The Meso Foundation has been instrumental in providing seed money for research into mesothelioma when almost no other research funds for the cancer were available. To date the Meso Foundation has funded over $5 million in research projects across the globe. It takes a number of years to move from the bench to the bedside but as the Meso Foundation's research grant program matures it is helping to open up exciting new clinical trials available to patients now.

The Foundation’s peer-reviewed grant program provides a competitive un-biased process for selecting, awarding and monitoring research projects. Each year, the Foundation announces a call for grant applications and gives the submissions to its scientific review panel to examine and critique. The review panel then selects the best, most original and most promising submissions from that year's candidates and presents them to the Board of Directors who decides how many the Foundation will be able to fund. The Foundations then begins contract negotiations with the institution and researchers involved to agree on the terms and conditions of the grant. The candidates may not spend the money on infrastructure or equipment purchases but must use the money to fund labor and materials to be used in research.

The money is paid out in two installments over two years, allowing progress review and proper oversight. Investigators are required to submit a 10 month progress report which is reviewed by at least the Chairman of the Science Advisory Board to determine whether their funding will continue. During the second year of their grant they are required to attend the International Symposium on Malignant Mesothelioma to present a poster to the patients and researchers in attendance about their project.  At the end of their project term they will be required to submit a Final Report that details what was and wasn’t accomplished during their grant term.

It takes a number of years to move the bench to the bedside but as the Meso Foundation’s research grant program matures it is helping to open up exciting clinical trials available to patients now.