In the Cancer Research UK Science and Research policy team, we try to untangle some of the challenges that impact the delivery of cancer research in the UK, and identify ways that governments in the UK can help address them, to help beat cancer sooner.
Cancer Research UK invests across the research lifecycle: in discovery science which uncovers the fundamentals of cancer biology, in research that translates this information into new ideas for interventions and treatments, and in clinical research that delivers benefit to patients. This gives us a great insight into the cancer research landscape, and the wide range of factors that impact our researchers’ ability to do their work.
The UK research and innovation (R&I) environment has a lot of strengths. However, without action, some of these strengths could be at risk. More could be done to ensure discoveries move through the research lifecycle efficiently and reach more people affected by cancer sooner.
Many of these challenges don’t have easy solutions – they are complex and need time. There are also opportunities on the horizon, like advances in technologies, which we want to make sure cancer research can benefit from.
This is why we are taking a long-term view of the cancer research landscape as a whole, to find out how to build a future in 2050 where the best possible research and innovation can happen.
‘Futures’ thinking is a methodology that helps you think a long way into the future. We are using it to develop an optimistic and realistic vision for the UK’s cancer R&I landscape in 2050, and to work out what we need from governments to get there.
The Towards 2050 project will run until summer 2027, with three key strands:
Horizon scanning is a process to identify emerging trends, opportunities, and threats that might affect a system, through literature reviews and expert interviews. We will use this to understand what factors might affect cancer research and innovation by 2050, so our vision and roadmap can take these into account.
A key pillar of this work will be our vision for the cancer R&I landscape in 2050, which will enable cancer research to bring more benefits to more people. We’ll develop this through workshops to gather views from a broad range of stakeholders, so the vision is ambitious and optimistic, credible and rooted in delivering patient and public benefit.
As the vision comes together, we will map out series of policy steps that need to be taken to achieve it, including actions that can be taken in the near term by current governments.
Our visioning workshops kick off in summer 2026, and will be running until spring 2027.
We are looking to engage a wide range of stakeholders in this work, including the public, people affected by cancer, R&I experts, cancer researchers, policymakers, and more. If you would like to share your thoughts or get involved in any of this work, please get in touch with Emma Cattermole at emma.cattermole@cancer.org.uk.
Please reach out with any questions, comments, and to register your interest.
Science Policy Manager
