MRC Experimental Medicine Funding Call, 2020

Call opens: 29 Jul 2020

Deadline for applications: 16 Sep 2020 16:00 (BST)

 

You should address gaps in our understanding of the causes, progression and treatment of human disease through experimental intervention, or challenge, in humans.

  • Researchers at eligible organisations can submit proposals for academically-led projects.
  • Awards are made every year and there are deadlines every six months.
  • There will be an annual budget of £10million and we will support a range of award sizes

We generally fund 80% of the full economic costs of your research, and your research organisation must agree to find the balance.

Who can apply

You should be based at an eligible research organisation, which include:

  • higher education institutions
  • UKRI-approved independent research organisations or NHS bodies
  • government-funded organisations
  • MRC institutes
  • MRC units and partnership institutes
  • institutes and units funded by other research councils

What we’re looking for

You can apply for academically-led experimental medicine projects, conducted in humans, based round a clearly articulated gap in understanding of human pathophysiology, with a clear path to clinical impact. These grants will produce new mechanistic insights, identifying opportunities to modify disease pathways and enabling novel therapeutic or diagnostic approaches for future development. 

All disease areas and interventions are welcomed by the Panel.

The application must involve an experimental intervention/challenge in humans, perturbing the system to explore disease mechanism. The challenge may be, but is not limited to, pharmacological, immunological, physiological, psychological, infectious etc.

The following types of proposals are eligible for support:

  • The use of novel readouts or technologies especially related to early evaluation of clinical efficacy.
  • The use of drugs, other interventions or measures with established safety profiles in new settings/conditions: e.g. repurposing drugs as tool compounds to probe disease mechanism.
  • Deep characterisation/phenotyping of subjects using samples from clinical studies may be included where there is a clear link to a current treatment strategy but should not be the sole focus of the proposal.
    • Acceptable approaches include the identification and verification of responder patient populations (precision medicine strategies).

 

For the full call text please visit the MRC grant call webpage.

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