Completed Cancer Public Health & Healthcare

Clinical PhD Programme in Cancer Research

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A clinical PhD programme will embed doctors directly into cancer research teams at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital, training them to move ideas between the lab and the clinic. This matters because the gap between laboratory discoveries and patient treatments remains wide. Clinicians who understand both worlds are rare but essential: they can spot which basic science findings might change how patients are treated, and they can bring clinical questions back to the lab. The programme addresses a chronic shortage of clinical academics in cancer research. If successful, the programme will produce a pipeline of future leaders who can design and run practice-changing clinical trials. These doctors will work on projects ranging from understanding how cells divide to MR-guided radiotherapy, drug discovery, genome stability, and big data analysis. The impact is not immediate but structural: it builds the human infrastructure that keeps cancer research moving from bench to bedside. Patients will benefit indirectly, as each trained clinician accelerates the translation of fundamental science into new diagnostics and treatments.

View original technical description
The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), a degree-awarding, independent college of the University of London, proposes to host a Clinical PhD Programme in Cancer Research. The Clinical Fellows appointed to this Programme will be embedded in the highly successful translational research culture of the ICR, and our hospital partner the Royal Marsden Hospital (RM). Clinical Fellows will directly contribute to delivering practice-changing research and will be an integral part of the flow of ideas in both directions between the laboratory and the clinic. The Clinical Fellows will participate in, and learn from, research teams working as parts of global consortia on projects as diverse as understanding cell division, MR-guided radiotherapy, novel drug discovery and development; genome damage and stability and big data approaches. We will continue to maximise opportunities to support the career development of Clinical Fellows on this Programme; build on existing good practice in supporting clinical academics, strengthen the provision of training tools, workshops and mentorship opportunities; and facilitate communication and the establishment of collaborative relationships between ICR and RM clinical researchers at different career stages. The ultimate goal of the Programme is to train, develop and support future international leaders in clinical cancer research.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Johann de Bono (EPMC Awardee)Kevin Harrington (EPMC Awardee)Nicholas Turner (EPMC Awardee)

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

ICR and Imperial Clinical Academic Training Programme
CRUK Imperial and ICR Clinical Academic Training Programme / Year 1 QQ2
The Institute of Cancer Research Centre (Non-Clinical Training Account)
The Birmingham CRUK Centre Clinical Academic Training and Research Programme
Clinical Training Award Cycle 2

Original classification

PhD Programme (Clinical)

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