The money, which will be given over a five-year period, will help fund a program of six to eight research projects looking at new strategies to develop new medicines for cancer treatment.
NICR’s drug discovery unit specializes in identifying targeted therapies, which are highly selective in their ability to kill cancer cells.
The university says it takes real expertise to understand the molecular structure of the proteins that cause cancer and how to make compounds to specifically kill those cancer cells.
Newcastle University stratified cancer medicine discovery professor Steve Wedge said: "This funding will allow us to investigate new approaches to target types of cancer that are difficult to treat, such as liver cancer and some cancers of the blood.
"Our group has an excellent track record in drug discovery, with a team of experts focused on cancer research, chemistry and structural biology. Newcastle has made significant contributions to a number of new medicines including the first-in-class PARP inhibitor, Rucaparib that is being tested in clinical trials for ovarian and breast cancer.
"PARP is an enzyme that is critical in repairing DNA damage in some tumours and by blocking its activity these cancer cells cannot mend themselves and so die."
Newcastle Cancer Centre at NICR is a collaboration between Cancer Research UK, North of England Children’s Cancer Research Fund, Newcastle University and Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.