# Cancer Grand Challenges

Source: https://onco.cc/institutions/cancer-grand-challenges/  
OnCo record `cancer-grand-challenges` (Institution). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A Cancer Research UK and US National Cancer Institute partnership that gives up to £20 million to global teams to tackle a named cancer problem no single lab could solve.

## Summary

Launched by Cancer Research UK in 2015 as Grand Challenge and relaunched with the NCI in 2020, Cancer Grand Challenges sets a series of open challenges, from mapping tumours at single-cell resolution to understanding cachexia, extrachromosomal DNA, early-onset colorectal cancer and the causes of cancers in never-smokers, and funds interdisciplinary international teams for five years. Funded teams include Mutographs (mutational signatures of exposures), eDyNAmiC (extrachromosomal DNA), CANCAN (cachexia), PROSPECT and SAMBAI. Patient advocates sit in every team and challenges are set with input from the global community. The programme is a model for goal-directed, cross-border funding.

## Fields

- Kind: Institution
- Last checked: 2026-09-09
- City: London, GB
- Type: consortium
- Website: https://cancergrandchallenges.org

## Sources

- Cancer Grand Challenges: https://cancergrandchallenges.org
- Funded teams (archived copy): https://web.archive.org/web/20240420075523/https://cancergrandchallenges.org/teams

## Connected records

- cancers: [Colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/colorectal/), [Non-small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/nsclc/)
- institutions: [Cancer Research UK](https://onco.cc/institutions/cruk/), [National Cancer Institute (NIH)](https://onco.cc/institutions/nci/), [The Francis Crick Institute](https://onco.cc/institutions/francis-crick/), [The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research](https://onco.cc/institutions/mark-foundation/)
- terms: [Mutational signature](https://onco.cc/terms/mutational-signature/)
- people: [Charles Swanton](https://onco.cc/people/charles-swanton/), [Douglas R. Lowy](https://onco.cc/people/douglas-lowy/), [Iain Foulkes](https://onco.cc/people/iain-foulkes/), [Michelle Mitchell](https://onco.cc/people/michelle-mitchell/)
- bottlenecks: [Cachexia, toxicity and the limits of the patient](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-cachexia-supportive/), [Funding follows fashion, not burden](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-funding-allocation/), [Tumour heterogeneity and clonal evolution](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-tumor-heterogeneity/)

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