Clinical Future Leaders Fellowship

Overview

This fellowship aims to support clinician scientists to transition to research independence and leadership in their field of cancer research. These long-term fellowships provide talented clinician scientists with the flexibility and freedom to establish themselves as clinical academic leaders.

Key information Timelines

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

Funding period

7 years (with years 5 to 7 subject to satisfactory progress at year 4)

Funding amount

Typically up to £2.5m, in addition to the host organisation’s contribution towards the fellow’s salary

Who is eligible?

Our core eligibility criteria are outlined below. You may contact us for an informal and confidential discussion of your suitability to apply for this fellowship 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.

You can also review our frequently asked questions for additional clarification on any questions you might have.

Download our eligibility enquiry form(DOCX, 60 KB)

Email fellowships@cancer.org.uk

Read our Clinical Future Leaders Fellowship FAQs(PDF, 68.6 KB)

The applicant

You can apply for a Clinical Future Leaders Fellowship if you’re a clinician who:

is eligible to practice medicine in the UK and holds GMC registration (or will hold this, if currently practicing outside the UK)

has a higher degree (MD/PhD)

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

has undertaken a period of postdoctoral research and made important contributions appropriate for your research area

will be based at a UK university, medical school, hospital or research institution (or Cancer Research UK core-funded institute provided you don’t already hold a core-funded group leader 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

You should be the sole lead applicant (principal investigator) on the application, demonstrate that you are driving your own research and that the proposed programme of work is independent and/or distinct from that of other laboratories or research groups at your host institution.

You may not apply if you hold a position with a fully-funded salary (eg lecturer, tenured or tenure track position) or if you have previously held another substantial multi-year fellowship or award as an independent principal investigator. You can apply if you’ve held a fellowship at an earlier research career stage, such as our Clinician Scientist Fellowship or an equivalent scheme from other funders.

View our competency framework

Clinical service commitments

You’ll need to remain clinically active during your fellowship. We want to ensure fellows have sufficient protected research time while balancing clinical training and duties required for your speciality.

We expect that you spend no more than 20-40% of your time or two to four Programmed Activities on clinical activity. We expect the higher number of clinical sessions to be particularly relevant for individuals in craft specialities.

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 your salary is not core funded (as a group leader) at the time of application.

Expectations for host institutions

We expect host institutions to:

provide you with a full-time position for the duration of the award

provide you with the appropriate academic status and benefits commensurate to the status of an independent group leader (or equivalent) at your host organisation or institution

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

commit to a tapered salary model (see table below under ‘What costs are funded’) for your fellowship - supporting an increasing percentage of your salary from year three, amounting to a total contribution of 50% of your salary over the duration of the award

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. This should also include a commitment to providing a clear route to a tenured or open-ended UK based salaried research position commensurate with your career stage at the end of your fellowship (in line with organisational employment policies and practices)

at the mid-term review point at year four, to confirm a tenured or open-ended UK based salaried research position attainable by the completion of the fellowship

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

We expect confirmation of this at the outline application stage.

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 parallel applications for the same project to us and different funding bodies. 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 for the fellowship 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 Research Careers 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. 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?

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, prevention, children and young people’s cancer 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 (discovery) research that will help transform our fundamental understanding of cancer, 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 in