Cancer Grand Challenges for world-class research on cancers
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A major new international €10m (£8.6m) scientific partnership between the French National Cancer Institute (INCa) and the Cancer Research UK (CRUK), launched in 2023, will drive world-class, global cancer research. INCa’s €10m (£8.6m) investment will help to fund the next round of Cancer Grand Challenges teams.
There are currently 12 shortlisted teams each competing for the chance to secure up to £20m for their global research projects during five years. Winning teams have been announced to the world in March 2024.
About Cancer Grand Challenges
Cancer is the second leading cause of death around the world, claiming almost 10 million lives a year, accounting for 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. While research into cancer has made enormous strides forward, with around half of patients now surviving the disease for more than 10 years, there are fundamental challenges that stand in the way of vital progress.
Cancer Grand Challenges was founded by two of the largest funders of cancer research in the world – Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the US.The ambition is to build a scientifically elite, interdisciplinary community who can fill in some of our biggest knowledge gaps in cancer and drive the progress we urgently need.
Cancer Grand Challenges brings together diverse international organisations, collaborators and research leaders who share its mission. These include the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish
Association Against Cancer, the Dutch Cancer Society, and The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research.
To date, more than £210m has been invested in the Cancer Grand Challenges initiative, reflecting a shared commitment to supporting innovative, cross-disciplinary efforts to advance
cancer research.
Team science on a global scale
Meet the five new global teams below, who have been selected to receive up to $25m each over five years to come together and think differently to drive progress against cancer. This $125m investment marks Cancer Grand Challenges' largest funding round to date.
- KOODAC, whose challenge is to develop therapeutics to target oncogenic drivers of solid tumours in children.
- MATCHMAKERS, whose challenge is to decipher the T-cell receptor cancer-recognition code.
- PROSPECT, whose challenge is to determine why the incidence of early-onset cancers in adults is rising globally.
- PROTECT, whose challenge is to develop therapeutics to target oncogenic drivers of solid tumours in children.
- SAMBAI, whose challenge is to understand the mechanisms through which genetics, biology, and social determinants affect cancer risk and outcomes in diverse populations, to motivate interventions to reduce cancer inequities.
Cancer Grand Challenges brings together diverse international organisations, collaborators and research leaders who share its mission: the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer, the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK, Institut National Du Cancer, the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, and the Children Cancer Free Foundation (KiKa).