 years, ICRF has ensured that Israel’s brightest scientific minds have the opportunity to pursue bold ideas that might otherwise go unfunded. Time and again, those investments have led to discoveries that have transformed our understanding of cancer and contributed to therapies that are saving lives across the globe.

As we celebrate this year’s funding announcements, I hope you will also recognize the opportunity that still lies before us. Today, 13 exceptional research projects have earned the highest scientific endorsement but are still waiting for the funding needed to move forward. I remain confident that, with your partnership and the dedication of our fundraising teams across the United States, Canada, and Israel, we can change that.

Every gift, every introduction and every conversation helps move another promising idea from the laboratory toward the clinic, bringing hope to patients and families around the world. Together, we can ensure that groundbreaking science is never limited by a lack of funding and that the next life-saving discovery has every opportunity to become a reality.

Thank you for believing in our Israeli scientists, our mission, and the power of research to transform lives.

With gratitude,