Bowel & Cancer Research

Who we are

Bowel & Cancer Research looks forward to a day when no one will die of bowel cancer or have to live with chronic bowel disease.

To bring this day closer, we invest in the best science across the UK and encourage our next generation of research experts by supporting a dedicated PhD studentship programme. We believe that we make research better when we involve the public in all its aspects, so we have a unique programme to make this happen called People and Research Together, or PaRT.

We want to support people who live with bowel conditions and educate the public about what it's like to live with a chronic bowel condition, so we run engaging campaigns aimed at challenging enduring myths and taboos.

Our approach:

Bowel & Cancer Research is a modern, scientifically-rooted and socially inclusive charity. We put people at the heart of our research, demanding that all the research that we fund has a direct link to real patient benefit, though we acknowledge that this is rarely immediate or achievable in the short term.

We are a leading authority in research across all bowel disease. Our research process is quality assured by our membership of the Association of Medical Research Charities, the national membership organisation for leading medical research charities.

We shine a light on bowel cancer and disease by investing in new ideas from research innovators through proof-of-principle studies. With a maximum grant of £50,000 over a maximum timescale of 18 months, our aim is to lever further larger scale funding from major institutions such as the Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research or other larger charities, for example CRUK.

We also invest in new talent through our dedicated PhD studentship programme, enabling our future experts to begin their careers in science.

Our approach has helped to secure some genuine research firsts, such as pinpointing mechanisms for pain in Colitis and Crohn's disease, how important changes occur in the bowel as we age, and the development of a potential novel biological therapy for bowel cancer.