2026 Research Grant Call

Children with Cancer UK is a leading childhood cancer charity in the UK, supporting families and funding childhood cancer research since 1988. In the last 20 years alone, we have funded over £80 million of research at universities and NHS institutions across the UK. Our research programme has helped develop kinder treatments, improved public and scientific understanding of childhood cancer and bring together the best minds in the scientific community.

Children with Cancer UK’s 2026 Project Grant Round offers research grants to support world-leading scientific and clinical research to improve outcomes for children affected by cancer. Grants of up to £350,000 are available for researchers at eligible research organisations.

This scheme aims to support research which ultimately improves outcomes for children with cancer.

Applications may cover, but are not limited to, the following research areas:

• Understand and discover – improving our understanding of underlying biology, development or mechanisms of disease, which may provide supporting work to further future research
• Early Detection, Diagnosis & Prevention – enabling better or more accurate diagnosis to enable intervention as early as possible
• Develop New Treatments – projects that aim to progress potential treatments towards clinical trials, including the development of biomarkers, or making current treatments more effective or with fewer side effects
• Improving Quality of Life – research that aims to improve the experience of cancer for children, such as survivorship, late effects of treatment, quality of life and living with and beyond cancer.

Applications must have a clear pathway to impact for improving outcomes for children with cancer.

Applicants may apply for a grant of up to £350,000. Grants may cover a stand-alone piece of research, or contribute to a wider piece of work (with clear demonstration of the work Children with Cancer UK is asked to support).

Applications should be made by the Principal Investigator.

The deadline for submissions is 12pm midday on Thursday 28^th May 2026.

Applications should be made by our online grants portal [https://cwc.flexigrant.com]. Applications submitted after this deadline will not be accepted. Please allow sufficient time for institutional sign-off prior to submission.

Timeline for the call

Call open – Friday 6^th March 2026

Call close – Thursday 28^th May 2026, 12pm midday

Applicants will be given the opportunity to respond to written review comments in late August – early September.

Outcomes will be available in late September.

Children with Cancer UK’s research strategy is undergoing a substantial refresh and will be released in late 2026. For this call, the scope is deliberately broad and applications are welcome across a range of research areas; Children with Cancer UK is looking to fund high quality research which has the potential to improve outcomes for children with cancer.

All applications will proceed to review unless they are deemed out of remit for the call shortly following submission. Applications will be assessed on a variety of criteria by written reviews and Children with Cancer UK’s Scientific Advisory Panel, including scientific quality, pathway to impact and the team and research environment. Applications will also be reviewed by people with lived experience of childhood cancer. Successful applications will also have a pathway to impact for children affected by cancer; applicants should clearly justify this in their proposal.

Children with Cancer UK will consider one resubmission of a previously submitted application. Resubmitted applications should provide details of the changes made since the previous submission.

Eligibility criteria

If you are unsure about the eligibility of your application, please contact Children with Cancer UK’s research team by emailing [email protected].

• The host institution for the project must be a UK-based higher education institution, research institute or within the NHS.

• The host institution will be responsible for the entirety of the award, including all administration, liaison with third parties and ensuring compliance with conditions of award by other institutions where appropriate.

• Work on the project may take place at other institutions, which may be outside of the UK, but the host institution is responsible for any sub-contracting and payment of funds to other organisations.

• Collaborative applications are strongly encouraged; collaborators may be based outside the UK. The contribution of co-applicants and collaborators to relevant work packages must be clearly outlined in the application.

Applicants

• The principal investigator (PI) should be able to demonstrate evidence of a strong research record, with experience to drive and lead a research project which addresses the proposed research questions within the proposed timeframe. Demonstrable evidence could include publications, successful grant applications and an ability to lead teams.
• The PI is responsible for the intellectual leadership of the research project and must be actively engaged in the overall management of the research.
• The principal investigator must hold a permanent, salaried post at the host institution. Where the PI is on a fixed-term contract, their contract must extend at least one year beyond the end date of the grant. In addition, a co-applicant with a permanent post at the host institution should be listed on the application.
• Only one application per PI will be considered.

Other eligibility criteria

• Eligible costs include salaries for staff working on the grant, laboratory consumables, equipment, and travel related to the grant.
• Requests for PhD student stipends and fees are not accepted through this grant call.
• Please note that Children with Cancer UK does not supply salaries for PIs or co-applicants, and it is expected that their salary is secured for the duration of the project.
• Applications from commercial organisation will not be accepted.
• Applications that are primarily for the purchase of equipment will not be accepted.