Early Detection and Diagnosis Project Award
About this scheme
Key information
You should:
- Have some postdoctoral experience or equivalent
- Be scientists, clinicians or healthcare workers in UK universities, medical schools, hospitals, or research institutes
Multi-institutional proposals are welcome and awards can be held across institutions in the UK. Supporting roles (co-investigators/collaborators) from international and commercial organisations are welcome.
Scientific remit
Early detection and diagnosis research seeks to detect and diagnose consequential precancerous changes and cancer at the earliest possible point at which an intervention might be made, reducing the burden of late-stage disease.
Early Detection and Diagnosis Project Awards will support discovery and translational/clinical research which is mindful of the clinical and population context.
The remit of these awards includes:
- Identification and validation of early detection/diagnosis markers and understanding of disease trajectory
- Identification of high-risk groups for early detection and diagnosis research and implementation
- Data and computation-driven approaches to early detection/diagnosis
- Development and use of appropriate preclinical model systems
- Early detection/diagnosis technology development
- Non-confirmatory clinical trials of early detection/diagnostic technologies or approaches
- Health systems research for early detection/diagnosis
- Research into clinician behaviour and decision support for early detection/diagnosis
- Evaluation of impact of early detection and diagnosis policies and interventions
- Research to understand and intervene in the behaviour of the public to enhance early detection and diagnosis
- Research into the health economics of early detection and diagnosis of cancer
Early Detection and Diagnosis Project Awards may focus on any of these research areas, or any combination of them. All proposals should consider line-of-sight to clinical or population impact.
Early Detection and Diagnosis Project Awards are flexible in terms of duration and level of funding. Proposals may be at various stages of maturity dependent on technology readiness, novelty of the paradigm under investigation and availability of supporting data. Proposals should be composed and costed commensurately.
We particularly welcome applications that bring novel approaches from the fields of engineering and the physical sciences that could be applied to cancer detection and are mindful of potential clinical need, patient and population impact. As part of CRUK’s longstanding strategic partnership with the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), there is an opportunity for any successful applications with relevant research components in these areas to be jointly supported by both CRUK and the EPSRC.
Out of remit
Proposals for research in these fields are likely to be ineligible for this funding scheme:
- Research which does not have any line-of-sight to impact on early detection or diagnosis – this may be eligible for our discovery research funding opportunities
- Research that focuses on population-level trials of screening approaches – this may be eligible for our Prevention and Population Research Committee
If you are unsure which funding scheme is most appropriate for your research, please get in touch to discuss your proposal.
Awards are typically made up to £500k for up to 3 years, or 4 years when funding a PhD, and may be used to fund:
- Postdoctoral researchers
- PhD students (stipend, fees and running expenses)
- Technical staff
- Associated running expenses
- Equipment
*The budgetary limit is indicative. Requests in excess of this should be discussed with the CRUK office before submission.
Cancer Research UK is also giving applicants of this funding scheme the opportunity to opt-in to a new multi-journal pilot project on Registered Reports
How to apply to this scheme
Application process
We strongly encourage you to contact the CRUK office for an informal and confidential discussion of your proposal. We will advise you on your eligibility and funding options. Please contact us more than 1 month and no later than 2 weeks before a submission deadline to help us best assist you.
All applications must be made online through our online grant management system, Flexi-Grant.
- Submit your application. Your submission must be approved online by your Host Institution before the submission deadline.
- Your application will be peer-reviewed by one of our Expert Review Panels for comments. You will be given the opportunity to provide a written response to the comments. The Panel will meet to consider your application, the comments, and your response to the comments, before they make a recommendation to the Committee. Your application will also be reviewed by our Patient and Public Involvement Review Panel.
- The Early Detection and Diagnosis Research Committee will make a final decision on funding. All applications, regardless of outcome, will receive feedback from the Committee.
Timelines
Applications for this scheme are considered twice a year.
| Application deadline | Committee decision |
| 19 June 2025 | November 2025 |
| 4 December 2025 | May 2026 |
Before you begin your application
- You must read the application guidelines, together with our Grant Conditions, before starting your application, even if you have applied for funding with us before:
- You must read our costs guidelines to understand what we will and will not fund.
- We expect patient and public involvement to be demonstrated in applications. Please use our Patient and Public Involvement Toolkit for Researchers for advice on this.
Whichever stage of research the proposal addresses, from discovery to applied, proposals should have a clear line-of-sight to clinical/population impact, and should articulate this pathway and the evidence that will be required to advance along it. Implementation of this clinical line of sight may be either during or downstream of the proposed work (it is not mandatory for all proposals to include a direct translational component). Appropriate involvement of clinical/population expertise to ensure this line-of-sight is encouraged.
While therapeutic development is not covered by the Early Detection and Diagnosis Research Committee's remit (being funded through other CRUK mechanisms), early detection and diagnosis research should acknowledge and account for the importance of therapeutics as context, and to help inform understanding of when surveillance is more appropriate than intervention.
Teams of applicants should be assembled to adequately consider these issues, involving collaboration between e.g. biologists, clinical researchers, engineers/physical scientists, maths/stats/computation expertise, population scientists, health economists, behavioural scientists and industry (as appropriate to the proposal). Multidisciplinary, overseas and industrial collaboration is encouraged when appropriate to the science proposed, and where clear added value can be articulated.
Applicants are encouraged to make use of existing cohorts and tissue banks as resources for early detection and diagnosis research.
Applications will be judged based on:
- Scientific excellence and innovation
- Clear articulation of the challenge to be addressed
- Cancer early detection and diagnosis relevance
- Clarity of line-of-sight to clinical/population impact
- Team composition; are the requisite skillsets to deliver the proposed work and achieve impact in place? Do any collaborations between disciplines, institutions or with industry add value to the project?
- Is the required infrastructure in place to deliver the proposed research?
The 5 year rolling success rate (financial year 2019-2024) from application to funding for this scheme is 32%.
Does this scheme accept endorsements?
Yes. Academically-sponsored studies in receipt of educational grants and/or free tests from industry that are in remit to early detection/diagnosis can be submitted for CRUK endorsement. Please submit an expression of interest form to the CRUK office so that we can confirm your endorsement proposal is within remit in order to begin your application:
Industry-sponsored trials cannot be reviewed under this scheme.
Cancer Research UK contact details
Please contact the relevant Research Grants Manager if you have questions about your eligibility or require any assistance with your application or active award.
For London and The South of England (including Oxford and Cambridge)
Ms Sara Castro
Research Grants Manager
For the rest of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Dr Emily Friar
Research Grants Manager
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