United Kingdom: Cancer Innovation Grants 2024/25

The Cancer Alliance, in collaboration with Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber and the ICB Innovation and Research and Improvement System, is proud to announce the launch of the Cancer Innovation Grants 2024/25 programme.

The Cancer Innovation Grants form part of the Cancer Alliance’s aim to build a culture of cutting-edge cancer innovations, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan. From small, grass-roots projects, to larger-scale innovation schemes, they’re encouraging innovative approaches to cancer that target local priorities for improvement.

What are the Cancer Alliance’s funding priorities?

• The Cancer Alliance wants to promote innovation in cancer care to improve earlier and faster diagnosis of cancer, as well as patient experience. The money awarded can be used to develop, adopt, implement and evaluate new initiatives towards such improvements.
• The Cancer Alliance is particularly keen on applications which:
  • focus on (but are not exclusive to) tumour sites with the highest volume of late-stage diagnoses in the area. These are:
    • oesophageal
    • lung
    • pancreatic
    • colon
    • rectum
    • non-hodgkin’s lymphoma
    • prostate
  • target the 20% most deprived populations experiencing health inequalities, such as:
    • BME groups
    • people with mental health issues
    • learning disabilities

What funding is available?

Individual grants will be funded to a maximum of £50,000 and applications to support community-based projects are also welcome at a minimum of £1,000, across the following three innovation streams:

• Earlier Diagnosis
• Faster Diagnosis, Treatment and Pathways
• Living with and Beyond Cancer

What kind of projects will the Cancer Alliance fund?

The Cancer Alliance is looking for newly identified innovations, as well as projects that adopt innovation ideas that have been proven a success elsewhere. Some examples include:

• Adopting technology or a workforce to implement or embed new ways of reducing demand on diagnostic services
• Developing patient education solutions, particularly those designed to address health inequalities
• Initiatives to support increase in uptake of cancer screening programmes, with a focus on specific groups where screening uptake is low

Who can apply for a Cancer Innovation Grant?

• The Cancer Alliance welcomes applications from:
  • Primary and Secondary Care organisations
  • Patients
  • Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs)
  • Wider system stakeholders – e.g. social care organisations
• Collaboration is encouraged across organisations and sectors.

For more information, visit Humber and North Yorkshire Cancer Alliance.