Advertised from 26 August 2025

Role

Benefits:

10% employer pension contribution; private medical insurance; employee assistance programme and counselling service; enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption pay; enhanced sick pay; 31 days’ paid holiday/year plus four paid winter public holidays; 2-weeks fully remote working/year; three paid carer days/year; death in service benefit; cycle to work and travel season ticket schemes.

To support the Team’s work-life balance, we work a nine-day fortnight where the charity is closed every second Friday.  

About the role and what we’re looking for 

What will you be doing? 

• Supporting applicants from all over the world to bring us their new ideas in cancer research by providing guidance in a timely manner. You’ll receive and process discovery cancer research funding applications, ensuring validity and completeness.  

• Leading on the expert peer review process. You’ll identify appropriate expert reviewers to ensure that the charity receives high quality, independent review advice to inform funding decisions. 

• Managing funded grants. You’ll build relationships with grantholders and process change requests to best serve the science of our funded awards. 

• Working with partner organisations. You’ll collaborate with our research partners to manage co-funded projects as well as providing funding information for internal and external purposes.  

• Demonstrating our values. As a Curestarter, you’ll demonstrate our values every day - curious, united, real, entrepreneurial and spirited – as you help bring about our vision that no life is cut short by cancer. 

What are we looking for? 

• With a higher degree in a biomedical related field, you have excellent scientific understanding of molecular and cell biology as well as a broad knowledge of cancer research. 

• You have a good understanding of research funding processes, particularly peer review and conflicts of interest. 

• You’re a collaborative person who works respectfully in a diverse team of experts to deliver work that makes an impact. 

• As a detailed planner and organiser, you thrive on deadlines and feel confident prioritising your time across multiple, concurrent projects. 

Who are we?  

At Worldwide Cancer Research, we start new cures. Cancer is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide, but cutting-edge science can give us hope. Discovery research seeks to uncover new knowledge that could change the way we think about cancer. It reveals new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer that can save lives.

We actively seek unconventional and imaginative ideas from scientists at all stages of their career, across the globe. In some cases, we are the only organisation that will fund a scientist’s idea. We take an unbiased approach to research funding by focusing on supporting only the best ideas for new cures. By having a diverse research portfolio, we increase our chances of finding breakthroughs.

Our vision is of a day when no life is cut short by cancer, and we believe we can achieve this by starting the life-saving advances of the future by sowing the seeds of discoveries. Anyone that helps bring forward breakthroughs – including our staff, our supporters, and the researchers we fund – is a Curestarter.

As a charity, we are committed to opportunity without barriers, and we are striving to seek, value and learn from different perspectives and experiences. We want Worldwide Cancer Research to be an inclusive organisation – where everyone can be themselves and feel valued – as diverse as the scientific community we fund and the families whose lives we impact. 

We are committed to ensuring that we provide equal opportunities to every applicant regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. We aim to ensure that our recruitment process is unbiased and that everyone is treated equitably because our team members are at the heart of everything we do to start new cancer cures around the world.

To help start new cancer cures and save lives, we are looking for a Research Funding Officer to join the busy Research team at Worldwide Cancer Research, to help the charity run its multi-million-pound funding programme for discovery cancer research.

Application notes

How do I apply?

• Email your CV and a one-page cover letter to recruitment@worldwidecancerresearch.org. Focus the content of your letter on:  

1. The defining moments in your experience or career that make you suitable for this role now.

2. A time you made something better at work or if applicable, during your research - for a person, a team or a process.

Your letter will be the key to your success and applications without letters may not be considered. 

• Please consider the use of AI in your application carefully, we would like original cover letters reflecting your individuality and suitability for the role. 

• Please tell us where you saw the role advertised.

• Closing date is Tuesday 16 September, midnight.

• Interviews will be held on Thursday 25th September in Edinburgh. We will contact all applicants as soon as possible after shortlisting.

• We are a disability confident committed employer - please contact Paula Cahill, our HR Manager, if you have any questions about our recruitment process, accessibility and adjustments to support you: paulac@worldwidecancerresearch.org 

• You will find the full job profile and our benefits on Worldwide Cancer Research careers

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