The United Kingdom's largest new cancer research initiative for 40 years opened on 2 February. The £50-million (US$98-million) Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute (CRI) is set to transform UK cancer research. Its strategic location and structure are designed to bridge basic research and clinical practice.

Built on the University of Cambridge campus, the CRI sits nextdoor to Addenbrooke's teaching hospital. With about half of the 30 group-leader posts filled, a second round of recruitment is under way. The goal is to have basic cancer-biology experts working with clinician-scientists and leaders in genomics, imaging and bioinformatics. Investigators are eager to find basic scientists with skills in epigenetics and tumour microenvironments — but are open to any outstanding candidates.

Director Bruce Ponder and his colleagues are looking for people to head specific cancer programmes such as breast, lung or prostate. They also need an epidemiologist to bring together cohorts for studies of early diagnostic intervention. Above all else, however, they want investigators eager to collaborate in the clinic.

By providing research opportunities for clinicians, deputy director and stem-cell biologist Fiona Watt hopes to help basic scientists see cancer as a disease rather than an intellectual problem. “I think sometimes, perhaps more so in Britain than the United States, there's a feeling that clinicians are not doing high-quality science,” says Watt. “We've disproved that myth in one stroke.”

Jason Carroll, a hormone-receptor expert and one of several junior faculty members recruited last year from the United States, says he was lured by core funding and the ease of conducting research straight away. Instead of struggling for grants in the United States, he receives funding for three postdoc or technician positions as well as for one student every two years. (Senior faculty members receive six paid positions as well as a student every two years.)

Interdisciplinary research projects include a virtual Cambridge Cancer Centre, which will bring together engineers and cell biologists. Ponder says a new master's degree will bring maths students in as well. “The idea is that our new institute will be a nucleus of massive cancer-related activity across the university,” says Watt.

Once immediate talent needs are met, Ponder says they will decide how to expand existing themes or start new ones, such as drug development.