The Little Princess Trust (LPT) is keen to support innovation in children and young people’s cancer research, supporting promising ideas which may be challenging to find funding for from traditional research funders.
Our ‘New Ideas Grants’ are to help researchers generate high-quality preliminary data, or to demonstrate the validity of a hypothesis/study, to advance innovative and novel ideas with the potential to transform the treatment of children and young people’s cancer.
We are looking for impactful, ‘thinking outside the box’ ideas. Applicants should have a novel hypothesis. You may have some preliminary data that can be developed further, but this is not a pre-requisite for this grant round. We will prioritise exciting ideas with the greatest potential to secure further funding, including from LPT in future innovation-focused funding rounds. We are looking for projects which are genuinely new and haven’t been done before.
We expect the typical award for our New Ideas Grants will be up to £50,000 with a project duration of up to 12 months, however there is no upper limit for proposals and decisions are primarily based on the quality of the proposed research and its potential impact rather than cost.
Applications to this funding round should be for scientific proposals that study:
- New approaches to treatment, in particular:
- More effective treatment with fewer toxicities/on-treatment side effects
- Approaches to treatment that may lead to a reduction in short- and long-term sequelae of treatment (but studies focusing on treatment of late effects, health behaviour interventions for survivors, fertility/reproductive health and psychosocial aspects are unlikely to be considered)
- The causes of childhood or TYA cancer, where the research is likely to lead to an improvement in outcomes
- Accurate diagnosis of childhood or TYA cancer, where the research is likely to lead to
an improvement in outcomes
The Trust generally funds basic science (with a clear plan for translation/patient benefit), translational and clinical research. Other types of research are unlikely to be considered for this funding scheme. For more information, read The Little Princess Trust’s Research Strategy.
Applications to this funding round will comprise:
- A submission of your scientific proposal through our Flexigrant portal
- Your lay summary of the project, its potential impact and future aspirations in the form of a video, maximum 5 minutes, a slide deck (maximum 8 slides) or a document, maximum 2 sides of A4. This should be for a lay audience and will be used by The Little Princess Trust Research Subcommittee for deciding which applications to take through to peer review. A video submission is preferred.
The deadline for applications is 17:00 on Tuesday 24 March 2026. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be accepted. Funding is available to UK and Ireland based research organisations, i.e. universities and hospitals.
You should read our guidance for applicants in full prior to starting an application.
Please read our guidance for applicants before starting an application:
Guidance for applicants Apply now
How research applications are selected:
Excellent research governance is at the heart of our research decision making. CCLG's independent Research Advisory Group (RAG) oversees all research grant rounds. All RAG members and external peer reviewers are asked to declare any Conflicts of Interest and adhere to the Grant Review Code of Conduct. Following peer review, the RAG will discuss and rank the applications for funding. Final approval comes from The Little Princess Trust Research Subcommittee. Find out more about our research funding process