Innovate UK, on behalf of the Office for Life Sciences (OLS) Cancer Healthcare Goals programme, is making up to £25.4 million available through a competitive grant funding competition to support the clinical validation and evaluation of innovative technologies and devices for the earlier detection and diagnosis of cancer.

The competition is aimed at technologies that have progressed sufficiently to require robust clinical and real-world evidence to demonstrate their potential for clinical impact, health-economic value, regulatory approval and future adoption within the NHS.

Projects addressing less common cancers are particularly encouraged. For this competition, less common cancers are defined as cancer types other than breast, prostate, lung and bowel cancer, including rare forms of these four cancer types.

The competition is intended to accelerate promising diagnostic innovations towards clinical use rather than fund early-stage discovery research or routine deployment of established technologies.

What the Competition Will Support

Proposed projects should focus on developing, validating or evaluating diagnostic technologies or approaches with clear potential to improve the earlier detection and diagnosis of cancer.

Areas of interest include:

• Next-generation diagnostic technologies and devices that can support earlier cancer diagnosis, particularly for less common cancers.
• Technologies that improve access to diagnostic services, including solutions that help patients and primary care teams identify people who may require further investigation.
• Innovations that enable earlier diagnosis or more efficient access to testing, including self-assessment tools, pharmacy-led triage and direct-to-test pathways.
• Multi-modal approaches that assess cancer risk using combinations of genomic, demographic, imaging, biomarker and other relevant data.
• Clinical validation and evaluation studies.
• Early-phase clinical trials.
• Safety and efficacy testing.
• Demonstration of technologies in relevant operational environments.
• Regulatory planning and product development activities.

The competition will use a portfolio approach, seeking a range of projects across different cancer types, geographical settings and stages of technological maturity.

Funding Available

The competition has a total funding allocation of up to £25.4 million, subject to sufficient high-quality applications being received.

Individual projects must have total eligible project costs of between £1.5 million and £4 million.

Funding is provided as a grant.

Who Can Apply?

This is a collaborative competition and is not structured as an open grant for individual international applicants.

A project must be led by an eligible UK-registered organisation, which may be:

• A UK-registered business of any size;
• A UK academic institution; or
• An NHS organisation.

The consortium must also include at least one UK-registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) claiming grant funding.

In addition, the project must involve a practising clinician, clinical academic or clinical delivery team.

International organisations may participate in eligible projects as non-funded partners, subject to the competition requirements. This means that organisations outside the UK may have an opportunity to contribute their expertise, technology, research capability or clinical knowledge through an eligible UK-led consortium, but they cannot independently lead the application under the eligibility requirements provided for this competition.

Country: United Kingdom

Important Scope and Exclusions

Applicants should ensure that their proposed technology directly addresses the objectives of the competition.

The following are not eligible for funding:

• Companion diagnostics;
• Therapeutics or treatment development;
• Discovery research;
• Routine deployment of late-stage technologies into frontline services;
• Projects focused purely on service redesign; and
• Technologies focused on cancer recurrence detection, monitoring or prediction of treatment response.

The competition also excludes projects where funding is dependent on export performance or on the use of a specified proportion of UK domestic inputs.

Expected Project Outcomes

Successful projects should generate evidence that can help move promising diagnostic innovations towards practical clinical application. This may include evidence supporting:

• Clinical validation;
• Safety and efficacy;
• Regulatory approval;
• Health-economic impact;
• Technology adoption; and
• Potential future use within the NHS.

The competition is therefore particularly relevant to organisations whose diagnostic technologies have moved beyond basic discovery and are ready for clinical validation, evaluation or further development.

Application and Assessment

Applications will be assessed competitively, and funding will not necessarily be awarded to every project that meets the eligibility requirements.

Innovate UK has indicated that experience from similar competitions suggests an approximate 15% chance of success, highlighting the competitive nature of the call.

Applicants should ensure that their consortium, proposed diagnostic technology and planned activities clearly align with the scope and objectives of the competition before submitting an application.

Key Dates

Competition opens: 1 September 2026

Online briefing event: 3 September 2026 at 14:30 UK time

Application deadline: 28 October 2026 at 11:00 UK time

Interview invitations: 7 December 2026

Interview period: 11–15 January 2027

Applicants notified: 21 January 2027

Projects start from: 1 April 2027

Who Should Consider This Opportunity?

This competition may be particularly relevant to UK businesses, academic institutions, NHS organisations, diagnostic technology developers, clinical research teams and eligible collaborative consortia developing innovative approaches to earlier cancer detection.

It may also be relevant to international organisations, including South African innovators and research organisations, that are able to contribute to an eligible UK-led consortium as non-funded partners.

Organisations considering this route should identify an appropriate UK lead and confirm their eligibility and proposed role within the consortium before proceeding.

Application

Applications must be submitted through the Innovate UK Innovation Funding Service.

The competition opens on 1 September 2026 and closes on 28 October 2026 at 11:00am UK time.

Important: This competition has a defined UK-led collaborative structure. International organisations should not assume that they can apply independently; they should review the eligibility requirements and, where appropriate, explore participation as a non-funded partner in an eligible UK-led consortium.

Click HERE to visit the official website. 

You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.