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.

 

 

Structural dissection of β-catenin ubiquitylation by cryo-electronmicroscopy

Primary supervisor: Professor Sebastian Guettler Primary site: Chelsea Funded by CRUK

Structural dissection of β-catenin ubiquitylation by cryo-electronmicroscopy

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Regulation of the β-catenin destruction complex by deubiquitylation

Primary supervisor: Professor Sebastian Guettler Primary site: Chelsea Funded by CRUK

Regulation of the β-catenin destruction complex by deubiquitylation

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New strategies for exploiting the fitness costs of drug resistance in cancer

Primary supervisor: Professor Trevor Graham Primary site: Sutton Funded by Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Network 2025

New strategies for exploiting the fitness costs of drug resistance in cancer

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Towards non-invasive monitoring and prediction of cancer evolutionary dynamics from cfDNA

Primary supervisor: Professor Trevor Graham Primary site: Sutton Funded by Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Network 2025

Towards non-invasive monitoring and prediction of cancer evolutionary dynamics from cfDNA

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Optimising radiotherapy dose-fractionation and volume for maximal synergy with immunotherapy

Primary supervisor: Dr Navita Somaiah, Dr Erik Wennerberg Primary site: Sutton Funded by CRUK RadNet

Optimising radiotherapy dose-fractionation and volume for maximal synergy with immunotherapy

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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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Development of the next generation circulating tumour DNA tests in gastrointestinal cancers

Primary supervisor: Professor Michael Hubank Primary site: Sutton Funded by NIHR

Development of the next generation circulating tumour DNA tests in gastrointestinal cancers

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Targeting Urea Cycle Dysregulation as a Tumour Specific Vulnerability in Lethal Prostate Cancer

Primary supervisor: Dr Alec Paschalis Primary site: Sutton Funded by ICR

Targeting Urea Cycle Dysregulation as a Tumour Specific Vulnerability in Lethal Prostate Cancer

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The Multiscale Vulnerability Map: Cross-Discipline Multimodal Mining Reveals Colorectal Cancer's Hidden Weak Points

Primary supervisor: Professor Anguraj Sadanandam Primary site: Sutton Funded by MRC iCASE Award (Merck)

The Multiscale Vulnerability Map: Cross-Discipline Multimodal Mining Reveals Colorectal Cancer's Hidden Weak Points

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Targeting AMPK as a metabolic vulnerability of metastatic cancer cells

Primary supervisor: Professor Joanna Loizou Primary site: Sutton Funded by ICR

Targeting AMPK as a metabolic vulnerability of metastatic cancer cells

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The Role of Early Plasma Cell Infiltration in Breast Cancer Immune Responses

Primary supervisor: Dr Esther Arwert Primary site: Chelsea Funded by ICR

The Role of Early Plasma Cell Infiltration in Breast Cancer Immune Responses

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Redox control of DNA replication: how mitochondrial ROS tune replisome function to preserve genome stability

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

Redox control of DNA replication: how mitochondrial ROS tune replisome function to preserve genome stability

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Overcoming oncogenic androgen receptor signalling to transform the care of lethal prostate cancer

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

Overcoming oncogenic androgen receptor signalling to transform the care of lethal prostate cancer

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Comprehensive multi-omics profiling of “islands of resistance” tumour cells to uncover aromatase inhibitor resistant subclones in oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer

Primary supervisor: Dr Maggie Cheang Primary site: Sutton Funded by MRC iCASE award (AstraZeneca)

Comprehensive multi-omics profiling of “islands of resistance” tumour cells to uncover aromatase inhibitor resistant subclones in oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer

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Folate-Degrader Conjugates (FDCs) for Tumour-specific Targeting

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

Folate-Degrader Conjugates (FDCs) for Tumour-specific Targeting

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Combining AI and physics-based simulations for fragment-based cancer drug discovery

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

Combining AI and physics-based simulations for fragment-based cancer drug discovery

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