Early Detection and Diagnosis Primer Award

Overview

This award supports new and pioneering research ideas and pilot studies of high scientific risk to stimulate and develop the early detection field.

Key information Timelines

Applications are reviewed twice per year. Upcoming deadline: 17 September 2026

Funding period

Up to one year

Funding amount

Up to £100k

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.

Email early.detection@cancer.org.uk

The applicant

You can apply to this award if you’re a scientist, clinician or healthcare worker based in a UK university, medical school, hospital or research institution.

You can hold this award if you’ve had funding from us before.

To achieve our goal of developing the early detection and diagnosis field, we encourage applications from a broad range of fields, such as:

biomedicine

engineering

physics

statistics

mathematics

chemistry

informatics

computer and data sciences

You don’t have to have previous experience within cancer research, but a clear link between the proposed project, early detection or diagnosis of cancer and a vision towards future clinical implementation is required.

Career stage

We welcome researchers from all career stages to apply. In cases where an early career researcher is lead or joint lead applicant, we would strongly recommend including at least one established researcher as co-applicant for mentorship.

We outline how we define career stages in our competency framework.

Read the framework

Collaborations

We encourage applications from research teams, which can be located across different institutions in the UK. Supporting roles from international and commercial organisations may also be included as co-investigators and collaborators.

The host institution

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. Host institutions must ensure they can provide sufficient space and resources for 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.

You will need to distinguish your core funded research from the research in your proposal and demonstrate your ability to manage both programmes of work. If this applies to you, you must contact us before submitting your application.

Applications to 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 inform us and disclose this under the 'Other Funding' section 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.

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 Early Detection and Diagnosis Primer Award supports highly novel and innovative approaches to address early detection and diagnosis questions. It can also support the creation of new collaborations/consortia or the establishment and development of a researcher, with the clear aim of applying any skills and collaborations developed to the early detection field.

Applications must demonstrate early detection/diagnosis relevance, consider a line-of-sight to clinical or population impact and clearly articulate the cancer-related question you’re focusing on.

You don’t have to include extensive preliminary data to support your application, though any data you do have will be considered. Any data generated or collaborations established through this award should form the basis for a more extensive research project.

Examples of areas in remit that we will consider include:

applying an established technology to the early detection of cancer or cancer recurrence

developing or modifying technology to apply to the early detection of cancer

innovative and out-of-the-box lines of investigation within early detection

establishing new collaborations to tackle an early detection area of need

training and lab exchanges to improve the standing of a researcher in the early detection field

You can apply for a Primer Award in any number or combination of the areas relevant to cancer early detection and diagnosis. The examples provided are not exhaustive.

identification and validation of early detection markers and tests

identification of high-risk groups for early detection and diagnosis research and implementation

health systems and economics research for early detection and diagnosis

data/computation-driven approaches to early detection and diagnosis

development and use of appropriate preclinical model systems (eg cellular, organoid, xenograft, animal model)

early detection technology development – exploratory and translational research

research to understand and intervene in public or clinician behaviour to enhance early detection and diagnosis

For more information on our strategic priorities, explore the following resources.

Read our research strategy

Read our statement of intent

Read our early detection and diagnosis of cancer roadmap

Spotlight call: reducing inequalities in cancer early detection and diagnosis

We're committed to addressing critical gaps in cancer research through our spotlight calls, which highlight key areas of need where dedicated research efforts could accelerate progress.

With our new spotlight call, we encourage applications to develop novel approaches to reduce existing known inequalities in cancer detection and diagnosis or explore and address less well understood mechanisms driving inequalities.

Applicants can apply for funding to address the spotlight call through this award. All applications will be considered alongside the full pool of the award's proposals, with primary evaluation based on scientific quality and relevance to early detection and diagnosis. However, applications of comparable quality may be prioritized if they address a strategic need in tackling inequalities.

The spotlight call will span multiple funding rounds, with the decision on when to end the call made by us and the Early Detection and Diagnosis Research Committee, based on the coverage of awarded projects.

Learn more about the spotlight call

What isn't suitable for this scheme?

research focussing on late-stage disease and/or metastasis (except early detection of cancer recurrence)

research without line-of-sight to impact in early detection

infrastructure support to our clinical trials units or centres

Some research concepts may straddle the remits of more than one funding committee. 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 our funding schemes to explore other opportunities.

View all available funding

How are applications reviewed?

Applications are considered twice a year by the Early Detection and Diagnosis Research Committee.

Learn more about how we make funding decisions

Assessment criteria

The Early Detection and Diagnosis Research Committee will review your proposal based on relevance to our strategy, statement of intent and a set of standard criteria.

You can find more information on the criteria by which applications are reviewed on our committee pages.

The 5-year rolling success rate (financial year 2020-2025) from application to funding for this scheme is 42%.

Learn more about the committee

Feedback

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 re