Career Establishment Award

About this scheme
How to apply to this scheme

About this scheme

Key information

Career level

Early career researcher

Established independent researcher

Research area

All research areas

Early diagnosis

Cancer prevention

Cancer biology

Preliminary submission

27 March 2025

Committee review

June 2025

Funding period

6 years, or part-time equivalent

Funding amount

Typically up to £1m (including salaries, running expenses and equipment for up to two posts)

The Career Establishment Award supports new group leaders who have a salaried independent position to establish their own independent research group.

Eligibility

What is funded

Please refer to the documents in the section 'How to apply to this scheme' for the latest guidance.

In these guidelines, we have set clearer expectations for organisations hosting CRUK-funded fellows, to ensure access to training, career progression support, and a clear and transparent commitment towards CRUK fellows' future career trajectory at the host institution.

Funding support is provided for six years, or equivalent duration for part-time working.

We're very supportive of part-time working and for a Career Establishment Award we expect at least 15 hours a week (or pro-rata equivalent) to be spent on academic research. For this award, our general rule for fellowships of spending at least 0.5 FTE or 80% of your working hours on research does not apply. Find out more about how we support part-time working and extended leave in our flexible working policies.

Funding will cover:

Salaries and running expenses for up to two posts. You may choose from a postdoctoral researcher, a technician and/or a (non-clinical) PhD student.
Associated running expenses
Equipment costs up to £25,000
Relocation costs up to £1,000 if you wish to take up your fellowship at a new host institution (see application guidelines for more details)
EMBO Lab Leadership for Group Leaders course: we encourage you to attend this course to gain crucial skills to run your own independent research group. Available as either an in-person (in Germany, please check with the Office for future limited UK spaces) or online course. Please see the EMBO website for more information, including costs.

Additional support

Our fellowships offer a range of benefits beyond funding, including access to networking and training opportunities, flexible working policies and an accelerated UK work visa route through the Tier 1 visa system.

Explore the benefits of developing your research career with us

How to apply to this scheme

Application process

Applications for this scheme are considered twice a year, and the application process has two stages:

(optional) Eligibility Enquiry Form: If you would like to enquire about a potential application, please submit a CV and an Eligibility Enquiry Form to the CRUK Office*. We will check that your proposal is within remit and advise you on whether the Fellowship scheme is appropriate for you. This information will also help us guide any conversation you might like to have about your application.

*Please complete and send us your form ideally at least 1 month and no later than 2 weeks before a submission deadline to help us best assist you.

1. Outline applications:

- Submit your outline application through our Flexi-Grant system
- Your application will be reviewed by the Research Careers Committee
- If successful, your application will be shortlisted and you will be invited to submit a full application. You have the option to defer your full submission by one round

2. Full applications:

- Submit your full application through our Flexi-Grant system. It must be approved by your Host Institution before the submission deadline
- Your application will be reviewed by one of our Expert Review Panels (ERPs), who will provide comments on your application ahead of your interview
- You will be interviewed by an ERP who will consider your application, your presentation at interview, and your responses to questions, before they make a recommendation to the Research Careers Committee
- The Research Careers Committee will make a final decision on funding

Please note the Research Careers Committee has a restriction on the number of applications it can accept, and generally only considers two submissions per applicant at the same career stage. If you are applying for a second time, you must contact us before starting a new application.

Timelines

Outline application deadline	Committee Shortlisting	Full application deadline	Interview and Committee Review
3 October 2024	December 2024	27 February 2025	May 2025
27 March 2025	June 2025	11 September 2025	November 2025
2 October 2025	December 2025	TBC February 2026	May 2026

Before you begin your application

Please refer to the following documents for the latest guidance.

You must read:

What makes a successful application

The Research Careers Committee will judge your application on:

Scientific quality and originality: your proposal must have a strong scientific rationale.
Cancer relevance: value of the proposed work in advancing the fundamental understanding of cancer or improving how cancer is diagnosed and/or treated.
Your track record and potential to produce outstanding results.
Suitability and strength of your research environment and collaborators: access to resources and facilities required for the fulfillment of the Career Establishment Award.

The Committee will also consider how closely your research aligns with the priorities laid out in our Research Strategy, including earlier detection and harder-to-treat cancers (brain, lung, oesophageal and pancreatic cancers).

The 5 year rolling success rate (financial year 2017-2022) from application to funding for this scheme is 16%.

Find out more about our strategic priorities

Find out more about what makes a successful application

Funding committee reviewing your application

Applications are assessed by international, Expert Review Panels and funding decisions are made by the Research Careers Committee.

Start your application