The presence and proximity of world-leading cancer research and care in Manchester and Cambridge provides the opportunity to connect and accelerate the full life cycle of research, with patients at the forefront, and drive impact.
Our long-term, diverse investments in these cities have helped cultivate environments where cancer research can thrive, and be connected with the wider multidisciplinary ecosystem to maximise collaboration and spillover.
The presence of our institute and centre in Cambridge enables our research to benefit from a multidisciplinary research ecosystem, with collaborations across the university, hospitals and industry. Our institute sits around a roundabout with the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and new AstraZeneca Discovery Research Centre, just up the road from Addenbrooke’s Hospital. We hosted AstraZeneca researchers while they developed their site, leading to the development of 10 drugs currently in trials, and ongoing collaborations now we are neighbours.
Our example from Manchester, of a collective effort to develop a biomarker for responsiveness to immunotherapy, benefited from the proximity of Cancer Research UK infrastructure including our biomarker centre and biobank, the Christie Hospital and local community programmes, shows how these connections can fast-track research. It is also shows how networks between clusters can further benefit research – where our network between researchers in Manchester and London have helped identify additional clinical uses for the biomarker.
In our report, we highlight some of the specific challenges of further development of each of these places and how our criteria can untangle these to enable governments to deliver targeted support to take clusters to new levels.
### **Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute**
We know the strengths that clusters bring to R&D and that’s why we’re working on a new partnership, led by the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, to develop a new world-leading biomedical research institute and cluster. This will be centred in Scotland and bridge out to the North-East of England, acting as a magnet for talent, investment and industry collaborations from around the world, into the broader Scottish life sciences environment.
**Taking UK life sciences to a new level**
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We’ve [published this report today](https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/sites/default/files/clusters_investing_for_impact_-_cancer_research_uk_march_2025.pdf) to demonstrate the impact of research clusters and highlight the potential for maximising research and innovation in the UK.
We know that the government sees the value of clusters in meeting its growth ambitions, with their recent commitment to the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor an important step on the road to achieving this.
This report will support governments to make the most of upcoming opportunities to create a thriving life sciences system in an increasingly globally competitive environment and most importantly to help us achieve our mission of beating cancer sooner.