Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellowship

Overview

This fellowship supports clinical scientists to develop independence and leadership in their field of academic research. This award is closing and we are no longer accepting new outline applications, please refer to our new Clinical Future Leaders Fellowship instead.

Key information Timelines

This award is no longer accepting applications and will close following the May 2026 committee review.

Funding period

5 years

Funding amount

Typically up to £1.5m

Who is eligible?

Our core eligibility criteria are outlined below. We recommend that you 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.

If you would like to enquire about a potential application, please submit a CV and an eligibility enquiry form.

Download our eligibility enquiry form(DOCX, 60 KB)

Email fellowships@cancer.org.uk

The applicant

You can apply for an Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellowship if you’re a clinician who:

is eligible to complete your training and practice medicine in the UK

has a higher degree (MD/PhD) in a cancer-relevant research area

has obtained your Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) and will hold consultant status when you start the fellowship

has undertaken a significant period of postdoctoral research

will be based at a UK university, medical school, hospital or research institution

has space and facilities to run an independent research group

can demonstrate that you meet the range of skills and experience outlined in the ‘Establish independence’ section of our competency framework

You should be the sole lead applicant (principal investigator) on the application and should lead your work independently of other laboratories at your host institution. You’ll need to demonstrate your ability to direct a research team and programme of research.

You may not apply if you have previously held another substantial multi-year fellowship or award as an independent principal investigator, if you hold a position with a fully-funded salary (eg lecturer, tenured or tenure track position), or if you hold a core-funded group leader position at one of our institutes.

View our competency framework

Clinical service commitments

You’ll need to remain clinically active during your fellowship. However, we normally expect that you spend no more than 20% of your time or two Programmed Activities on clinical activity.

For individuals in a craft specialty, such as surgeons, you may request support for up to four Programmed Activities provided you can justify the need for this adjustment.

Please contact us if you intend to request to spend more than 20% of your time on clinical activity - you’ll need to justify this request in the ‘Skills and Experience section’ of your full application.

Your research proposal should ideally link to your clinical specialism.

Host institutions

All our fellows are hosted in UK universities, medical schools, hospitals or research institutes. Most UK university departments are eligible, but please contact us before applying to check your host institution is eligible. You can be hosted by one of our institutes if you don’t receive core funding from them already.

At the outline application stage, you will have to identify a location to hold your award. If you’re successful, we expect you to hold the status of an independent group leader (or equivalent) at that institution.

If you’re invited to submit a full application, the heads of department at your chosen institution will need to submit a letter of approval to confirm that you’ll have a full-time position there for the duration of the award.

Expectations for host institutions

We expect host institutions to:

provide you with appropriate academic status and benefits commensurate to academic staff of similar seniority

provide you with a practical working environment and associated staff, including required office or lab space and specialist facilities, where required

ensure a supportive research and training environment, including providing you and your staff with relevant training, mentoring and support in with our continuing professional development (CPD) policy and the Researcher Development Concordat

ensure there is a clear process of onboarding and planning when you join, including workload expectations and clear communication about a formal review and/or promotion process with objective assessment criteria and expected timelines

commit to a formal process at least two years before the award ends to discuss your future at the organisation with a clear indication of employment options, criteria and timelines; this may include supporting a senior fellowship application or the possibility of a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling salaried position

Host institutions must also take responsibility for ensuring any funding application content they approve for submission is not in breach of our research integrity guidelines.

Read our CPD policy

Explore the Researcher Development Concordat

Read our guidelines for research conduct

Other funding bodies

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 notify us and disclose this in your application under 'Other Funding'.

Reapplying if unsuccessful

You can reapply to the Research Careers Committee if you have been unsuccessful previously at the outline or full Application stage. However, we do have a restriction on the number of applications we can accept, and the committee generally only considers two submissions per applicant per career stage as defined by our competency framework.

If you are applying for a second time, you must contact us before starting a new application.

We do not have a strict time limit between re-applications, but we ask that you re-consider your eligibility for your intended scheme in terms of career stage, considering our competency framework and how you have addressed any previous feedback from the Research Careers Committee. This should be included in your cover letter as part of your application.

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. For fellowships generally, we expect at least 0.5 FTE or 80% of working hours, whichever is greater, to be spent on academic research. The maximum award value still applies.

If you’d like to apply on a part-time basis, you should do so from the outline application stage. 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?

You can apply for an Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellowship in any (or more than one) of the following research areas, as long as your research proposal is cancer-relevant and clearly articulates the cancer-related question you’re focusing on.

We’re particularly interested in proposals addressing areas of strategic priority for us including early detection and research in cancers of unmet need such as brain, lung, oesophageal, pancreatic, liver and stomach cancer.

For fellowship proposals that use samples from ongoing trials, please consider including details of patient recruitment, and contingency plans should the trial be paused for any reason, to support the feasibility of the proposed work

Read our research strategy

Basic biological research

This applies to any cancer-relevant area of basic biological research, including:

cancer cell metabolism or genetics

cell transformation and oncogenesis

genomic instability and cell cycle

inflammation

migration, invasion, metastasis and tumour dormancy

tumour immunology, biology, microenvironment, heterogeneity or evolution

Studies may include the use of model systems (eg yeast/fly/mouse/cell lines etc) or primary tumour material. Please specify how the chosen model relates to the question being addressed.

Preclinical studies

Research that generates biological data for developing therapeutics, including:

identification and functional characterisation of biological targets in cell lines, primary tumour material or model systems

biological mechanisms of therapeutic interventions

mechanisms of resistance to therapies

biological investigation of exceptional responders or non-responders

discovery research to identify and/or provide biological insight regarding potential biomarkers utilising samples