Clinical Research Funding Scheme

Clinical Research Funding Scheme — B

Supports United Kingdom clinical teams through CRUK grants that progress studies from pilot concepts to trials.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

Cancer Research UK's Clinical Research Funding Scheme is a modular instrument supporting investigator-led clinical cancer research across three interconnected components: a Clinical Trial Module covering phase 1a/2 through feasibility and dose-finding studies (guide costs approximately £50,000–£200,000 per year); an Experimental Medicine Module for translational research associated with a trial (approximately £100,000 per year for projects, £300,000 per year for programmes); and a Sample Collection Module for hypothesis-driven prospective collection of tissue or blood samples (£30–£60 per block, £5–£40 per blood sample). Applicants are strongly encouraged to apply for all three modules as an integrated package. A 2026 spotlight call is active, seeking applications that address gastrointestinal cancers of unmet need — specifically pancreatic, liver, oesophageal, and gastric cancers.

All applications must involve a UKCRC-registered Clinical Trials Unit as coordinating centre, with limited exceptions for purely non-interventional studies. The scheme is open to UK-based investigators at all career stages, including early-career researchers, at universities, medical schools, hospitals, and research institutions. Funding duration is typically project-dependent and can run up to ten years with appropriate justification. The scheme reviews applications twice per year; the 2026 Cycle B outline deadline (27 March 2026) has passed and the full application deadline is 25 June 2026, with expert panel review in September 2026 and committee decision in November 2026.

Costs not covered include PhD studentships and fellowships, industry-sponsored trial costs, NHS Treatment and Service Support, NHS genomic testing, GLP toxicology, and international trial delivery outside UK involvement (EORTC UK-led intergroup coordination is an exception). As an AMRC member, CRUK funds direct costs only — no fEC overhead. Teams targeting the spotlight call on upper-GI cancers should ensure the proposal addresses unmet clinical need in at least one of the four named cancer types and integrates the sample collection and translational components fully within the trial design. Contact clinicalresearch@cancer.org.uk for scheme-specific guidance.