Research opportunities in cancers of unmet needResearch opportunities in cancers of unmet need
Funding opportunities
We have a range of grants available for you or your research group, whether you're looking for long-term programme funding for your lab or grants for specific projects or clinical studies.
We’re building a broad portfolio of research in notoriously hard-to-treat cancers, and we can support you as you move into this field.
We believe improving outcomes in cancers with the poorest survival is critical to achieving our ambition to see 3 in 4 people survive their cancer for 10 years or more by 2034.
In the UK, overall survival for people with cancer has doubled in the past 40 years, however, there are some forms of cancer where survival has improved very little and there are limited routes to new therapies.
In 2014, we identified brain tumours, and lung, pancreatic and oesophageal cancer as 'cancers of unmet need'. Since then we have doubled our funding in these cancers, through investigator-led projects, partnership initiatives, and making long-term investments in research facilities and resources. In our 2022 research strategy, we committed to maintaining focus in these four cancers, as well as liver and stomach cancers, which also have some of the poorest five-year survival figures.
Our approach
We recognise that the cancers of unmet need research community has faced a variety of barriers, including a lack of research tools and a strong infrastructure. Our pillars aim to change this by driving investment in four key areas to provide the community with the support it needs. We will:
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Support research that will benefit patients
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Develop research capacity in the UK
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Connect people and partners
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Engage scientists, supporters and staff
Advice for applicants
Our funding committees support research across all cancer types but will prioritise proposals for work on cancers of unmet need as long as they have a sound biological rationale and are of a sufficiently high quality.
Regardless of your career level, if you’re thinking about moving into the field, if you have an idea you’d like to discuss, or if you simply want to know more, please get in touch. We can help you find suitable funding and guide you through the grant application process.
Develop your career with us
We have a variety of fellowships, grants, training and other support to help you establish yourself and your research group in this field. We recognise the particular importance of clinician scientists in delivering clinical impact and we have a number of opportunities to help clinical academics develop their careers in cancer research.
Our portfolio and network
We fund the best research from the best researchers, across the spectrum of cancer research. We focus our portfolio on research which has the potential to make a practical impact for patient and public benefit.
We also recognise the crucial role that infrastructure plays in creating a dynamic and responsive research environment, and we support a variety of facilities, platforms, initiatives and resources to aid your research.
This section provides examples of just some of the research that we are currently funding in hard-to-treat cancers, plus facilities and resources which we have made available to the community.
Our Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence brings together teams at the ICR and University of Cambridge to revolutionise our approach to research and treatment of paediatric brain tumours, drawing on the host institutions' strengths in therapeutic discovery.
Our second Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence will bring together researchers from the University of Edinburgh and University College London to tackle both childhood and adult brain tumours, with a particular focus on glioma and drawing on the host institutions' strengths in data science.
We also awarded a £5m Accelerator Award to researchers at the University of Edinburgh and UCL as part of an infrastructure project to accelerate brain tumour research. The funding will go towards creating new, patient-derived models of gliomas with an accompanying genetic library.
Our Research Centres deliver translational research around the UK by driving local collaborations between universities, hospitals and other research organisations. Our Cambridge Centre, Edinburgh Centre, ICR Centre and UCL Centre have particular expertise to support brain cancer research.
Our Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence unites teams at the University of Manchester and UCL to catalyse research across the pipeline, and sets the global agenda for lung cancer.
The TRACERx Lung Study is a £14 million programme which takes practical steps to make personalised medicine for lung cancer patients a reality. Led by Professor Charles Swanton, the study is tracking cancer evolution through therapy, producing detailed insight into tumour heterogeneity and drug resistance.
Our Stratified Medicine Programme is ensuring that the NHS is ready for the personalised medicine era. It is developing the infrastructure for genetic testing alongside our National Lung Matrix Trial, a large multiple treatment arm clinical trial of precision therapies for lung cancer.
Our Research Centres deliver translational research around the UK by driving local collaborations between universities, hospitals and other research organisations. Our Manchester Centre, ICR Centre and UCL Centre have particular expertise to support lung cancer research.
The International Cancer Genome Consortium is one of the most ambitious international collaborations to date. We're leading on the oesophageal arm of the project and, in collaboration with the OCCAMS consortium, we aim to generate a comprehensive catalogue of somatic mutations in oesophageal adenocarcinoma and Barrett’s oesophagus.
The Human Cancer Models Initiative is making around 1,000 new cancer organoid models available as a resource for your research.
Our Research Centres deliver translational research around the UK by driving local collaborations between universities, hospitals and other research organisations. Our Cambridge Centre, Southampton Centre and Oxford Centre have particular expertise to support oesophageal cancer research.
PRECISION-Panc is a £10 million programme that is profiling pancreatic tumours, to learn more about the disease and work towards personalised medicine for pancreatic cancer patients.
The Pancreatic Cancer Dream Team is an £8 million partnership with Stand Up To Cancer and the Lustgarten Foundation, funding a transatlantic collaboration seeking new therapeutic targets and approaches for the disease.
Our Research Centres deliver translational research around the UK by driving local collaborations between universities, hospitals and other research organisations. Our Glasgow Centre and Cambridge Centre have particular expertise to support pancreatic cancer research.
Our Institutes provide an exceptional environment for discovery research, supported by cutting-edge facilities and world-leading investigators. We have a concentration of pancreatic cancer research at our Scotland Institute (formerly the Beatson Institute) in Glasgow and at our Manchester Institute.
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