Cancer Research UK reopens its £20 million Grand Challenge for application

CRUK’s Grand Challenge is an ambitious worldwide research grant, offering a series of £20 million awards over the span of five years to teams who dare to try novel approaches at scale in the pursuit of discovery. In the first round, four teams were funded from 56 entries with the aims of identifying preventable causes of cancer, creating virtual maps of tumours, preventing unnecessary breast cancer treatment and studying tumour metabolism from every angle. Once more, CRUK is seeking experts from any country working to tackle some of the biggest barriers to progress: Tissue specificity, tumour vaccinology, treatment regimens, dormancy, lethal vs. non-lethal cancers, artificial intelligence, microbiota and cancer causes.

“By bringing together some of the world’s leaders in cancer research we’ve come up with eight key challenges that, if answered, could see research leap ahead at new speeds," said Sir Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK.

Applications will be accepted through Oct. 12 and awards will be announced in autumn 2018.