Institute of Cancer Research

The Institute of Cancer Research

Type	Public
Established	1909
Chairman	Luke Johnson
Chancellor	The Princess Royal (University of London)
Chief Executive	Paul Workman
Administrative staff	1,075 (2011 average)
Students	300 (2014/15)
Undergraduates	0 (2014/15)
Postgraduates	300 (2014/15)
Location	London, United Kingdom
Campus	Urban
Student population rank	162nd (of 165)
Affiliations	University of London
Website	www.icr.ac.uk

The Institute of Cancer Research (the ICR) is a public research institute and university located in London, United Kingdom, specialised in oncology, and a constituent college of the University of London. It was founded in 1909 as a research department of the Royal Marsden Hospital and joined the University of London in 2003. It has been responsible for a number of breakthrough discoveries, including that the basic cause of cancer is damage to DNA.

The ICR occupies sites in Chelsea, Central London and Sutton, southwest London, and had a total income of £96.4 million in 2012/13, of which £52.3 million was from peer-reviewed research grant awards. The ICR provides both taught postgraduate degree programmes and research degrees and currently has around 340 students. Together with the Royal Marsden Hospital the ICR forms the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe, and was ranked first amongst all British higher education institutions in the Times Higher Education 2014 Research Excellence Framework Table of Excellence. In clinical medicine, 83% and in biological sciences, 96% of the ICR’s academic research was assessed to be world leading or internationally excellent (4* or 3*).

The ICR receives its external grant funding from the government body the Higher Education Funding Council for England, from government research council bodies and from charities including the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. It also receives voluntary income from legacies and from public and corporate donations. The ICR also runs a number of fundraising appeals and campaigns which help support a variety of cancer research projects.