Publish date: 6 July 2026
Innovative projects that promote early cancer diagnosis and better care can benefit from funding from West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance.
Building on the successes of previous years, the Cancer Alliance has announced the launch of its innovation competition 2026/27 in collaboration with the Yorkshire and Humber Innovation Network.
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Innovation Award Scheme is an annual non-recurrent, revenue-only, financial awards scheme which seeks to:
- Promote innovation in cancer care
- Encourage the adoption, acceleration, and deployment of best practice
- Support the strategic objectives of the Cancer Alliance
- Ensure that available cancer transformation funding responds to needs identified locally, as well as those taken from policy priorities nationally
- Create opportunities to improve early diagnosis and patient experience by reducing health inequalities in line with the NHS Long Term Plan
This year the scheme will align to the National Cancer Plan and West Yorkshire and Harrogate population priorities with a focus on innovation projects that support:
- Digital transformation
- Improving experience of cancer care to address health inequalities in black and minority ethnic communities, LGBTQIA+ communities, people affected by serious mental illness and people affected by learning difficulties
- Improving psychosocial support for parents and families with a young person diagnosed with cancer
- Exploring innovative and inclusive methods for gathering meaningful Quality of Life feedback from communities that are traditionally under‑represented or seldom heard communities
- Novel use of genomic testing for case-finding purposes, diagnostics and point of care testing to accelerate cancer pathways, case-finding approaches for rarer cancers other than pancreatic.
Last year’s recipients included Leeds Children’s Hospital, with funding used to pay for home chemotherapy packs for children receiving treatment, as an alternative to being admitted to a ward for chemotherapy.
Innovation funding also enabled the delivery of cutting-edge technological initiatives to improve radiotherapy for patients with brain and liver cancer in Leeds.
Funding for 2026/2027 Innovation Award Scheme will equate to up to £800k in total.
This funding opportunity will operate as a single competitive pot open to Trust, Place and VCSE organisations. Applicants may request £10,000–£100,000 for one‑year projects or £15,000–£150,000 for two‑year projects (amounts inclusive of VAT).
Successful applicants must ensure that all awarded funds are fully accounted for in the 2026/27 financial year.
There will be no guaranteed direct award or amount allocated to each Trust, Place or VCSE organisation.
Funds will be distributed across Trust, Place and VCSE at the discretion of the Cancer Alliance.
For the application form click here
