Cancer charity launches £100m Grand Challenges research initiative

By The Press Association12th October 2015News EnglandBusiness / Funding / Finance, Cancer, Finance, News England, Research

A £100 million boost for cancer research has been launched by one of the UK’s leading charities.

The Grand Challenges grants from Cancer Research UK will attempt to overcome some of the greatest obstacles in the way of defeating the disease.

Scientists around the world are being invited to bid for the multimillion-pound awards with innovative and ambitious study proposals.

The first successful team, to be announced in the autumn of next year, will be given up to £20 million to fund five or more years of research.

Over the next five years at least five Grand Challenge grants are planned. Cancer patients are being given a say in the choice of award recipients.

Dr Rick Klausner, who chairs the Grand Challenge board and is former director of the US National Cancer Institute, said: “Seeing the scientific community come together to find new ways to tackle cancer has been truly inspiring.

“Cancer Research UK is challenging the very way we think about cancer by bringing together scientists and patients with fresh new ideas unconstrained by discipline or location.

“This is research on a scale never before attempted in cancer – it’s big, it’s bold, and I’m very excited to be part of this journey.”

The charity’s chief scientist Professor Nic Jones said: “Thanks to the amazing advances in our understanding of cancer and the availability of powerful new technologies, we’re at a pivotal time in cancer research. The prospect of major advances in tackling cancer have never been greater, but to realise these opportunities we need to galvanise the global scientific community to unite and work together to solve some of the biggest challenges we face. By doing this we can transform the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

“This is a huge and bold commitment for Cancer Research UK and it’s already generating a lot of excitement. Cancer is a global problem and it demands a global response. We know that scientists around the world, and from varied disciplines, will have brilliant and innovative ideas to address these challenges and we can’t wait to see them.”