Early Detection and Diagnosis Programme Award

Early Detection and Diagnosis Programme Award — B

Supports cancer detection and diagnosis innovation in the United Kingdom through transformational early development programmes.

Cancer Research UK's Early Detection and Diagnosis Programme Award funds long-term, integrated, and potentially renewable research programmes of exceptional science aimed at driving transformational change in how early-stage cancers and pre-cancerous states are detected. Awards of up to £2.5m over five years are available and may support postdoctoral researchers, technical staff, PhD students, running costs, and equipment; the award cannot fund the applicant's own salary. The scheme explicitly encourages multidisciplinary approaches and considers proposals incorporating physical sciences, engineering, and data science alongside biological and clinical research. The award is designed to sustain ambitious programmes rather than discrete projects, and renewal is possible for teams that deliver transformational results.

Eligibility extends to scientists, clinicians, and healthcare workers based at UK universities, medical schools, hospitals, or research institutions whose post is fully funded by a Higher Education Funding Council, the NHS, or an equivalent body for the complete award duration. Previous CRUK funding does not disqualify applicants. Two smaller sibling instruments are also active: the EDD Project Award (up to £500,000 over four years, deadline 18 June 2026) and the EDD Primer Award (up to £100,000 over one year for pilot or high-risk early-stage work, deadline 17 September 2026). The Programme Award deadline for the 2026 Cycle B is 21 July 2026. Applications are submitted via Flexi-Grant following a mandatory expression-of-interest email, outline stage, shortlisting, full application, expert panel interview, and final decision by the EDD Research Committee.

This is a closed scheme: applicants must contact early.detection@cancer.org.uk before submitting an outline. Proposals should present a coherent long-term scientific narrative that justifies programme-level funding, demonstrating how the work will shift the paradigm in early detection or pre-cancerous state identification. Teams from non-biological disciplines — including physicists, engineers, and computational scientists — are especially encouraged to apply if their work directly addresses the detection challenge. As an AMRC member charity, CRUK funds direct costs only and does not pay fEC overheads.