Black Leaders in Cancer PhD Scholarship Programme

Amos Burke
Magda presenting

Applications are now closed

Black Leaders In Cancer MRes +PhD (1+3 years) studentship

The CRUK postgraduate studentship programme "Black Leaders in Cancer PhD Scholarship" scheme was developed in close consultation with the research community including the expert partner organisations Black in Cancer and Windsor Fellowship.  CRUK are committed to creating equal, diverse and inclusive research environments that enable all researchers to realise their full potential to beat cancer. This programme aims to help develop the next generation of Black leaders in cancer research. 

The CRUK Cambridge Centre has been selected as one of two centre locations to implement this scheme for a second year. Students on this scheme will be fully integrated with community of CRUK Cambridge Centre funded students and will make full use of all needs-based training and core training provided by the MRes+PhD programme developed at the Cambridge Centre.

In addition to the central elements of the MRes+ PhD training such as

  • Two 15-week research rotations 
  • A weekly ‘Lectures in Cancer Biology and Medicine’ series and 1 week intensive teaching in genomic medicine, to cover the wide breadth of basic and applied cancer biology
  • A 1-2 week clinical shadowing to give insight into the rewards and challenges of cancer research
Students on this programme will additionally receive:
Two studentships are offered the academic year 2024-2025 with possible funding available for at least one overseas applicant. The applications normally open in October of each year and close in mid November, with interviews in January. Available research projects can be found here. 
 
How to apply:
1) Register interest and confirm eligibilty with the Windsor Fellowship
2) Apply through the University of Cambridge Postgraduate Admissions website. Please remember to state that you are applying for this scheme in the box for "Additional Information to Support Application" in your application.
 
Applicants need to submit a Personal Statement. This statement should be max 1000 words and include 1) What motivates you to choose this course? 2) Two research projects (see webpage link) you find interesting and tell us why 3) Something about you and your life experience beyond your academic studies. (The statement should be uploaded as a PDF to the online Applicant Portal in the Course Specific Questions section of the course application).

Applications are now closed.

If your fee status is classified as overseas, you must also apply for the University funding competition to obtain funding for the higher fee rate.

It is possible to study part-time, if you are a clinician interested in a part time MRes+ PhD, read THIS.

Continuation onto the PhD in year 2 will be conditional on the student successfully completing both their rotations (determined by formal assessment of their laboratory progress, written and oral report by both the supervisor and external assessor) and the final viva, which is based on their PhD proposal. Continuation recommendations from the viva examiners are then passed to the Degree Committee for overall approval. Only both the completion of the course and a successful viva will allow for progression onto the PhD track. The PhD will be a fully-funded three-year course, usually in one of the student's original rotation project host laboratories, thereby allowing for an in-depth study of a particular area of cancer biology.

If you have general enquiries about the CRUK Cambridge Centre non-clinical MRes + PhD studentships or the application process, please contact training@cancer.cam.ac.uk