Cancer Grand Challenges is a global funding platform founded in 2020 by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US to support and accelerate high-impact cancer research and translational discoveries for public and patient benefit.

The programme offers significant funding awards of up to $25 million to support research aligned with a number of identified Grand Challenges, which are designed to address the most urgent and complex problems in cancer research

The programme seeks to catalyse a focused multinational, interdisciplinary research effort, bringing together new thinking, innovation, technology and expertise – including from non-traditional disciplines – in a way that is not already happening.

The 2025 Call for Applications is now open and is inviting Expressions of Interest against seven new grand challenges:

• Challenge 1: AI-human collaborations in cancer – to develop interdisciplinary AI agents that can generate novel cancer research hypotheses and design research plans for them to be experimentally validated.
• Challenge 2: Cancer avoidance – to understand the mechanisms by which certain high-risk populations or the extremely aged are resistant to developing cancer.
• Challenge 3: The dark proteome – to understand and exploit the dark proteome for cancer therapy.
• Challenge 4: Mechanisms driving mutational signatures – to identify the insults responsible for unexplained mutational signatures.
• Challenge 5: The nervous system and cancer – to understand the dynamic interactions between the nervous system and cancer.
• Challenge 6: Rewiring cancer cells – to develop and apply novel ways to rewire cancer cells to their disadvantage.
• Challenge 7: TME dynamics – to develop methods to identify the functional role of the tumour microenvironment over time.

Applications are welcomed from international teams working across a breadth of disciplines and institutions, including, but not limited to: the biomedical sciences, computational sciences and technology, engineering and physical sciences, behavioural, health, population and social sciences. It is expected that teams will be international in nature, with no more than 70% of the activity (and funding) being based in a single country.

Project teams must comprise a Team Lead (TL), who must be based at a registered research institution, and up to seven co-investigators based at recognised institutions or for-profit companies (SMEs) in any country. Academic and commercial collaborations are encouraged where appropriate.

Awards of up to $25 million (£20 million) are available to each winning team, to fund direct research costs, including staff and associated running costs. The programme will typically make up to five awards per round.

Shortlisted team will also be awarded up to £30,000 in seed funding during the application process to help assemble their team and build the full application.

To apply, applicants must first complete a pre-submission questionnaire to check and confirm eligibility. Applicant teams and projects that fulfil all the eligibility criteria will be invited to submit an Expression of Interest.