See all our PhD projects:

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

We are now accepting applications for our 2025/2026 PhD studentships and the projects can be browsed below. You will also find a link to further information about our application process and our mailing list, should you wish to be notified about future PhD opportunities.

Stipends

The ICR's current student stipend is £26,505 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 £24,219 per year.

Find out about our application process  Mailing list

Available opportunities

You can view details of the 2025/2026 projects below. 

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.  

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

 

 

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

Primary supervisor: Dr Ben O'Leary Primary site: Chelsea Funded by CRUK RadNet

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

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Closed: Exploring the interplay between histone acetyltransferase complexes in acute myeloid leukaemia

Primary supervisor: Dr Alex Radzisheuskaya Primary site: Chelsea Funded by Medical Research Council - Doctoral Training Partnership (MRC DTP)

Closed: Exploring the interplay between histone acetyltransferase complexes in acute myeloid leukaemia

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Closed: Examining the mechanism of chromatin telomere replication

Primary supervisor: Dr Max Douglas Primary site: Sutton Funded by Medical Research Council - Doctoral Training Partnership (MRC DTP)

Closed: Examining the mechanism of chromatin telomere replication

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

Primary supervisor: Dr Magnus Dillon Primary site: Sutton Funded by CRUK RadNet

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

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Closed: Enabling novel E3 ligases for targeted protein degradation therapeutics

Primary site: Sutton Funded by Medical Research Council - Doctoral Training Partnership (MRC DTP)

Closed: Enabling novel E3 ligases for targeted protein degradation therapeutics

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

Primary supervisor: Professor Sebastian Guettler Primary site: Sutton Funded by MRC iCASE Award (Merck)

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

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Closed: Development of automatic plan-of-the-day selection tools for radiation therapy of pelvic cancer

Primary supervisor: Professor Helen McNair Primary site: Sutton Funded by Biomedical Research Centre (BRC)

Closed: Development of automatic plan-of-the-day selection tools for radiation therapy of pelvic cancer

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

Primary supervisor: Professor Uwe Oelfke Primary site: Sutton Funded by ICR

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

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

Primary supervisor: Dr Rachael Natrajan Primary site: Sutton Funded by Medical Research Council - Doctoral Training Partnership (MRC DTP)

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

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Closed: Developing Direct-to-Biology for Molecular Glue Discovery

Primary supervisor: Professor Zoran Rankovic Primary site: Sutton Funded by MRC iCASE award (AstraZeneca)

Closed: Developing Direct-to-Biology for Molecular Glue Discovery

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

Primary supervisor: Dr Stephen-John Sammut Primary site: Chelsea Funded by Medical Research Council - Doctoral Training Partnership (MRC DTP)

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

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

Primary supervisor: Professor Wojciech Niedzwiedz Primary site: Chelsea Funded by MRC iCASE Award (Merck)

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

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

Primary supervisor: Dr Ben O'Leary Primary site: Sutton Funded by ICR

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

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Closed: Computational analysis of spatial dynamics in breast cancer

Primary supervisor: Dr Esther Arwert Primary site: Chelsea Funded by Breast Cancer Now

Closed: Computational analysis of spatial dynamics in breast cancer

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Closed: Advancing clinical elastography for early, non-invasive imaging assessment of normal tissue toxicity and tumour response

Primary supervisor: Dr Jessica Winfield Primary site: Sutton Funded by NIHR BRC at RMH/ICR

Closed: Advancing clinical elastography for early, non-invasive imaging assessment of normal tissue toxicity and tumour response

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Cell cycle regulation of the WEE1 kinase

Primary supervisor: Professor Jonathon Pines Primary site: Chelsea Funded by Medical Research Council - Doctoral Training Partnership (MRC DTP)

Cell cycle regulation of the WEE1 kinase

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