Welcome to the European Association for Cancer Research
Connecting cancer researchers together
EACR-Mark Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships
EACR-Mark Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships are awarded for a period of three years and support excellent postdoctoral researchers in laboratories throughout Europe.
Deadline to submit outline proposals: 19 August 2026 at 23.59 CEST
Deadline for shortlisted applicants to submit full proposals: 23 November 2026 at 23.59 CET
The goals of the programme are:
- To support talented EACR members during their postdoctoral training
- To advance innovative areas of cancer research
- To grow a global network of scientists with diverse expertise
Measures of success:
- Professional advancement
- Publishable discoveries
- Follow on funding or collaborations
- Engagement with members of the Mark Foundation community
How to apply
Applications are accepted in line with the published timeline in the programme guidelines.
Important notes before applying:
- Please make sure to fully read and understand the Programme Guidelines, particularly the eligibility criteria. Strict criteria will be applied.
- Any use of AI in the preparation of your application should be disclosed, except where it was used solely for simple language translation or grammar checks. Please refer to our Policy for AI use by applicants for further information. This disclosure is for transparency and monitoring purposes only and will not affect the assessment.
- You must hold a valid EACR membership number and be logged in to access the portal.
- Take care to not exceed the character or word count limits, which will be checked following submission.
- Information will save automatically and may be updated at any time prior to submission of the application. Please do not click submit until all sections have been completed. Incomplete applications will not be accepted. Once an application has been submitted, no further changes are allowed.
- Please only use one browser tab to navigate the application portal, and do not use the browser ‘back’ buttons when completing the form. The portal will ‘time out’ after a period of inactivity. We highly recommend preparing your answers in a separate document and then copying and pasting them into the portal. Please note that no special formatting is allowed.
- We advise downloading a copy of your application after submission, to confirm that your answers have been saved correctly.
- Only applications that are submitted as complete by the published deadline can be considered. There will be no extensions and no exceptions for late or incomplete applications.
Click here to apply through the online portal
Key dates
Deadline to submit outline proposals: 19 August 2026 23.59 CEST
Deadline for shortlisted applicants to submit full proposals: 23 November 2026 23.59 CET
Start date for the fellowship: 01 May 2027
Any questions?
If you have any questions or difficulties with the online submission system please contact Catherine Burns, our Programmes and Membership Officer: catherine.burns@eacr.org
Previous winners
2026:
Rafael Blanco (Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine, Portugal)
Alberto Hernandez Barranco (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)
Click here to learn more
2025:
Julie Mazet (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)
Christina Metoikidou (NKI, Netherlands)
Martha Zarou (Francis Crick Institute, UK)
Click here to learn more
Eligibility
Applications are accepted from researchers who meet the following criteria:
- Applicants must be an EACR member with a fully completed PhD and with no more than 5 years of postdoctoral experience (excluding career breaks such as parental leave or long-term illness) at the outline proposal submission deadline.
- Applicants must work actively and currently in cancer research.
- Applicants must have had at least one first (or joint first) author primary research paper published in an international peer reviewed journal at the time of application. Papers must be published in English. Abstracts of presentations at conferences and review articles should not be listed as publications. Publication updates once the selection process has started are not allowed.
- Fellows must be based at a European non-profit research institution for the duration of the Fellowship. This means that applicants must have the agreement of the host institution to employ them according to the terms of the Fellowship, if they are not already employed at that institution.
- The proposed host research group must not have any active fellows funded under any EACR postdoctoral fellowship programme at the proposed start date of the fellowship. Applications proposing to join a laboratory that already hosts an active fellow funded by this programme will not be eligible, unless the proposed fellowship start date is after the end date of the current fellow’s award, and there is no overlap between the funding periods of the two fellowships.
- Proposed research projects must have the potential to advance our understanding or address challenges in the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of cancer.
- Projects for this award must be centred on evidence-based laboratory data, and/or medical science. Projects investigating psychosocial aspects of cancer cannot be considered.
- Fellowships are not transferrable between individuals. Transfers between institutions may be considered on an individual basis, such as in cases where a fellow’s advisor moves to a different European academic institution during the Fellowship period.
- Applicants can only submit one application to each call, but can submit applications to more than one call.
Industrial research laboratories and applied projects:
- Applications to work in an industrial or for-profit research laboratory will not be considered.
- Projects with an aim to develop an application, commercial product or process, or a device may be considered if there is a fundamental biology question behind the project to be answered. For instance, development of technologies that enable biological discovery and/or include biomarkers may be eligible for funding.
Please disclose the use of AI in the preparation of your application.
Any use of AI in the preparation of your application should be disclosed, except where it was used solely for simple language translation or grammar checks. You should list the name of each AI tool used, the exact prompts, whether AI influenced key arguments or conclusions, and how you reviewed and verified any AI-generated content. This disclosure is for transparency and monitoring purposes only and will not affect the assessment.
By submitting your application, you confirm that you are complying with the EACR policy on AI use.
