Our centres

Driving excellence in cancer research

Our centres drive local collaborations between universities, NHS hospitals and other research organisations. Together, they play a key role in delivering our strategic objectives, with different centres contributing their expertise to different tumour sites and research themes.

We award centre status to locations performing the highest quality cancer research, providing over £100m in funding for technical staff, equipment, training and running costs.

Cambridge Centre

Director: Richard Gilbertson

Specialist themes:

• early detection

• integrated cancer medicine

• cancer immunology

• advanced cancer image

• nursing and allied health professions

• fundamental cancer biology

• urological malignancies

• brain, haematological, pancreatic, thoracic, women+’s and children, teenage and young adult cancers

Explore the Cambridge Centre

City of London Centre

Director: Tariq Enver

This centre includes Kings College London, University College London, Barts Cancer Institute and The Francis Crick Institute.

Specialist themes:

• novel biological therapies

• effective therapy combinations

• cancer evolution

• early detection and prevention

• paediatric cancer

Explore the City of London Centre

Convergence Science Centre

Director: Axel Behrens

This centre includes The Institute of Cancer Research and Imperial College London.

Specialist themes:

• exploiting cancer vulnerabilities

• interventional science

• data science

• digital pathology

Explore the Convergence Science Centre

Manchester Centre

Director: Robert Bristow

Specialist themes:

• experimental cancer medicine

• biomarker discovery and translation

• radiotherapy

• early detection

• integrative pathology

Explore the Manchester Centre

Newcastle Centre

Director: Ruth Plummer

Specialist themes:

• early phase clinical trials

• clinical pharmacology and treatment optimisation

Explore the Newcastle Centre

Oxford Centre

Directors: Mark Middleton and Tim Elliott

Specialist themes:

• immuno-oncology

• big data

• early detection

• clinical trial delivery

Explore the Oxford Centre

Scotland Centre

Directors: Owen Sansom and Charlie Gourley

Specialist themes:

• gynaecological, brain, colorectal, mesothelioma and pancreatic

• data

Explore the Scotland Centre

Learn more about our work

Opportunities for PhD students

We support PhDs to access training to establish their research careers. Recruitment for PhD studentship positions is managed independently by the centres and institutes we fund around the UK, and any enquiries so be made directly to them.

Our research strategy

Our strategy shapes how we'll discover more about the mechanisms of how cancer develops and progresses to unlock new and better ways to prevent, detect and treat it.

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