Funding translation
Our funding opportunities are open to both Cancer Research UK-funded and non-Cancer Research UK-funded researchers or projects, and consist of several categories:
Translation Fund (including the Early Validation Fund)
Therapeutic Catalyst
Childhood Cancer Therapeutic Catalyst
Data Catalyst (formerly Data Innovation Awards)
Looking for early-stage capital and venture creation support?
Explore our Seed Fund
Translation Fund
What is it?
The Translation Fund helps progress your project or bridge a gap to get your project to the next stage. Proposals should have a clearly defined endpoint that is achievable in the short to medium term. The Translation Fund also includes the Early Validation Fund (formerly the Project Development Fund), which aims to de-risk very preliminary translational science. We don't restrict types of proposals, but they must be consistent with our vision and purpose.
Who is eligible?
- Any projects fitting the above remit
- Open to non-Cancer Research UK-funded researchers or projects
Funding amount
- Up to £250k per project (including Early Validation Fund, up to £80k per project)
Learn more about our Translation Fund
Therapeutic Catalyst
What is it?
This scheme provides opportunities to accelerate the translation of laboratory discoveries into novel cancer therapeutics. It consists of two competitive application-based awards, each with a fixed budget and defined deliverable. You can apply to our Target Award for cancer target identification or validation (including CRISPR screening) or our Early Therapy Award for hit identification-enabling work, druggability assessment or advancing an existing early therapy.
Who is eligible?
- We are looking for academic researchers who have their own lab or have undertaken a significant period of postdoctoral research, based at any university or research institute worldwide
- Open to non-Cancer Research UK-funded researchers or projects
Funding amount
- Target Award: up to £250k
- Early Therapy Award: up to £350k
Find out more and apply
Childhood Cancer Therapeutic Catalyst
What is it?
A dedicated scheme aiming to de-risk early childhood cancer therapeutic opportunities and facilitate further drug discovery activity. We are seeking projects with strong potential to deliver better options for children and young people with cancer.
For projects at a later stage, consider support via C-Further, the Children's Cancer Therapeutics Consortium.
Who is eligible?
- We are looking for academic researchers based at any university or research institute worldwide, who have their own lab and/or have undertaken a significant period of postdoctoral research
- Open to non-Cancer Research UK-funded researchers or projects
Funding amount
- Up to £250k per project
Explore the opportunity
Data Catalyst
What is it?
Formerly known as the Data Innovation Awards, our Data Catalyst provides researchers with funding to be used to support cleaning, annotation, curation, linking or storage of data that has significant commercial potential.
Who is eligible?
- We are looking for researchers that have generated a high-quality cancer dataset or are working on a project that will generate one in the future, where there is a need for additional funding to make the dataset suitable for sharing.
- Open to non-Cancer Research UK-funded researchers or projects
Funding amount
- Up to £100k per project
Access full details
Our Seed Fund
Looking for early-stage capital and venture creation support?
We support researchers with the entrepreneurial spirit to turn ideas into high-potential start-ups to propel them to patient impact faster. We provide funds for early-stage validation, pre-seed and seed capital. Our investment remit includes therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices and data-driven and AI solutions.