Challenges include developing AI tools to find new ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer, and uncovering methods to reprogram cancer cells to make them less aggressive
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Cancer Grand Challenges, the global research initiative, has announced seven new challenges which it deems to be among the biggest questions in cancer, offering international researchers the chance to form teams to apply for up to £20m (~$25m) in funding to take them on.
The challenges include: using AI to uncover new ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer; uncovering the biological and environmental factors that protect certain individuals from developing cancer despite their high-risk status; and developing ways to reprogram cancer cells to make them less aggressive or even forcing them into self-destruction.
Cancer Grand Challenges was co-founded in 2020 by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US. Announced today at the Cancer Grand Challenges Summit in Boston, Massachusetts, the initiative is calling for teams of researchers to tackle these challenges. Researchers – including individuals not working in cancer research or even biology – are invited to form new, interdisciplinary and international teams, and submit an Expression of Interest to drive groundbreaking research which will ultimately improve outcomes for people with cancer.
“I’m very excited about our seven new challenges which I’m convinced are going to galvanize the scientific community across vital areas. The success of Cancer Grand Challenges’ funded teams to date has been profound, and inspired some of these new challenges, which we hope will continue to transform our understanding of cancer, open up new fields, and new avenues for therapeutic exploration,” said Charlie Swanton, Chair of the Cancer Grand Challenges Scientific Committee.
David Scott, Director of Cancer Grand Challenges, Cancer Research UK, commented: “With the launch of our new challenges, Cancer Grand Challenges is expanding our thriving global scientific community and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in cancer research. Our unique approach means we are not confined by geography or disciplines. Through adopting a global team science model, our research teams are able to leverage the very best minds and expertise across the world.”
This is Cancer Grand Challenges’ fifth funding round. Its collaborative process to identify these challenges, guided by input from experts, patients, and advocates, has to date provided $400M in funding to 16 interdisciplinary teams across 16 countries, comprising more than 1,200 investigators and collaborators, all united in addressing these transformative challenges. Last year saw the initiative’s largest funding round to-date, with five teams funded against challenges such as solid tumors in children and determining why the incidence of early onset cancers in adults is rising.
The Challenges
The seven new challenges across cancer research, diagnosis and treatment include:
- AI-Human Collaborations in Cancer: develop AI agents that go beyond standard data analysis, actively collaborating with scientists to generate new research hypotheses and design experimental approaches. If successful, this research could transform how we study cancer, enhancing the efficiency of cancer research and accelerating the development of groundbreaking new therapies.
- Cancer Avoidance: uncover the biological and environmental factors that protect certain individuals from developing cancer, despite their high-risk status or extreme age, to develop new strategies to stop cancer before it even begins.
- Rewiring Cancer Cells: develop innovative ways to reprogram cancer cells, making them less aggressive or even forcing them into self-destruction, leading to new ways to treat cancer.
- The Nervous System and Cancer: uncover the ways in which the brain, nerves and cancer interact and influence each other. By understanding how tumors and the nervous system communicate, researchers may identify new ways to treat cancer more effectively and improve patient outcomes.
- The Dark Proteome: understand how and why cancer cells produce unconventional proteins that do not follow the usual rules of protein production, aka the dark proteome, and explore whether they can be targeted for new treatments and used to help the immune system attack cancer.
- Mechanisms Driving Mutational Signatures: by identifying the chemical changes that lead to mutations, researchers could determine whether they come from external sources, like pollution or diet, or from internal processes within our bodies, improving understanding of how cancer begins, and help develop better public health strategies to reduce cancer risk.
- Tumor Microenvironment (TME) Dynamics: develop methods to identify the functional role of the tumor microenvironment over time. By identifying which parts of the TME help cancer grow or make it resistant to therapy, researchers could design new strategies to stop tumors from adapting to treatment.
Through Cancer Research UK, Cancer Grand Challenges is also building a network of partners and individual donors around the world, all of whom have a shared aspiration to drive change. Partners include the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer, KiKa (Children Cancer Free Foundation), KWF Dutch Cancer Society and The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research.
The Challenge Selection Process
Every two years, Cancer Grand Challenges brings together the global research community with input from patient advocates to discuss and debate the greatest opportunities and obstacles standing in the way of making vital progress against cancer. In late 2024, the initiative convened world-leading researchers through a series of international workshops – including in New York, Madrid and Paris – to pinpoint the biggest problems facing our understanding of cancer.
International teams are then invited to apply for awards of up to £20m (~$25m) in funding to take on one of the challenges, with the successful teams announced the following year.
Expressions of interest for the seven new challenges are now open until June 18, 2025. Researchers interested in applying can find more information on Cancer Grand Challenges’ website here. In July 2025, shortlisted teams will be notified and given seed funding to support submission of a full application. The shortlisted teams will be publicly announced in September 2025.
For more information about the Cancer Grand Challenges initiative and the newly announced challenges, visit https://cancergrandchallenges.org.
About Cancer Grand Challenges
Co-founded in 2020 by two of the largest supporters of cancer research in the world: Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute, Cancer Grand Challenges supports a global community of diverse, world-class research teams to come together, think differently and take on some of cancer’s toughest challenges. These are the obstacles that continue to impede progress and no one scientist, institution or country will be able to solve them alone. With awards of up to £20m (~$25m), Cancer Grand Challenges teams are empowered to rise above the traditional boundaries of geography and discipline to make the progress against cancer we urgently need.
For more information, visit Cancer Grand Challenges
About Cancer Research UK
- Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research, influence and information.
- Cancer Research UK’s pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.
- Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last 40 years.
- Today, 2 in 4 people survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK wants to accelerate progress and see 3 in 4 people surviving their cancer by 2034.
- Cancer Research UK supports research into the prevention and treatment of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.
- Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK is working towards a world where people can live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.
For further information about Cancer Research UK’s work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
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