This bursary provides funding for clinical trainees to undertake a research project after completing their PhD.
Applications are reviewed twice per year. Upcoming application deadline: 25 September 2025
Up to two years
Up to £35k
Our core eligibility criteria are outlined below. We recommend that you contact us for an informal and confidential discussion of your proposal prior to submitting your application.
We’ll advise on your eligibility and provide guidance on submitting your application.
Email research.careers@cancer.org.uk
Our Postdoctoral Research Bursaries fund the best clinical academics to develop careers in cancer research. This bursary is designed to provide short-term funding for a period of your research.
This bursary is for you if you are interested in a career in academic medicine and wish to pursue your research interests alongside completing specialty training.
This bursary will help you secure personal fellowship funding or a permanent academic post at a later stage of training, or on completion of training.
You can apply for this if you are a clinician who:
is eligible to complete your training and practice medicine in the UK
has a national training number (NTN or NTN(A)) at the time of the award (normally ST3 or above with more than 12 months of clinical training remaining)
has obtained a higher degree (MD/PhD) in a cancer-relevant research area; your thesis must be submitted by the time you take up the award
You cannot apply if you have previously held any substantive personal postdoctoral fellowships (with the exception of clinical lectureships), if your research is currently being funded by another equivalent bursary or grant, or if you hold a permanent academic position at an institute that supports your salary.
This award must be held in a UK university or research institute. You will need the support of an appropriate research group and supervisor. Most UK university departments are eligible, but we can help you check your host institution is eligible.
If your salary is funded through one of our Institutes, you are not eligible to apply for this bursary.
You may request to undertake a period of research training in a collaborating group, either in the UK or internationally, as long as it fits with your research proposal and career ambitions. To do this, please name the proposed institution you plan on visiting in your application and strongly justify this request as part of the research proposal. This shouldn’t normally be anywhere you’ve previously worked.
Please inform your host institution that you intend to apply as they will need to approve your application.
You can submit applications for the same project to different funding bodies, including us. However, if successful, you may only accept one award. If applicable, please notify us and disclose this in your application under 'Other Funding'.
Career breaks (due to personal circumstances), part-time working and changes in discipline will be taken into consideration by our panels and committees to make appropriate adjustments when assessing your record of outputs, research achievements and career progression.
You can apply on a part-time or flexible working basis if this fits with the needs of your host institution and they approve your request.
For bursary applicants, there is flexibility in the working hours we expect you to spend on academic research, provided this aligns with the research proposal, and you can demonstrate how your research time will be protected. The maximum award value still applies.
If you’d like to apply on a part-time basis, contact us to discuss your proposed parameters for the award and how to include the part-time request in your application.
You can apply for a Postdoctoral Research Bursary in any (or more than one) of the research areas listed below, as long as your research proposal is cancer-relevant and clearly articulates the cancer-related question you’re focusing on.
We also accept proposals spanning both basic and translational research.
We are particularly interested in proposals addressing cancers of unmet need (ie brain, lung, oesophageal, pancreatic, liver and stomach cancer), early detection and other areas of strategic priority.
Any cancer-relevant area of basic biological research, including:
cancer cell metabolism or genetics
cell transformation and oncogenesis
genomic instability and cell cycle
inflammation
migration, invasion, metastasis and tumour dormancy
tumour immunology, biology, microenvironment, heterogeneity, evolution
Studies may include model systems (eg yeast/fly/mouse/cell lines etc.) or primary tumour material. Please specify how the chosen model relates to the question you’re addressing.
Research that generates biological data for developing therapeutics, including:
identification and functional characterisation of biological targets in cell lines, primary tumour material or model systems
biological mechanisms of therapeutic interventions
mechanisms of resistance to therapies
biological investigation of exceptional responders or non-responders
discovery research to identify and/or provide biological insight regarding potential biomarkers using samples from defined patient cohorts (eg retrospective trial or cohort)
The following areas of imaging research, including:
whole-body preclinical studies
cellular imaging to address questions of tumour biology in animal models or through whole-body imaging
development of imaging or contrast agents and other imaging technologies
imaging research associated with surgery
Research to optimise radiotherapy, including:
radiotherapy physics eg improving treatment planning, reducing toxicity and increasing efficacy of treatment to improve patient outcomes
radiobiology eg mechanisms of radiotherapy resistance and drug interactions
imaging radiotherapy
Research across all engineering and physical sciences disciplines, including:
physics
engineering
mathematical and computational modelling
chemical and molecular sciences
materials science
molecular and/or tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
Research areas, including:
prevention – eg adherence to chemoprevention
epidemiology
population-based studies, including classical, clinical and molecular epidemiological approaches, to help understand risk and disease aetiology, and to test and validate strategies to improve the prevention and control of cancer in patients and the public
incidence rates of cancer, including changes over time and geographies
investigation into the changes in cancer survival, driven by risk factors or other relevant factors
methodological and statistical research relating to prevention and population sciences
population-level epidemiological studies of secondary physical effects of cancer treatment
risk stratification and associated cancer prevention studies, including identifying high-risk groups where preventative interventions would be beneficial and preventative intervention research could be conducted
exploratory and confirmatory clinical trials seeking to test the efficacy and safety of chemo-preventive agents
development and evaluation of behavioural and lifestyle interventions to support prevention of cancer, including cancer recurrence, across a range of risk factors, which may include tobacco, alcohol, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, obesity and UV exposure (individual or population level)
screening as a form of prevention, including population-level trials of screening approaches
policy-focused research to help develop our policies and advocacy strategies concerning cancer prevention, including policy research on tobacco control
Research areas, including:
biological research underpinning early detection
epidemiology/risk stratification for early detection
data/computation-driven approaches to early detection
development of preclinical early detection model systems to detect early cancer and precancerous conditions
proposals that focus on the development of future trials
pharmaceutical research focused on a single lead compound or on optimising an existing therapeutic approach via a standard drug development pathway
infrastructure support to our clinical trials units or centres
If you are unsure which funding committee is most suited to your research proposal, please contact us and we can provide a recommendation. You can also search our funding schemes to explore other opportunities.
Applications are considered twice a year by our Research Careers Committee.
Learn more about how we make funding decisions
The Research Careers Committee will assess your application based on key criteria including scientific rationale, cancer relevance, track record and potential and access to resources and facilities.
The 5-year rolling success rate (financial year 2020–2025) from application to funding for this scheme is 52%.
You can find more information on these criteria on our committee pages.
Learn more about the committee
We offer early- to mid-career researchers the opportunity to observe panel and committee meetings across our funding remit and prioritise giving this opportunity to researchers from underrepresented groups.
Find out more about eligibility and how to apply
We will provide feedback on your application, but all funding decisions are final. Committee members cannot discuss their decisions with applicants, so please do not approach them directly.
This allows our committee members to keep the Code of Practice for Funding Committees, which keeps our review process fair and protects applicants, committee members and external reviewers.
Our review process is extremely important to us, so we reserve the right to decline applications from anyone who compromises its integrity.
We consider applications for this award twice a year.
Applications due by: 25 September 2025
You can apply for up to £35k under this bursary.
Funding is available for up to two years of support and can be used for:
associated running expenses
research services costs (eg statistical support, lab technician services)
travel related to the research project or collaborations
Note that you can’t use money to fund your own salary or course or examination fees. We don’t usually fund equipment, but you can request essential items as long as you fully justify them, and don’t exceed the £35k limit.
The award is primarily intended to support the research costs of clinical academic trainees. However, you may request the use of part of the funds to support a technician or research assistant, eg a full time post for a short period of time, or a proportion of their full time salary, toward a specific aim of the research proposal.
You should fully justify the necessity of this for your proposed research project, and the salary should not make up the majority of the funding request for the award.
For more information on what is covered by our awards, view our costs and salary guidance.
You should contact us for an informal and confidential discussion of your proposal to determine your eligibility and discuss funding options. Please reach out at least 1 month before the submission deadline.
We also advise you to inform your host institution, as they will need to approve your application if you are invited to submit.
When contacting us, please include:
a short CV, including key research outputs, past and current funding (title and value of award)
a one-page (max) abstract of your proposed research
a short description of why you’re applying and how you meet the expected skills and experience
Contact research.careers@cancer.org.uk
We recommend you also read additional guidance such as our costs guidance, grant conditions, and other policies to understand any additional requirements before applying.
Read our research policies and guidance
You can manage your application and if successful, your grant, through our online grants management system, Flexi-Grant.
The proposed start date you include in your application depends on the timing of the funding committee meeting where full applications are reviewed. Please ensure it is on the first of the month and at least two full months after the relevant committee meeting, as indicated by the table below.
Committee review | Earliest start date |
|---|---|
May | 1 August |
November | 1 February |
When including publications, please include a full author list (where this is unmanageable, for example for large consortium papers, you may list the first 12 authors followed by ‘et al.’ provided you denote your place in the author list, eg [Bloggs J, 15th of 65 authors]). Please also include the publication title, journal, publication year, volume number and either page numbers or digital object identifier.
ORCID does not pull through the list of authors, so these should be entered manually if using ORCID to generate your publication list.
Also be sure to list any notable and relevant research outputs from your work such as preprints, training delivered, contribution to consortia, patents, key datasets, software, novel assays and reagents etc.
In order to clearly distinguish between peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed material, you should list your publications and research outputs in separate sections. Research outputs must be clearly labelled and must be in a citable format (eg including a digital object identifier).
As part of your application, you will need to provide the following information:
applicant information, career overview, skills and experience section, and research abstract, to be completed following the guidance available in Flexi-Grant
research proposal and accompanying uploads/supporting information, to be completed following the guidance provided below under additional information
There is no template for this scheme, so please structure your research proposal as outlined below.
As a general guide:
Number all pages and do not exceed 1,500 words.
Word counts exclude figures, figure legends, time charts, risk and mitigations plans, and references.
Use single-line spaced text, in Calibri font, pt 11, black.
The last name and initials of the lead applicant should be included in the header or footer of all pages.
Where available, you should include preliminary data, figures and any unpublished research findings or methodologies supporting your research proposal.
Figures should be included in the main body of text rather than adding them as an appendix.
Datasets and pre-prints should be in a citable format (eg including a digital object identifier).
Do not upload unpublished manuscripts, ethical approval letters or applications, patient information or preliminary data as they will be removed from your application before review. You should incorporate any preliminary data into your proposal instead.
Briefly state the objectives of your project and describe the significance of the results you hope to obtain.
Summarise the published work related to your proposal.
Divide your research plan into objectives and for each objective state:
the research question
experimental methods, techniques and analyses that you’ll use to test your hypothesis, referring to your own published work where you’ve used these methods before or indicating the availability of appropriate expertise (eg collaborators)
what expertise or technology will be available to help you complete your research plan
This is not included in the wordcount.
Please provide a table to indicate clear and well-defined milestones/deliverables for each part of the plan.
You should list any potential logistic or scientific problems and suggest solutions or alternative plans.
This is not included in the word count.
Please reference your proposal appropriately following the guidance provided above under ‘Publications and Research Outputs’. You should include authors, publication year, title, journal name, volume and page numbers.
Number your references according to the order they appear in the text and list them in the Vancouver style, as detailed by the US National Library of Medicine.
As part of your application, you will be required to provide additional information and supplementary uploads as follows.
For supporting roles where a letter of support is required, letters should be signed and on headed paper. You may add the same person as two different supporting roles where appropriate (eg the head of department could also be providing an academic referee letter of support).
Required for application | |
|---|---|
Generative AI tools declaration | X |
Justification appendix | X |
Cover letter | X |
Declaration of competing interests | X |
Letters of support | X |
Data sharing plan | X |
Research declarations | X |
Costs | X |
Other funding declaration | X |
Association of Medical Research Charities full economic costing | X |
You will be directly asked to declare whether you have used any generative AI tools when completing the application form. If you have, you’ll then be asked to confirm compliance with our requirements on their use.
Read our policy on the use of generative AI tools
For this award, you will need to submit a justification appendix. For details on how to complete this, please see the link below.
View our justification appendix guidance
Your cover letter should include a short description of why you’re applying for this bursary, why you believe the scheme is right for you and what you hope to achieve. Also briefly describe your academic achievements to date and your long-term career ambitions.
Cover letters should be on headed paper and should not exceed one page.
If you have previously applied to the Research Careers Committee (or previously to the former New Investigator or Clinical Careers Committees) you must include how your revised application differs from your previous submission within your cover letter. In this instance, you may submit a cover letter up to two pages maximum.
Please use the template provided in Flexi-Grant and complete by following the instructions outlined in the document.
Read our conflicts of interest policy
A collaborator is someone who’ll supply research materials, specific expertise or patient access, but won’t be involved in the day-to-day running of your research.
Provide details of any collaborators that will support you, including their name, their host institute and a brief description of the role that they will have in the project. When adding collaborator names, please include their title (eg Dr, Professor) and their institution.
You will need to include details of all your collaborators plus any letters of support in the ‘Supporting Roles’ section of the justification appendix.
You only need a letter of support when a particular resource is being provided by a collaborator eg access to a resource, facility or samples.
For all other collaborators, a letter of support is optional, but recommended, particularly where the justification appendix indicates that they will be providing significant input that is essential to the success of the proposal.
These roles are in addition to any already mentioned within this guidance.
When you invite external supporting roles, make it clear what role each participant will have in your application.
These individual roles may be given specific editing access to certain pages of your application or will require you to upload supporting documents on their behalf.
You must invite an academic head of department to support your application. This is the head of the department where most of your research will take place.
We request that your Academic Head of Department provides a guarantee that any necessary resources and lab/office space that are required for the duration of your award would be supported. We no longer require a letter of support, but they will still need to confirm their support on Flexi-grant.
Your clinical head of department must provide a letter of support for your application. The clinical head of department should normally be your training programme director. If your clinical head of department is not your training programme director, please ask your training programme director to provide the letter.
The letter should be on headed paper and must include confirmation that you have the necessary protected research time to complete the proposed research.
Your main supervisor must provide a letter of support for your application, that clearly explains how they will support you during the bursary. The letter should be on headed paper. We also request a short version of their CV including academic posts, grants, and a list of publications and research outputs from the past five years. The CV should not exceed three pages, including publications and research outputs.
You’ll be asked to identify whether you have a secondary supervisor associated with your application (for example, due to being hosted in another laboratory, or if you have a ‘day-to-day’ supervisor).
If you do have a secondary supervisor, they’ll need to provide a letter of support and a CV as well.
These are optional roles and should include any named research staff that will be involved in your research.
They will need to provide an up-to-date CV to support the application.
This is an optional role for someone who’ll support you with administrative support.
An administrative support contact can be invited to assist with the Costs and Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) sections of your application.
We require a data sharing plan for all funding applications to ensure that the data generated through our funding will be put to maximum use by the cancer research community and, whenever possible, be translated to deliver patient benefit.
Your plan should include how data resulting from this project will be made available as widely and freely as possible to the academic scientific community at the earliest opportunity, and to additional potential commercial partners through a controlled access mechanism, considering patient privacy, intellectual property rights and other applicable laws.
Detail the steps that will be taken to ensure that the data resulting from this project will adopt the FAIR principles of findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-usable data.
Provide details for when data collected and generated by the project will be made available: 1) how and when after generation will raw data be made available for research purposes; 2) how and when after analysis will processed data be made available for research purposes; 3) how and when after journal publication will analysed data and methods be made available for secondary research
Broadly describe the proposed ethics and patient consent statement (if relevant) for sharing and release (and withdrawal) of (de-identified) data that will align with the FAIR principles, including the potential future sharing for commercial use.
Describe how sharing of the data collected or generated under this project with commercial entities will be approached.
Define the planned process for enabling international data sharing (both within the investigator team, if relevant, and external to the team) and list the necessary contractual agreements that will need to be executed to deliver the proposed data sharing platform.
Describe the data standards and definitions that the investigator team plan to use for the project including how these align with existing data standards in the research community and how the investigator team will ensure that the standards are consistent to facilitate ease of sharing.
Describe the data governance and data architecture model (including diagrams as relevant).
Describe the future ambitions and processes for granting access to the data beyond the initial research team and research questions proposed in this application. Include how infrastructure will be created during the project to enable these ambitions and what the anticipated timeline is for broader access.
Learn more about the FAIR principles
In this section, you will be asked a series of questions about your proposed research, including whether you plan to conduct animal, human or human stem cell research and whether the appropriate approval has been granted. In addition, whether you anticipate that the proposed work will result in any output which can be translated to cancer patient benefit or otherwise commercialised.
You should provide the costs that you’re requesting from us as part of your award. Add these costs under the relevant headings and justify them in the justification appendix.
Note that we will apply indexation to your application costs according to our policy. In addition, any ineligible costs will be removed. If this is relevant, we will contact you. As a result, the final costs awarded through an official grant award letter may differ from those of the original costs requested.
All salary details must be agreed with your research services office at your host institution where you will be employed. We will provide salary costs within a recognised pay model which should be included in the application.
Please clearly state the period for which you are requesting salary support in months, and the full time equivalent for that period (eg 0.5 FTE, 0.8 FTE, etc).
Salary costs should be added in the costs table, and the details should also be provided in the posts and tenure section underneath the costs table.
For full details of what we cover for salaries and staff posts, view our salary guidance.
Please list all general running expenses for your proposed research. Where possible, please group all costs associated with a particular item across all work packages, (rather than listing individual items for each work package). This includes microscopy costs, massively-parallel sequencing costs, etc.
Include all animal costs under ‘animal-related costs’, with animal purchase, animal maintenance and experimental animal costs under separate subheadings and fully justify any animal research in your research proposal.
Justify any eligible running expenses costs in your justification appendix.
Under this heading, please list all equipment costs you are requesting for your award, including:
all requested equipment for the duration of the award in year one
any equipment costs under £5k, as a running expense
In this section, you should list all non-Cancer Research UK current and pending research applications or awards held or jointly held by yourself.
Please include title, start and end dates, funding amount, funding body, type of award and whether it is current or pending. Also include a brief explanation of how this application will fit in with any current awards from us or other organisations that you hold. This helps the committee to understand the time commitment and scientific overlap with your other award(s) and the feasibility of holding our award alongside.
You are permitted to submit parallel funding applications but must highlight this in your application.
As a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), we monitor the full economic costs of the research we support. This means, you will need to complete an AMRC full economic costing information form as part of your application package.
full economics cost: please enter the total cost of your proposed research
charity contribution: please enter the total amount you’re requesting from us.
Note that this information will not be reviewed as part of your final application.
Please contact us if you have any questions about your eligibility, application or active award.
Dr Catherine Cremona, Research Grants Manager
Dr Elisabetta Gamen, Research Grants Manager
Dr Fran Smith, Research Grants Manager
Please contact Dr Marjolein (Lein) Schaap, Research Programme Manager, if you would like to hear more about the support we offer eg Fellow meetings, activities and training, and to share any potential challenges you might face.
Reasonable adjustments can be made throughout the grant application process. We do not require a formal diagnosis to access support.
Find out about our disability and accessibility support
Explore the resources, policies and other support we offer to help you understand how to apply for and manage your funding.
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