Career Establishment Award

Overview

This fellowship supports new group leaders who have a salaried independent position to establish their independent research group. Note: the eligibility criteria for this award have changed and we will not accept new outline applications from clinicians following the May 2026 committee review (see our Clinical Future Leaders Fellowship instead).

Key information Timelines

Applications are reviewed twice per year. Upcoming application deadline (full): 10 September 2026

Funding period

6 years, or part-time equivalent

Funding amount

Typically up to £1m

Who is eligible?

Our core eligibility criteria are outlined below. You may 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 a Career Establishment Award if you’re a scientist who:

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

has a salary that is fully funded throughout the Award (eg lecturer, tenured/track position)

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

We are no longer accepting new outline applications from clinicians, they will become ineligible following the May 2026 committee review.

Instead, our Clinical Future Leaders Fellowship now offers opportunities for clinical scientists to develop independence and leadership in their field of academic research.

Learn more about our Clinical Future Leaders Fellowship

View our competency framework

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 head of department at your chosen institution will need to submit a letter of support to confirm that you’ll have a full-time position at your host institution for the duration of the award.

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. However, we expect you to develop collaborations with other researchers, both at your institution and externally.

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 as applicable

allow for expansion of your research group and access to specialist facilities, where required and possible

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

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'.

Can I apply for this if I’ve held other funding?

You can also apply for this fellowship if you have previously held funding such as:

a postdoctoral fellowship

a Clinician Scientist Fellowship

a start-up grant

an institutional fellowship aimed at generating data for an external fellowship application (eg up to two to three years of funding and technical support)

You cannot apply for a Career Establishment Award if you:

have previously held another substantial multi-year fellowship or award as an independent principal investigator

hold a core-funded group leader position at one of our institutes (you may apply to hold a fellowship at one of our institutes provided that you are not in receipt of core funding concurrent to the fellowship)

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 the Career Establishment Award, we expect at least 15 hours or pro-rata equivalent to be spent on academic research. Our general rule for fellowships of spending at least 0.5 FTE or 80% of your working hours on research does not apply.

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?

The remit of this award covers the following research areas. You can apply in one or more of them, 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 from defined patient cohorts (eg retrospective trial or cohort)

Imaging

The followin