Biology to Prevention Award

Biology to Prevention Award is sponsored by American Cancer Society (ACS) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK). Supports team research projects that align with the CRUK Biology to Prevention funding scheme.

Biology to Prevention Award | Cancer Research UK Biology to Prevention Award Our Biology to Prevention Award supports projects harnessing biological and mechanistic insights to provide new targets and approaches for cancer primary prevention. Applications are reviewed twice per year. Upcoming application deadline: 18 June 2026 Flexible, from around £100k up to £600k Our core eligibility criteria are outlined below.

Note that this scheme operates a closed round to ensure only eligible applications are submitted. You must contact us for an informal and confidential discussion of your proposal prior to submitting your application. We’ll advise on your eligibility and provide guidance on submitting your application.

You can apply for our Biology to Prevention Award if you’re a scientist, clinician or healthcare worker who: is based at a UK university, medical school, hospital or research institute (including our institutes) has some postdoctoral experience or equivalent in most cases, is fully funded by the host institution for the duration of the award We welcome researchers from all career stages to apply.

We are particularly keen for early-career researchers to apply as lead or joint lead applicants. In such cases, we strongly recommend including at least one established researcher as co-applicant for mentorship. We outline how we define career stages in our competency framework.

Through this award, we aim to foster new collaborative partnerships and drive truly interdisciplinary, innovative approaches.

We strongly encourage: collaborations between existing cancer prevention researchers and biologists, geneticists, immunologists, drug developers, as well as other new entrants to cancer prevention research applications from research teams, which can be based across different UK institutions Supporting roles from international and commercial organisations may also be included as co-investigators and collaborators.

Our partnership with the American Cancer Society We’ve partnered with the American Cancer Society (ACS) to jointly consider primary prevention-focused research applications in the scientific remit of the Biology to Prevention Award scheme.

Through this partnership we welcome clear, well-defined, discrete project applications for up to five years from joint UK and US-based research teams (each based at the respective eligible host institution). Applications for co-funding are expected to be true, and where possible equal, intellectual partnerships between established UK and US-based lead applicants.

Each applicant should bring complementary yet distinct expertise to enable a multidisciplinary approach to address critical research questions in cancer prevention research. Through this partnership, we will cover the admissible UK research costs (up to £600k). ACS will cover the US-based research costs (up to $946k inclusive of 10% indirect costs).

The full application must be submitted by UK-based lead applicants through our online grants management system (Flexi-Grant) on behalf of the research team. If you are interested in this partnership opportunity, please contact us with a brief outline of the proposed research for an informal and confidential discussion to confirm the proposal is in remit.

Once confirmed, we will provide UK-based applicants with a private link to start an application on Flexi-Grant. At this point, the US joint lead applicant(s) should get in touch with the ACS office to receive and complete an ACS costing template and get approval from the relevant office on the confirmed admissible costs (including institutional overheads). Any funding must be the American Cancer Society's funding policies.

After the above steps are completed, UK-based applicants can continue their application according to the guidance below. They must complete all required sections of the application and will be responsible for submitting the application by the submission deadline. Applications for co-funding must include a complete ACS costing form, in order to be considered eligible for funding.

View the American Cancer Society funding policies Did you miss our co-funding webinar? Catch up on our webinar for UK-US co-funding partnerships. Watch the webinar recording (UK-US co-funding) Download the slide deck (UK-US co-funding) ( PDF , 1.

64 MB ) Our partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society We’ve partnered with the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) to jointly consider primary prevention-focused research applications in the scientific remit of the Biology to Prevention Award scheme. Applications for co-funding are expected to be true, and where possible equal, intellectual partnerships between established UK and Canada-based lead applicants.

Through this partnership, we will cover the admissible UK research costs (up to £600k). CCS will cover the Canada-based research costs (up to C$1m for direct research costs only). The full application must be submitted by UK-based lead applicants through Flexi-Grant on behalf of the research team.

If you are interested in this partnership opportunity, please contact us with a brief outline of the proposed research for an informal and confidential discussion to confirm the proposal is in remit. Once confirmed, we will provide UK-based applicants with a private link to start an application on Flexi-Grant.

At this point, the Canada-based joint lead applicant(s) should get in touch with the CCS office to receive and complete an CCS costing template and get approval from the relevant office on the confirmed admissible costs (including institutional overheads). Any funding must be in accordance with Canadian Cancer Society’s funding policies.

After the above steps are completed, UK-based applicants can continue their application according to the guidance below. They must complete all required sections of the application and will be responsible for submitting the application by the submission deadline. Applications for co-funding must include a complete CCS costing form to be considered eligible for funding.

View the Canadian Cancer Society’s funding policies Did you miss our co-funding webinar? Catch up on our webinar for UK-Canada co-funding partnerships. Watch the webinar recording (UK-Canada co-funding) Download the slide deck (UK-Canada co-funding) ( PDF , 2.

17 MB ) host institutions/organisations and locations professional qualifications, positions and accolades Stricter controls and protections apply to the processing of personal data under UK and European law (including the General Data Protection Regulations) than generally apply to the processing of data in the United States.

For example, though individual US states may have their own data protection laws and authorities, there is no federal equivalent to the Information Commissioner’s Office which receives complaints concerning the processing of personal data in the UK. When you submit an application, as per our section 1.

2 of our grant terms and conditions, the lead applicant will be required to confirm on behalf of each research personnel on the application, that you consent to the personal details listed above being shared by us with ACS or CCS. You may contact us at any point to withdraw consent for your data to be shared with ACS or CCS by withdrawing your application for funding.

View our terms and conditions Your host institution must approve your application before the submission deadline, so please ensure you are in contact with your institution’s administrative staff in advance. You must ensure that your host institution will provide sufficient space and access to resources to undertake the proposed research.

If you receive core funding from one of our institutes (including the Francis Crick Institute), you may apply as a joint lead applicant with a researcher based outside the institute. However, you should explain why you require extra support in addition to the funding you receive from the institute and contact us before you apply. You can submit applications for the same project to different funding bodies, including us.

However, if successful, you may only accept one award. If applicable, please inform us and disclose this under the 'Other Funding' section of your application. We may consider joint funding with other organisations.

If you’re interested, please discuss this with us and the other potential funder before applying. Flexible working arrangements Career breaks (due to personal circumstances), part-time working and changes in discipline will be taken into consideration by our panels and committees to make appropriate adjustments when assessing your record of outputs, research achievements and career progression.

You can apply on a part-time or flexible working basis if this fits with the needs of your host institution and they approve your request. If you’d like to apply on a part-time basis, please contact us before starting your application to discuss your proposed parameters for the award and how to include the part-time request in your application. Learn about our flexible research career support What is suitable for this scheme?

Our Biology to Prevention Awards support translational research that advances our understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying cancer aetiology, genesis, and risk, with the goal of developing precision prevention interventions. We will fund high quality, hypothesis-driven research with clear objectives and clear relevance to cancer prevention as outlined in our prevention research strategy.

Examples of areas in remit that we will consider include: elucidating mechanisms of early pre-cancerous or cancerous changes to validate new prevention targets conducting translational research to develop and establish proof of principle for novel preventive approaches, such as pharmacological, dietary, behavioural or immunological applying mechanistic insight and risk stratification to optimise existing preventive approaches, such as pharmacological, dietary, behavioural or immunological developing novel approaches to treat, eliminate or modulate pre-cancerous lesions or changes advancing understanding of the biological mechanisms linking modifiable risk factors to cancer, with particular focus on reducing health inequities understanding the mechanisms that determine how repurposed drugs or dietary compounds confer cancer-preventive properties and applying this knowledge to precision prevention strategies identifying and validating biomarkers or surrogate endpoints to predict future cancer emergence or assess the preventive effect of interventions innovating prevention research by developing novel trial designs that incorporate surrogate endpoints Not every award needs to have an immediate impact on cancer prevention within the proposed project period, but applicants must clearly articulate how the proposed work and subsequent follow-on research will ultimately lead to an impact on cancer risk or incidence.

These funds could support generating pilot data for a new idea, establishing collaborations, developing novel prevention approaches or repurposing existing approaches.

new and exploratory research ideas, collaborations or pilot studies with minimal preliminary data but strong conceptual rationale longer-term projects with robust preliminary data Funding amount and duration will depend on the scientific need and extent of preliminary data. For more information on our strategic priorities, read our prevention research strategy and overarching research strategy.

Read our prevention research strategy Read our research strategy What isn't suitable for this scheme?

research lacking clear, direct prevention research focus and a defined trajectory toward impacting cancer risk or incidence pure mechanistic discovery research with no clear relevance to cancer prevention research focussed on preventing cancer progression or treatment side effects epidemiological or behavioural research lacking biological or mechanistic insights late-stage intervention trials research focusing on prevention of relapse/recurrence We don’t provide infrastructure support to our clinical trials units or centres through this award.

If you are unsure which funding committee is most suited to your research proposal, please contact us and we can provide a recommendation. You can also search all our funding schemes to explore other opportunities. View all available funding How are applications reviewed?

Applications are considered twice a year by the Prevention and Population Research Committee (PPRC), assisted by our Expert Review Panels and Patient and Public Review Panel. The review process involves the following steps: After contacting us for an informal and confidential discussion of your proposal, you will receive access to the scheme and will be able to submit an application on Flexi-Grant.

Your application will be peer-reviewed by the Expert Review Panel. You will have the opportunity to provide a written response to their comments ahead of the panel meeting. The panel will consider your application alongside their comments and your response to the comments before making a recommendation.

Your application will also be reviewed by our Patient and Public Review Panel regardless of the level of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) within the proposal. The panel will mainly focus on the lay summary, PPI plan including associated costings and study population, if applicable, and the proposed clinical/population impact of the work.

Recommendations from both panels will be considered by the PPRC who make final funding decisions. Learn more about how we make funding decisions The PPRC and Expert Review Panel will review your proposal based on relevance to our prevention research strategy, our overarching research strategy and a set of standard criteria. You can find information on the criteria PPRC use to review applications on our committee page.

As part of the review process for the Biology to Prevention Award, the relevance of your project to cancer prevention will also be closely assessed, including: innovation and novelty of the concept in relation to cancer prevention or risk reduction novelty and appropriateness of the collaborative research team clear consideration of the expected next steps beyond the end of the currently proposed project Learn more about the committee We will provide feedback on your application, but all funding decisions are final.

Committee members cannot discuss their decisions with applicants, so please do not approach them directly. This allows our committee members to keep the Code of Practice for Funding Committees, which keeps our review process fair and protects applicants, committee members and external reviewers. Our review process is extremely important to us, so we reserve the right to decline applications from anyone who compromises its integrity.

We do not accept resubmissions, unless recommended by the committee. What are the key timelines? We consider applications for this award twice a year.

This is a caption table example Applications open You can apply for between £100k–600k for this award. Funding lasts up to five years and can be used to fund postdoctoral researchers and technical staff, with associated running costs. High-risk, high-reward projects may be eligible for pilot funding of approximately £100k over one year.

Longer-term projects with robust preliminary data are eligible for up to £600k over three to five years. You can also request equipment costing up to £50k. If equipment exceeds this value, please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Funding amount and duration will depend on the scientific need and extent of preliminary data You can find further detail on what funds can be requested in our costs guidance.

One lead applicant, joint lead applicant or co-investigator can apply for their salary provided they: are an early- to mid-career researcher, defined as Develop Independence or Establish Independence by our competency framework meet all the criteria laid out in our policy relating to funding the salaries of investigators can justify how the salary would support a significant career transition towards independence complete the relevant skills and experience form upload contact us to discuss this before applying For more information on what is covered, view our salary guidance.

You must contact us for an informal and confidential discussion of your proposal for us to determine your eligibility and discuss funding options. Please reach out at least one month before the submission deadline. You must also inform your host institution that you intend to apply, as they will need to approve your application online before you submit it to us.

Relevant policies and guidance We recommend you also read additional guidance such as our costs guidance, grant conditions, and other policies to understand any other requirements before applying. Read our research policies and guidance Applying through our grant management system You can manage your application and if successful, your grant, through our online grants management system, Flexi-Grant.

Roles within the applicant team One primary investigator must assume the responsibility of named lead applicant on the application. The lead applicant must be able to demonstrate that they can lead the proposal and team effectively, be engaged throughout the duration of the award, as well as meet their other research commitments. The lead applicant assumes the responsibility of completing and submitting the application on Flexi-Grant.

In addition, the applicant team can include: Joint lead applicant(s), if any: essential contributors who dedicate equal time and intellectual input as the lead applicant. Joint lead applicants must be added as supporting roles once the application is opened. The lead applicant and join lead applicant(s) will be recognised with equal status.

Co-investigators: specialists who provide major scientific contributions and may lead specific aspects of the project (excludes post-doctoral research assistants funded by the award). Named research staff, if any: any named research staff that will be involved in your research (including postdoctoral research assistants funded by the grant).

Collaborators: key contributors not involved with daily operations but who provide crucial support such as research materials, specialised expertise or patient access. One administrative support contact (optional): assists with the application submission and completes the sections on the Association of Medical Research Charities and Costs.

The lead applicant must invite the joint lead applicants, co-investigators and named research staff to join the application on Flexi-Grant and provide an up-to-date CV and five-year publication. Administrative support contacts must be invited, but do not need to provide a CV. Collaborators should not be invited as a participant in your application.

Their role should be explained in the research proposal, justification appendix and in their letter of support. Publications and research outputs When including publications, please include a full author list (where this is unmanageable, for example for large consortium papers, you may list the first 12 authors followed by ‘ et al. ’ provided you denote your place in the author list, eg [Bloggs J, 15 th of 65 authors]).

Please also include the publication title, journal, publication year, volume number and either page numbers or digital object identifier. ORCID does not pull through the list of authors, so these should be entered manually if using ORCID to generate your publication list.

Also be sure to list any notable and relevant research outputs from your work such as preprints, training delivered, contribution to consortia, patents, key datasets, software, novel assays and reagents etc. In order to clearly distinguish between peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed material, you should list your publications and research outputs in separate sections.

Research outputs must be clearly labelled and must be in a citable format (eg including a digital object identifier).

Starting your application As part of your application, you will need to provide the following information: applicant and co-applicant information and research abstract, to be completed following the guidance available in Flexi-Grant research proposal and accompanying uploads/supporting information, to be completed following the guidance provided below under ‘Additional Information’ Alongside your research abstract, you’ll need to include a lay summary.

Guidance for how to write this is also included below under ‘Additional Information’. There is no template for your research proposal, but please structure the proposal as outlined below. Number all pages and do not exceed 2,500 words.

Word counts exclude figures, figure legends, time charts, risk and mitigations plans, and references. Use single-line spaced text, in Calibri font, pt 11, black. The last name and initials of the lead applicant should be included in the header or footer of all pages.

Clearly outline the hypothesis, objectives, and scope of your proposed work, including: the scientific and clinical need for the proposed work – why is it necessary to test this hypothesis?

the major outputs you hope to achieve from your proposed work the significance of your expected results, in particular, potential future clinical applications or impact on policy and practice future research that may lead on from your work Summarise your relevant ongoing and published work related to your research proposal, including your key achievements over the past five years.

Where applicable, cite your relevant preprints or datasets, for example, using a unique digital object identifier. Describe how you will use your knowledge and experience to address the goals and hypothesis of the proposed research project. We suggest you divide your research plan into objectives.

For each objective, please include: experimental methods, techniques and analyses that you will use to test your hypothesis; refer to your own published work or indicate the availability of appropriate expertise for these methods.

sample size calculations, power calculations and other statistical analyses should be fully considered and full details provided in the justification appendix (see Additional Information below) any available unpublished research or methodologies supporting your research proposal manuscripts in press or preprints to support your proposal, if applicable Briefly describe the expected major achievements of your research.

Please provide information on the composition of the team of applicants and collaborators, including: whether this is a new or existing collaboration whether the team or members of the team have published together previously, although this is not a requirement an outline of the individual contributions of each co-applicant and supporting roles, highlighting the added value of the collaboration compared to each principal investigator working independently whether patient representatives will be appointed and outline their role and responsibilities Timescales, milestones and deliverables This is not included in your word count.

Please provide a table to indicate clear and well-defined milestones against which progress can be evaluated. Please include a schematic to outline timescales for the research proposal. Risk and mitigation plans This is not included in your word count.

List potential logistic or scientific problems and suggest solutions or alternative plans to overcome them. This is not included in your word count. Please reference your proposal appropriately, including authors, publication year, title, journal name, volume and page numbers.

We don’t accept shortened references or the use of ‘et al. ’ Number your references according to the order they appear in the text and list them in the Vancouver style, as detailed by the US National Library of Medicine. As part of your application, you will be required to provide additional information and supplementary uploads as follows.

This is a caption table example Relevance to cancer prevention Patient and public involvement from the American Cancer Society or Canadian Cancer Society Declaration of competing interests skills and experience form Other funding declaration You will be directly asked to declare whether you have used any generative AI tools when completing the application form.

If you have, you’ll then be asked to confirm compliance with our requirements on their use. Read our policy on the use of generative AI tools Relevance to cancer prevention Explain the direct relevance and the line of sight of the proposed work to support cancer prevention research. Additionally, please explain if your proposed project aligns with our cancer prevention research strategy.

Read our prevention research strategy Patient and public involvement (PPI) plans A separate text field is provided for you to describe a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) plan to explain how these add value to your proposal. If you are not including a PPI plan in your application, you must explain why and justify why it would not add value to your research.

Clearly outline your proposed PPI plan, its rationale and how it will add value to your research proposal. This could include how you’ll involve patients in the development of research questions, research planning and design, or evaluation and/or sharing of research findings.

The approach you use should be relevant for the type of study and the research field, and you should explain your reasoning for the proposed approach (including who and how).

detail on specific methods to involve patients and the public, in all aspects of the project, such as focus groups, advisory boards or community forums outline recruitment plans to engage diverse communities, which define the specific roles of the individuals involved in your planned activities how you are offering support, guidance and development opportunities where appropriate for those involved in your research a detailed budget breakdown for planned PPI costs, ensuring they align with the level of involvement Where it would add value, also consider involving key patient/public members as part of the study co-investigators and/or steering group.

There are differences between what we mean by participation, engagement and involvement. Please ensure you are using the correct term, relevant for your proposed study. Our PPI toolkit for researchers can help you implement PPI plans, including guidance around how to choose the right method, budgeting, recruiting, delivering and evaluating your activity.

Learn more about our PPI in research and access the toolkit All applicants must provide a clear lay summary. This should not simply be an adaptation of the research abstract. It should be written in clear and concise language that is understandable for the average UK reading age (9-11 years old).

As part of your lay summary you should include: the study background, assuming the reader has no prior knowledge of the topic the study aims and its importance the scale of the current problem an overview of how the study would be conducted how the study will make a difference and what the expected immediate study outcomes are, including why the findings will enable change that provides longer term benefits for people affected by cancer If relevant, also include: how the study reduces health inequalities or inequities how people affected by cancer and members of the public are involved in the delivery of the study Where possible, involve patient/public members in drafting and reviewing the lay summary.

Your host institution may provide support with writing lay summaries. View our guidance on writing in plain English View NIHR guidance on writing in plain English Additional considerations Input from people affected by cancer and members of the public should be meaningful, not tokenistic. And where possible, the people you plan to involve should have personal experience (including caring) that is relevant to your study question.

Please consider the number of people involved and their time commitment, ensuring that involvement does not burden them, especially patients who may be undergoing treatment. You should consider the breadth and relevance of insight obtained, especially if your project is focused on a particular target population. Try to gather a diverse, wider view, and to address health inequalities where possible.

There may be barriers in identifying representatives from certain target populations, due to health or personal reasons. But you should try and find ways to mitigate or minimise these kinds of barriers to involvement to ensure your research is applicable to as broad a population as possible. You may nominate up to 10 reviewers who would be qualified to assess your application critically.

You should not nominate individuals if you have had a close collaboration with them, or if you have published with them in the last three years. You can also nominate referees to exclude from the review process, but please provide justification for the exclusion. We will decide on the final selection of reviewers and nominations must comply with our conflicts of interest policy.

Read our conflicts of interest policy Declaration of support from the American Cancer Society or Canadian Cancer Society with costing template If you are applying for co-funding with the American Cancer Society or Canadian Cancer Society, and your application includes a joint lead applicant based in the US or Canada, you must submit a costing template from the relevant co-funder.

For this award, you will need to submit a justification appendix. For details on how to complete this, please see the link below.

View our justification appendix guidance Please upload statements of support on headed paper from: the host institution of joint lead applicants or co-investigators based at a different institution to the lead applicant collaborator letters of support, outlining what specific expertise and skills they will contribute to the work (not exceeding two pages each) additional letters of support from appropriate advisory bodies Early-career researchers will also need letters of support from their group leader.

Declaration of competing interests We need to make sure activities with commercial organisations do not compromise the scientific integrity, delivery or potential health impact of our funded research, and that potential conflicts of interest are identified and managed. Please use the template provided in Flexi-Grant to complete this section. All lead and joint lead applicants must provide this information.

Read our conflicts of interest policy A narrative CV allows you to highlight your research achievements and contributions relevant to your application. You should also include your research outputs, such as preprints, training delivered, contribution to consortia, community outreach, patents, key datasets, software, novel assays and reagents.

Guidance on the types of activities you may include are provided below each question in the form template, but this is not exhaustive. You do not necessarily need to provide an example for every activity. All lead and joint lead applicants named on the application will need to complete and upload their own narrative CV labelled with their name in the header or footer.

Read our guidance on narrative CVs Skills and experience form Only complete this form if you are a lead applicant, joint lead applicant or co-investigator eligible to request your salary, or you are an early career researcher (regardless of your salary arrangements). Refer to our salary guidance section for more information on this. You can use the template provided in Flexi-Grant to complete this section.

Your form shouldn’t exceed four pages. Please refer to our competency framework that outlines the range of skills, experiences and types of examples to include in your application.

Read our competency framework Research declarations (research features) In this section, you will be asked a series of questions about your proposed research, including whether you plan to conduct animal, human or human stem cell research and whether the appropriate approval has been granted.

In addition, whether you anticipate that the proposed work will result in any output which can be translated to cancer patient benefit or otherwise commercialised. If you plan to involve patients, patient tissue or patient information in your research, you’ll need to get ethical approval. You and your host institution are responsible for ensuring you comply with all legal requirements and ethics approval.

If you need to confirm funding arrangements before you can get ethical approval, we can make you a provisional offer of funding. However, funds may not be released until you’ve sent us written confirmation of ethical approval. Please bear this in mind when you propose a start date for your award.

If you need any other regulatory approval (eg sponsorship, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approval, Clinical Trial Authorisation approval, insurance or indemnity arrangements, data protection registration, or honorary contracts with NHS Trusts and