Blood Cancer UK Early Career Advancement Fellowship: enabling the most talented early career blood cancer researchers who have already obtained a PhD and undertaken further research as a postdoc or equivalent, to transition towards independence as a researcher.
Fellowships will be awarded for up to three years’ full time or five years’ part time. Blood Cancer UK expects the awards to be in the region of £400,000-£450,000 (maximum budget) covering the applicant’s salary, other research staff, consumables or equipment directly attributable to the research study (direct costs of research only).
The University of Oxford is permitted to submit a maximum of two applications for this round of the Blood Cancer UK Early Career Advancement Fellowships. Therefore, an internal selection process will be run to select the two applications that will be put forward.
How to Apply
Internal applications must be submitted via the IRAMS online application system by 12 noon on Tuesday 29th July 2025. To apply, please upload to IRAMS the completed Expression of Interest form and a CV describing your career history (key publications, grants awarded stating if you were the Lead Applicant or a Co-applicant and the value awarded, prizes, memberships, teaching, etc.) as a single PDF.
Departmental Approver sign-off must also be provided in IRAMS before the deadline. You do not need to submit a letter of support with your internal EOI, but you will need a strong Letter of Support from your Lead Supervisor (and ideally other letters from other supervisors/mentors) if selected to apply to Blood Cancer UK.
Eligibility
Applicants should be proposing to undertake a novel research project in any type of blood cancer that fits with at least one of the three priority research themes: Prevention, Early detection and predicting outcomes, and Treatment.
The fellowship should provide the researcher with the leadership, career development and training opportunities needed for the applicant to transition to independence over the course of the fellowship.
The fellowship candidate should be the lead applicant, but the application must include a named supervisor at the host institution who will be asked to provide a letter of support.
Applicants must:
- Be outstanding early career researchers who are dedicated to pursuing a career in blood cancer research, and who are aiming to transition towards independence with the support of this fellowship.
- Have a maximum of six years’ full time equivalent active research experience at the time of the BCUK deadline since award of their PhD (Allowances will be made for career breaks, COVID-19 pandemic impacts and clinical activity.)
Candidates from either non-clinical or clinical backgrounds are eligible. Clinical candidates can remain clinically active for up to a maximum of 50% FTE; the fellowship will fund the non-clinical portion of the salary.
Researchers who have already transitioned to independence are not eligible to apply to this scheme. Please see the funder’s guidance document (page 3) for indicators of independence that would make a candidate ineligible for a Fellowship.
If you are unsure if you are eligible after referring to the funder’s guidance, please send your CV and a summary of the potential issue you have identified to research@medsci.ox.ac.uk as soon as possible and before submitting your internal application. We will seek guidance from Blood Cancer UK as needed.
Timeline
The Medical Sciences Divisional Office will notify all applicants of the outcomes on or around 7 August 2025. The applicants selected by MSD should submit their application via the Blood Cancer UK Grant Tracker grants management system. Applications must be submitted to Research Services on 18th September 2025 at the latest, to meet the Blood Cancer UK submission deadline of 3pm on Thursday September 25th 2025.
More Information
The funder's webpage is here.
Guidelines from the funder are available here.
Please direct questions to research@medsci.ox.ac.uk
