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Fully-funded PhD projects

Apply for our fully-funded PhD projects in subjects including chemistry, biology, computer science, and physics.

PhD opportunities for science graduates

Projects for the 2024/2025 PhD studentships are below.  You will also find a link to further information about our application process, our application portal and mailing list, should you wish to be notified about future PhD opportunities. You can also view the recording of the 2023 Application Workshop, where we heard from our Academic Lead for Recruitment, Head of Research Degree Programmes and Researcher Development Manager. We also had advice and guidance from the University of London Careers Service, and an insight from some of our current PhD students at the ICR.

Stipends

The ICR's current student stipend is £26,050 per year. Studentships awarded by the Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Centre, which is a partnership of the ICR and Imperial College London, instead includes a stipend paid at the Cancer Research UK rate of £23,000 per year.

Find out about our application process

View 2023 application workshop recording

Application process flow diagram

Sign up for our mailing list for future opportunities

 

 

 

Available opportunities

You can view details of the 2024/2025 projects below. 

Any future applications will be added here so please do check back regularly.

Funding for our PhD projects comes from a variety of different sources, including some funded programmes, such as the MRC Doctoral Training Partnership and the CRUK Science Centre at the ICR and Imperial.  

Apply now for convergence Science non-clinical PhD Black Leaders in Cancer projects

Please note, the advertised funder may change prior to registration.

Enhancing immune responses to radiation with spatiotemporal dose modulation and drug combinations

  • Primary Supervisor:  Dr Magnus Dillon

  • Supervisory Team:  Prof Uwe Oelfke

  • Primary Division and Team: Radiotherapy and Imaging, Biological enhancement of radiotherapy

  • Funded by: CRUK RadNet

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

HPV- and genome instability-driven innate immune responses in head and neck cancer

  • Primary Supervisor: Dr Ben O'Leary; Dr Christian Zierhut

  • Supervisory Team:  Prof Kevin Harrington, Prof Jessica Downs

  • Primary Division and Team: Radiotherapy and Imaging/Cancer Biology, Evolution & Translational Genomics/Genome Stability and Innate Immunity

  • Funded by: CRUK RadNet

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Investigating how myeloid populations may modify radiotherapy/immunotherapy responses in muscle-invasive bladder cancer

  • Primary Supervisor: Dr Anna Wilkins

  • Supervisory Team:  Prof Anguraj Sadanandam, Prof Nick James, Dr Maggie Cheang, Prof Alan Melcher

  • Primary Division and Team: Radiotherapy and Imaging, Stromal Radiobiology Group (Prostate and Bladder Cancer Research Team)

  • Funded by: CRUK RadNet

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Molecular investigation on MuvB oncogenic complexes

  • Primary Supervisor:  Dr Claudio Alfieri

  • Supervisory Team:  Dr Joerg Mansfeld, Dr Rob Van Montfort

  • Primary Division and Team: Structural Biology, Molecular Mechanisms of Cell Cycle Regulation

  • Funded by: ICR

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Hyper-activation of oncogenic signalling to treat colorectal tumours

  • Primary Supervisor:  Prof Trevor Graham

  • Supervisory Team:  Dr Frank Czauderna (Industry Supervisor), Dr Erica Oliveira, Dr Freddie Whiting, Dr Annie Baker, Prof Udai Banerji

  • Primary Division and Team:  Centre for Evolution and Cancer/Molecular Pathology, Genomics and Evolutionary Dynamics lab

  • Funded by:  MRC DTP iCASE, Merck

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Development of small molecules targeting the TRF1 subunit of the telomeric
Shelterin complex 

  • Primary Supervisor:  Prof Sebastian Guettler

  • Supervisory Team:  Dr Astrid Zimmermann (Merck), Prof Swen Hoelder 

  • Primary Division and Team:  Cancer Therapeutics & Structural Biology - Prof Sebastian Guettler and Prof Swen Hoelder

  • Funded by: MRC DTP iCASE, Merck Healthcare KGaA (“Merck”)

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Immunopeptidome landscape of multiple myeloma 

  • Primary Supervisor:  Prof Richard Houlston

  • Supervisory Team:  Dr Jyoti Choudhary, Dr Martin Kaiser

  • Primary Division and Team:  Genetics & Epidemiology, Cancer Genomics

  • Funded by: ICR

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Enabling novel E3 ligases for targeted protein degradation therapeutics

  • Primary Supervisor:  Dr Agnieszka Konopacka

  • Supervisory Team:  Prof Swen Hoelder

  • Primary Division and Team:  Cancer Therapeutics, Induced Proximity Therapeutics

  • Funded by: MRC DTP

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Developing novel mRNA vaccines against cancer associated mis-splicing events to enhance therapy response

  • Primary Supervisor:  Dr Rachael Natrajan

  • Supervisory Team:  Dr Esther Arwert, Dr Jyoti Choudhary

  • Primary Division and Team:  Breast Cancer Research, Functional Genomics

  • Funded by: MRC DTP

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Decoding the ALT Pathway: Identifying Synthetic Lethal Targets and Biomarkers for Precision Cancer Therapy

  • Primary Supervisor: Prof Wojciech Niedzwiedz 

  • Supervisory Team:  Prof Jyoti Choudhary, Dr Jadwiga Nieminuszczy, Dr Heike Dahmen (Merck)

  • Primary Division and Team: Cancer Biology

  • Funded by: MRC iCASE (Merck)

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Development of a microbeam-FLASH irradiator for pre-clinical radiation therapy research

  • Primary Supervisor: Prof Uwe Oelfke

  • Supervisory Team:  Dr Simeon Nill, Dr Magnus Dillon, Dr Carol Box, Prof Kevin Harrington

  • Primary Division and Team: Radiotherapy and Imaging, Radiotherapy Physics Modelling   

  • Funded by: ICR

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Deciphering the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in radiotherapy resistance for HPV+ head and neck cancers

  • Primary Supervisor:  Dr Ben O'Leary

  • Supervisory Team:  Dr Magnus Dillon, Prof Alan Melcher

  • Primary Division and Team: Radiotherapy and Imaging, Evolution & Translational Genomics

  • Funded by: ICR

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Uncovering mutational processes associated to immune surveillance during breast cancer development and therapeutic interventions

  • Primary Supervisor:  Dr Luis Zapata Ortiz

  • Supervisory Team:  Dr Beatriz Monterde, Prof Chris Lord

  • Primary Division and Team:  Molecular Pathology - CEC, Evolutionary Immunogenomics (www.evilab.ai)

  • Funded by: ICR

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Structural study of cotranscriptional spliceosomes stalled by antitumor compounds

  • Primary Supervisor: Prof Vlad Pena

  • Supervisory Team:  Dr Negar Goodarzi, Prof Sebastian Guettler

  • Primary Division and Team:  Structural Biology, Structure and mechanisms of RNA splicing 

  • Funded by: MRC DTP

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Exploring the interplay between histone acetyltransferase complexes in acute myeloid leukaemia

  • Primary Supervisor:  Dr Alex Radzisheuskaya

  • Supervisory Team:  Prof Kamil Kranc, Dr Tanya Trakarnphornsombat

  • Primary Division and Team:  Cancer Biology, Chromatin Biology

  • Funded by: MRC DTP

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Developing Direct-to-Biology for Molecular Glue Discovery

  • Primary Supervisor: Prof Zoran Rankovic

  • Supervisory Team:  Dr Niall Anderson (Astrazeneca), Dr John Caldwell, Dr Gary Newton

  • Primary Division and Team: Cancer Therapeutics, Targeted Protein Degradation

  • Funded by: MRC iCASE (Astrazeneca)

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Metabolic MRI of paediatric-type diffuse high grade glioma and its response to therapy in vivo

  • Primary Supervisor: Prof Simon Robinson

  • Supervisory Team:  Dr Jessica Boult, Prof Chris Jones

  • Primary Division and Team: Radiotherapy and Imaging, Pre-Clinical MRI

  • Funded by: MRC DTP

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Determining the role of the adaptive immune system in controlling breast cancer metastasis and evolution

  • Primary Supervisor: Dr Stephen-John Sammut

  • Supervisory Team:  Prof Alan Melcher, Dr Esther Arwert, Prof Trevor Graham

  • Primary Division and Team: Breast Cancer Research, Cancer Dynamics Laboratory

  • Funded by: MRC DTP

  • Deadline: Closed

Project Proposal

Triple Negative Breast cancer control of the immune tumour microenvironment in metastasis

  • Primary Supervisor: Prof Victoria Sanz Moreno

  • Supervisory Team:  Prof Andrew Tutt

  • Primary Division and Team: Breast Cancer Research, Cytoskeleton and Cancer Metastasis 

  • Funded by: UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme for MSCA-DN ADAPTMET

  • Funding details:  The candidate will receive a monthly salary of £4,574 (subject to tax and National Insurance deductions), which includes both a living allowance and a mobility allowance, for a duration of 36 months. Additionally, candidates with a family may be eligible for a monthly family allowance of £430 (also subject to tax and National Insurance deductions), provided they meet the eligibility criteria for the MSCA family allowance.

  • Deadline: Closed

  • Eligibility: Only applicants who satisfy the following mobility rule are eligible to apply: Applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the UK for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date.

Project Proposal

Previous projects 

Development of automatic plan-of-the-day selection tools for radiation therapy of pelvic cancer
Professor Helen McNair

Advancing clinical elastography for early, non-invasive imaging assessment of normal tissue toxicity and tumour response
Dr Jessica Winfield

Late-effects of hypofractionated radiotherapy for breast cancer
Professor Amy Berrington

Investigating the cytoprotective role of the ectonucleotidase CD38 in immune responses to cancer
Dr Erik Wennerberg

Role of the non-coding genome in the evolution of myeloma
Dr Martin Kaiser

Resolving the isoform-specific signalling of RSK1 and RSK4 in non-small cell lung cancer through combined artificial intelligence and molecular biology
Dr Anna Barnard

Resolving the isoform-specific signalling of RSK1 and RSK4 in non-small cell lung cancer through combined artificial intelligence and molecular biology
Dr Olivier Pardo

Fluorescent nanoparticle arrays for label-free monitoring of immunotherapy for bladder cancer
Dr Anna Wilkins

Machine and deep learning for improving photoacoustic imaging for CAR T-cell cancer therapy
Professor Jeff Bamber (ICR)/Lucia Florescu (Surrey) 

Investigating the functions of histone acetylation in genome organization and leukemogenesis
Dr Alex Radzisheuskaya

Exploiting intercellular interactions to overcome prostate cancer cell states cooperation and plasticity
Dr Marco Bezzi

Comprehensive multi-omic analyses of “islands of resistance” tumour cells to identify aromatase inhibitor resistant subclones in oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer
Dr Maggie Cheang

Targeting cancer cell dependency on RNA-binding proteins
Dr Paul Clarke

Understanding the mechanisms underpinning therapeutic vulnerability of SWI/SNF deficient cancers
Professor Jessica Downs

Computational genomics and epigenomics to understand metastasis
Professor Trevor Graham

In situ analysis of the TCR repertoire in colorectal cancer
Professor Trevor Graham

Structural and functional studies of the regulation of mRNA splicing by cyclin-dependent kinases
Dr Basil Greber

Development of tankyrase-directed PROTACs as novel scaffolding inhibitors
Professor Sebastian Guettler

Tracking immune cell migration in tumour and normal tissues after combined radiation-drug therapy in Kaede mice
Professor Kevin Harrington

Developing new therapeutic strategies for ALT positive sarcomas
Dr Paul Huang

Integrative spatial proteomic analysis of tumour microenvironment response to therapy in sarcomas
Dr Paul Huang

Modelling and targeting the effects of EGFR on diffusely infiltrating paediatric high-grade gliomas or midline and cerebral regions
Professor Chris Jones/Dr Julia Cockle

Identifying molecular pathways of drug resistance in multiple myeloma
Dr Martin Kaiser

Exploring the differences in the structural characterisation of inhibitor binding between cryo- and room-temperature using multicrystal X-ray crystallography
Dr Rob van Montfort

Evaluation of sub-clonal alterations mediating response and resistance to CDK7 inhibition in therapy resistant triple negative breast cancer
Dr Rachael Natrajan

Identifying therapeutical opportunities within replicative stress response pathways for the development of novel therapeutic strategies to treat cancer
Professor Wojciech Nidzwiedz

Structural investigation of spliceosomes hijacked by oncolytic viruses
Professor Vlad Pena

Innate-immune drivers of cell fate during genotoxic stress
Dr Christian Zierhut

Targeting RNA helicases to suppress aberrant androgen receptor expression and abrogate persistent androgen receptor signalling in lethal prostate cancer
Dr Adam Sharp 

Development of a patient model for real-time MRI guided radiotherapy of pancreas and liver cancer
Professor Uwe Oelfke

Charting colorectal cancer interactomes at structural resolution using chemical crosslinking and mass spectrometry
Professor Jyoti Choudhary

Development of novel dual-target agents to treat neuroblastoma that combine selective protein degradation with synergistic inhibition
Professor Hector Keun (Imperial)

Unravelling the role of cancer associated fibroblasts in cancer evolution and drug resistance using microfluidics
Professor Udai Banerji

An explant-in-chip platform to study immune-cancer cell interactions and enhance tumour immunogenicity ex vivo: a focus on radiotherapy
Professor Darryl Overby (Imperial)

Deciphering the metabolic determinants of bone metastasis in breast cancer
Dr George Poulogiannis

Composition and function of telomeric multi-protein complexes and their regulation by ADP-ribosylation
Dr Sebastian Guettler

Dissecting the prostate cancer-stromal interface
Prof Johann de Bono

Can artificial intelligence predict outcome in patients receiving stereotactic radiosurgery of brain metastasis?
Dr Matthew Blackledge

Single-cell transcriptomics linked to lineage tracing to interrogate the role of “plasticity first” as a positive force driving paediatric cancer evolution
Dr Alejandra Bruna

Exploring strategies for targeting oncogenic beta-catenin
Dr Paul Clarke

Examining the mechanism of chromatin replication and assembly at telomeres
Dr Max Douglas

Generation of mouse models to identify and characterize novel therapeutic targets in chemo refractory AML disease
Professor Kristian Helin

Developing innovative chemical tools to drive lytic cancer cell death
Prof Swen Hoelder

PET imaging to monitor immune cell fitness post-targeted treatment in GBM
Dr Gabriela Kramer-Marek

Understanding PolØ and ATR inhibitor sensitivity in cancer
Prof Chris Lord

Harnessing immunogenic cell death mechanisms to trigger anti tumour immunity
Prof Pascal Meier

Identifying small molecules that bind to the E3-ligase Cbl-b
Dr Gary Newton

Understanding myeloma cell – microenvironment interactions and their role in immunomodulatory drug resistance
Dr Charlotte Pawlyn

Using lattice light sheet microscopy to determine how the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint turns off
Prof Jon Pines

Advanced multiparametric MRI for the characterisation of soft tissue sarcoma and response to neoadjuvant therapy
Dr Simon Robinson

Russell Group
First generation
MSc or BSc

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