It is easy to think of cancer research in terms of projects and results. But research is done by people — and one of the most important things CROSS does is give early-career researchers the chance to begin.
Why people matter most
A single PhD student, well supported, can spend four years building the skills, data and ideas that shape a field. Today’s trainee running multiplex assays or designing a clinical study is tomorrow’s principal investigator leading a programme of their own. Invest in the person, and you invest in everything they will go on to do.
Donor money does not only pay for equipment — it invests in the skills and careers that deliver long-term gains in patient care.
What we support
Across the Department of Surgery at Trinity College Dublin and St James’s Hospital, CROSS helps fund:
- PhD students taking on four-year translational projects.
- Research fellows bridging the laboratory and the clinic.
- Clinician-scientists gaining the research training to lead their own studies.
- Research coordinators who connect patients, samples and science.
A community, not a headcount
These researchers do not work in isolation. They share biobanks, clinical cohorts and laboratory platforms, and they learn from one another across teams. Supporting one of them strengthens the whole. That is what we mean when we say CROSS funds people, not just projects — and it is why your support reaches far beyond any single experiment.
