Deadline: 31-Mar-23

Worldwide Cancer Research is looking for novel, exciting, and creative ideas that could lead to new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer.

Having a worldwide focus on cancer research helps speed up the progress they can make towards tackling this devastating group of diseases.

That is why they fund discovery research that focuses on any cancer type and from anywhere in the world. In fact, they have invested in almost 2,000 projects worldwide since the foundation in 1979.

What do they Fund?

• The goal is to support research that seeks to answer the difficult questions in cancer biology. They are looking for innovative and truly novel ideas that have the potential to revolutionise the understanding of cancer and how to beat it.
• They award project grants of 12 to 36 months in length to support basic, fundamental or translational research into the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer. They do not prioritise any field of research within this; they welcome research that draws on epidemiological, behavioural and clinical data to provide a starting point for a new avenue of research. Multidisciplinary or discipline-hopping projects are encouraged where this helps stimulate innovation.
• The research described in your application should be a discrete, hypothesis-driven project, achievable within the duration of the support requested. Do not describe a large programme of work – for example the work of your entire laboratory – and then request a contribution towards it – for example funding one member of the laboratory or part of the consumable costs.

Funding Information

• The maximum budget allowed is £275,000, but it should be noted that most of the three-year grants they award have a budget of around £200,000.

Who do they fund?

• The principal investigator on the application must be a suitably qualified researcher (minimum of PhD followed by three years research experience, or equivalent qualification or research experience).

Where do they fund?

• They award grants to principal investigators based at any not-for-profit research institute in the world.

What are they looking for?

• To help them fulfil the aims of the Research Strategy, and to ensure they realise the vision, they are looking for projects that meet the following criteria:
  • Starting new ideas
    • They are looking for innovative research that takes intellectual risks. To us, that means helping researchers turn their bold idea into reality. And if there’s a risk of failure, they are willing to take it, if the rewards for success are worth it.
    • They want to see ideas which have the potential to start new lines of research and to tell them something new about cancer and how it could be prevented, diagnosed or treated.
    • They want to make the most of the supporters’ generous donations by funding standalone research projects. Projects should seek to answer a focused research question, not be an incremental piece of research tied to a larger programme grant.
  • Exciting and creative
    • They are looking for ideas that excite. The ones that make them go, “I wish I had thought of that”. They are looking for proposals with a creative approach to answering fundamental questions that could change how they think about cancer. Often these are ideas that other funders may overlook.
  • Scientific quality
    • They want to see the most exciting and creative new ideas, but they are also responsible stewards of the supporters’ donations.  They need to see robust scientific reasoning and appropriate solid methodology to back it up. The aims of a project should be feasible with the time and resources requested, and with the expertise of the research team.
  • Transformative impact
    • They support blue-sky thinking in research and want to direct funding towards projects that could transform an area of cancer research or one day have a major impact on the lives of people with cancer. While impact on cancer patients is a priority for them and the supporters, they recognise that important discoveries take time to bear fruit and that it may be many years before the research leads to lives saved or improved.

For more information, visit Worldwide Cancer Research.