Restricted call: The Mark Foundation Endeavor Award (internal deadline 11th June 2025)

The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research has announced the Endeavor Award.

The Endeavor Awards of $3,000,000, disbursed over a 3-year term, support collaborative research projects that bring together investigators with diverse areas of expertise to tackle challenges in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. These grants are awarded to teams of three or more investigators to generate and integrate data from diverse lines of research and transform those insights into advances for cancer patients that could not be achieved by individual efforts. 

Applicants must have an independent faculty appointment and form a team consisting of one PI and between two and eight co-PIs. Projects must seek to address an overarching, urgent scientific question, and may be basic, translational, or clinical in nature. However, they must not be supported by other sources of funding. The budget limit includes both direct and indirect costs, with indirect costs not to exceed 10% of the direct costs.

University Internal selection:  

Institutions can only submit one application. Therefore, this call will be managed according to the University’s restricted calls procedure. 

Your Department’s Research Grants Team and/or Departmental Administrator (or equivalent) must be made aware of your internal application, and a support letter signed by the Head of Department is required. 

To take part in the internal selection, please complete our online form by 11th June.  If asked to log-in, please use your crsid/Raven details; please note that a Form cannot be saved and returned to.

You will need the following documents and information to complete the Form:  

  • Applicant name, Department and email address
  • Project title
  • Project summary (maximum 750 words)
  • Applicant’s brief CV (maximum 3 pages): DORA principles should be considered when presenting research outputs
  • A list of members of the core team, their roles and a brief description of how the team has the relevant experience and right balance of skills to deliver the proposed work
  • Head of Department support letter confirming support for the application and agreement to host the award

Internal Assessment Criteria:

Please note that the assessment of internal applications will focus on the following core funder criteria: 

Vision: the project addresses an urgent scientific question in cancer and leverages diverse expertise to produce integrated, impactful outcomes

Approach: the design ensures that team outputs are shared and integrated to deliver impact greater than the sum of individual efforts

Team capability to deliver: the investigators have complementary expertise, a clear collaborative structure, and a track record of relevant work

Funder deadlines:

Letter of intent: 3rd September 2025

Full application: January 2026

If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us at researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk.