External funding opportunities

Cancer Research UK provides a range of funding to support clinical research careers. Other organisations offer funding that complements our fellowships and provides further support for academic clinicians. 

NIHR Integrated Academic Training Programme

This programme provides funding to allow clinicians to have dedicated research time as part of their specialist training. The Academic Clinical Fellowships and Clinical Lecturer posts are managed by the NIHR's Trainee Coordinating Centre. 

Academy of Medical Sciences Starter Grants for Clinical Lecturers

This scheme, for research active Clinical Lecturers, is a collaboration between the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Wellcome Trust, the British Heart Foundation and Arthritis Research UK. It provides modest ‘starter’ funds to enable research active Clinical Lecturers to pursue their research work, gather preliminary data and so further strengthen their applications for longer-term fellowships and funding. Awards of up to £30,000 over two years are available to contribute towards research costs such as consumables and equipment.

The deadline for the next round of applications is Monday 5 September. Contact the Academy of Medical Sciences for more details. 

Biochemical Society

Awards of up to £150 are available to allow students to attend meetings organised by the Biochemical Society. See the Biochemical Society website for details.

British Association for Cancer Research

The AstraZeneca Young Scientist Frank Rose Award

This award recognises and rewards the achievements of a young scientist in any field of cancer research. There is a prize of £1,000 and the opportunity to present an oral paper at the Annual NCRI Cancer Conference. See the BACR website for details.

European Association of Cancer Research (EACR)

EACR membership offers opportunities for reduced rate registration at meetings and allows you to apply for a number of fellowships and awards. Membership is free for PhD students. The opportunities include travel awards for PhD students and post-docs. See the EACR website for details.

Genetics Society

Awards of up to £500 are available to allow junior scientists to attend meetings in the field of genetics. See the Genetics Society website for details.

European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)

ESMO provides funding opportunities for Medical Oncologists, from short-term educational visits to translational research opportunities of up to two years. See the ESMO website for details.

British Association of Cancer Research

BACR Mid-career Fellowships provide up to £3000 for travel to a laboratory and reasonable subsistence costs, to enable the applicant to advance an ongoing programme or facilitate a collaboration which may lead to new programmes of work. See the BACR website for details.

International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

The IARC offers a number of opportunities to work at IARC. These include Visiting Scientist Awards for qualified and experienced investigators with recent publications who wish to spend from six to twelve months at the IARC working on a collaborative project in a research area related to the Agency's programmes. See the IARC website for more details.

The Royal Society

The Royal Society International Joint Project programme awards grants to support international collaboration. The grants provide funding for researchers and members of their research teams to cover travel, subsistence and research expenses. The awards cover all areas of the life and physical sciences, including engineering, but excluding clinical medicine. See the Royal Society website for more details. 

A list of additional funding opportunities covering a broad range of research areas is also available on the National Institute for Health Research RDInfo website.