Observer scheme

We're offering early- to mid-career researchers the opportunity to observe our panel and committee meetings across our funding remit. 

Through this experience we hope you can:  

• understand how grant funding decisions are made to ensure we fund the best quality research 
• develop your own successful research proposals in the future  
• help develop your skills as peer reviewers  
• have the opportunity to give feedback to us to help improve our review processes 

Register your interest 

• We welcome expressions of interest from early- to mid-career cancer researchers* based in the UK** who are potential applicants to one of our award schemes in the next two years. 
• We particularly welcome applications from researchers from ethnic minority groups, women and non-binary researchers and researchers who are disabled or have a long-term health condition. 
• You do not need to already be funded by Cancer Research UK to apply but you should intend to apply for our funding in future. For those applicants who hold a Cancer Research UK award: priority will be given to award holders in the final two years of their award.
• Please note that when applying for any of our funding schemes, you would need to meet the full eligibility criteria as required by the funding scheme guidelines. 

*Currently ineligible: non-clinical PhD students and senior or established investigators.  

**For confidentiality reasons, this opportunity is only open for researchers based at a UK Host Institution. If your current institution is based outside the UK but you’re planning to move to a UK Host Institution, to be eligible for this observer opportunity, you would be required to provide Cancer Research UK with a letter of support from the new UK Host Institution before being accepted.   

Places will be allocated first to researchers who fall within our priority groups and then on a first-come, first-served basis. We will try and allocate you a place based on the award you’re interested in applying for, however please note places are very limited and unfortunately, we cannot guarantee places for specific panels or committees. This also applies if you fall within one of the priority groups.  

If you’re allocated a place, we will contact you and ask you to complete a confidentiality agreement and declare any potential conflicts of interest.

If you’re not allocated a place, you’ll be added to a waiting list and we’ll be back in touch to check if you’re still interested in the future. Please note that the same priority groupings apply to our waiting list and we cannot guarantee a place at a future committee or panel meeting. 

We are currently inviting observers for the following meetings: