Observing Funding Panels and Committees

As part of our commitments to supporting the next generation of researchers and equality, diversity and inclusion in research, we're offering early- to mid-career researchers the opportunity to observe our panel and committee meetings across our funding remit.

This scheme will include positive action to offer individuals from underrepresented groups priority places to overcome the underrepresentation that has been highlighted by our diversity data report.  

Through this experience we hope you can: 

• Understand how grant funding decisions are made to ensure we fund the best quality research
• Develop your own successful research proposals in the future 
• Help develop your skills as peer reviewers 
• Have the opportunity to give feedback to us to help improve our review processes 

Eligibility

We welcome expressions of interest from early- to mid-career cancer researchers* based in the UK** who are potential applicants to one of our award schemes in the next 2 years.

We particularly welcome applications from: 

• Researchers from ethnic minority groups: as per the Office of National Statistics list of ethnicity groups 
• Women and non-binary applicants to all our funding schemes, in particular fellowships 
• Researchers who are neurodivergent, identify as disabled or have a long-term physical or mental health condition (note: we follow the principles of the social model of disability, so researchers don't need a formal diagnosis to apply for this scheme)

You do not need to be funded by CRUK to apply. However, you would be expected to apply for future CRUK funding. For those applicants who hold a CRUK award: priority will be given to award holders in the final 2 years of their award. 

*Currently ineligible: non-clinical PhD students, senior/established investigators. 

**For confidentiality reasons, this opportunity is only open for researchers based at a UK Host Institution. If your current institution is based outside the UK but you’re planning to move to a UK Host Institution, to be eligible for this observer opportunity, you would be required to provide CRUK with a letter of support from the new UK Host Institution before being accepted.

Please note that when applying for any future CRUK funding schemes, you would need to meet the full eligibility criteria (for example, restrictions for UK Host Institutions only) as required by the funding scheme guidelines.

Meetings you can observe

We are currently inviting observers for the following meetings:

• Research Careers Committee - Expert Review Panels (meetings in Spring and Autumn) 
• Early Detection and Diagnosis Research Committee (meetings in Spring and Autumn) 
• Prevention and Population Research Committee (meetings Spring and Autumn) 
• Discovery Research Committee – Expert Review Panels (meetings Spring and Autumn) 
• Clinical Research Committee – Expert Review Panels (meetings in Spring, Summer and Autumn) 

How this scheme will work

• Places will be allocated first to researchers who fall within our priority groups and then on a first-come, first-served basis.  
• We will try and allocate you a place based on the award you’re interested in applying for, however please note places are very limited and unfortunately, we cannot guarantee places for specific panels/committees (this also applies if you fall within one of the priority groups). 
• If you’re allocated a place, we will contact you and ask you to complete a confidentiality agreement and declare any potential conflicts of interest. If you’re not allocated a place, you’ll be added to a waiting list and we’ll be back in touch to check if you’re still interested in the future. Please note that the same priority groupings apply to our waiting list and we cannot guarantee a place at a future committee/panel meeting. 

This scheme expands on a previous opportunity to observe our Early Detection and Diagnosis and Prevention and Population Research Committees.
 

Register your interest