Money well spent for cancer foundation Sarah Murdoch, left, and Carole Renouf. Picture: Nic Gibson Source: News Limited ALMOST two decades after embarking on the herculean task of funding Australia's most promising would-be cancer cures, the National Breast Cancer Foundation has released the findings of an independent audit into nearly $100 million in research grants. The $73,000 study, conducted by the Health Economics Research Group at London's Brunel University, evaluated the foundation's research grants against eight benchmarks, from its policy impacts to its prominence in academic journals. The report found 56 per cent of foundation grants directly engaged with cancer patients and other research beneficiaries, such as consumer groups and policymakers. The figure rose to 86 per cent of grounds for applied research. Although foundation grants were expected to result in at least 185 higher degrees for researchers, including 121 doctorates, the research found only one-third of grants concluded before 2008 claimed an impact on health policy. NBCF chief executive Carole Renouf said the foundation was "courageous" to spend pound stg. 50,000 ($73,000) on the "payback" audit, given no other charity in its field had agreed to have its achievements scrutinised by the world-leading team. "There's not much point being a legend in your own mind; we need to be able to have independent evidence to show people we're doing the right thing with your funds," Ms Renouf said, adding there were "a bunch" more charities who could afford the audit. I don't think we would pay pound stg. 50,000 again but what we have is the framework and . . . from our own annual progress reports that we receive from people we fund, we will match against those eight measures. NBCF patron Sarah Murdoch said "we had all our fingers and toes crossed that it would be a positive result."