Experimental Medicine Funding Call
Summary
You should address gaps in our understanding of the causes, progression and treatment of human disease through experimental intervention, or challenge, in humans.
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:
Our general guidance for applicants contains more details on institutional and individual eligibility.
Investigators in receipt of Fellowships (MRC, NIHR, Charity, Learned Societies) and NIHR lectureships are eligible (if their fellowship T&Cs allow).
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:
Proposals which are predominantly descriptive will not be shortlisted; an experimental approach, and a clear plan for establishing causal relationships and mechanisms, is expected.
The following activities are ineligible for support:
There is no limit to the amount of funding you can apply for or the length of your project. You should instead justify the timescale and resources needed in the context of the proposed work.
Collaborations
Applications including partnerships with charities or industry are encouraged where these add value to the project – for example, in terms of access to expertise, technologies, reagents or funding. Please note that industrial collaboration is not a prerequisite for application.
Applications involving collaboration with industry should adhere to the MRC Industry Collaboration Agreement guidance. The lead applicant must be the academic partner, and the project must be academically-led. Please note that we do not fund the work of your industrial partners.
How to apply
You must first submit an outline proposal via the Je-S website. The opportunity is open for seven weeks leading up to the deadline, and there are deadlines for outline proposals in September and December 2020.
When applying select:
You must use our outline proposal form for your Je-S application. Please read our guidance for outline stage applicants before applying.
If successful at the outline stage, you will be invited to submit a full application. We will send guidance on completing a full application.
We aim to complete the process from outline submission to full decision in approximately 30 weeks.