Cancer Grand Challenges calls

International teams are now invited to submit an EOI to take on one of these challenges. Awards of up to £20m ($25m) are available and the submission deadline is 18 June. Shortlisted teams will be notified and issued seed funding in July 2025.

What is Cancer Grand Challenges?

The American National Cancer Institute (NCI) and UK Cancer Research, the world’s leading funders of cancer research, partnered to launch the Cancer Grand Challenges programme. Cancer Grand Challenges aims to provide multiple rounds of funding for interdisciplinary research teams whose novel groundbreaking ideas offer the greatest opportunity to advance bold cancer research and improve outcomes for people affected by cancer.

Cancer Grand Challenges - 2025

NCI and Cancer Research UK have announced 7 of cancer's toughest challenges for the global research community to take on. Expressions of Interest are open until 18 June 2025, with each international and multidisciplinary team invited to apply for up to $25m of funding.

Open Challenges:

• AI-human collaborations in cancer

• Cancer avoidance

• The dark proteome

• Mechanisms driving mutuational signatures

• The nervous system and cancer

• Rewiring cancer cells

• TME dynamics