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April 18, 2016

Latest Funding Opportunities

The following funding opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information.

Medical Research Council

Public Health Intervention Development scheme (PHIND) supports the early stages of development of interventions that address an important UK or global public health issues; in particular non-healthcare settings with population level interventions. Up to £180k is available for projects lasting up to 18 months. Closing Date 12/7/16

The Royal Society

The Royal Society Research Grants scheme provide grants up to £15k for scientists in the UK who are in the early stage of their careers. Closing Date 1/6/16

The International Exchanges schemes have available up to £12k (and an additional £2k for research expenses if applicable) for new collaborations between scientists in the UK and overseas. The closing dates for the three schemes are as follows- Standard Programme Closing Date 7/6/16. France Cost Share Scheme Closing Date 10/6/16. Kan Tong Po Visiting Fellowships Programme Closing Date 7/6/16

University of London

The School of Advanced Studies at the University of London is inviting participants to take part in the Being Human Festival run in Partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. Up to £5k is available to run 5-10 events as Being Human ‘Festival Hubs’. Closing Date 16/5/16

If you are interested in submitting to any of the above calls you must contact RKEO with adequate notice before the deadline.

Please note that some funding bodies specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKEO Funding Development Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on Research Professional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s/Faculty’s Funding Development Officer in RKEO or view the recent blog post here.

If thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on Research Professional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

November 2, 2015

MRC release Outputs report on policy and engagement

Research news Jo Garrad

MRC have just released their Policy and Engagement chapter of their Outputs Report, which comprises of examples where MRC-supported researchers have influenced policy and have been involved in public engagement. This is one in a series of chapters making up the 2014/15 Outputs, outcomes and impact of MRC research report.

Click here for a summary of the topics covered or here for the full report. This is really interesting to see what MRC are funding and the potential impact of research.

October 6, 2015

MRC refreshed Guidance to Applicants

Guidance Jo Garrad

MRC have launch a refreshed Guidance for Applicants, published in a new and improved format on their website: www.mrc.ac.uk/funding/guidance-for-applicants.

To improve communication with their community (applicants and research offices) they have been investigating ways of making the guidance more interactive and intuitive.

The main improvements to the guidance are:

* Hyperlinks from content pages

* Relevant forms made easier to find and download

* The option to print a PDF copy of the document

* More tables to make information easier to read

* Special considerations split into:

* Ethics and approvals

* Proposals involving animal use

New and revised sections:

* Research council facilities updated to include Ion Beam Centre, University of Surrey (section 2.9)

* New guidance added on common reasons for returning applications to research offices (section 2.10)

* Updated guidance on application costing: please be aware that some historical data may have been removed (section 3)

* Updated guidance on costing of applications involving MRC units and institutes (NOT university units) (section 3.2)

* New guidance for eligible individuals from MRC University Units and the Francis Crick Institute who wish to apply for MRC grants as either a lead or co-applicant (section 3.3)

* New section: Research involving cohort resources (section 3.5)

In addition, a new ‘Updates’ section on the main page will inform you of any major changes made to the guidance and allow MRC to keep the guidance fully up-to-date. These updates will be linked to the relevant section in the guidance to help you navigate to the relevant page. Copies of historical changes will also be available from this section.

Please have a look through the pages to familiarise yourself with the refreshed format and the new and revised sections: www.mrc.ac.uk/funding/guidance-for-applicants.

MRC would welcome your feedback on the new guidance. Please send any comments to the Research Funding Policy and Delivery team: RFPD@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk.

August 14, 2015

Latest Funding Opportunities!

BU research, Funding opportunities, Public engagement, Research news nprajapati

The following funding opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

British Academy

Mid-career fellowships

Through Mid-Career Fellowships, the British Academy intends both to support outstanding individual researchers with excellent research proposals, and to promote public understanding and engagement with humanities and social sciences.

The aim of the scheme is to allow successful applicants to obtain time freed from normal teaching and administrative commitments. The time bought by the scheme should be devoted to the completion of a major piece of research, and the Academy will also look for evidence of a clear commitment to a strategy of public engagement with and communication of the results of the research during the period of the Fellowship.

The awards support outstanding individual researchers and outstanding communicators who will promote public engagement and understanding of the humanities and social sciences. Applicants should set out in their proposals specific plans for the dissemination of their research to a broad audience, in addition to publication in the usual academic press and journals. Awards will be judged both on the excellence of the research proposed and on the capacity of the applicant to communicate with a broad audience. Applicants are invited to indicate ways in which their proposed programme will contribute to advances in understanding, including public understanding, in their subject area and to the identification of appropriate strategic priorities in the social sciences and humanities.

These Fellowships are covered under the Full Economic Costing (FEC) regime, but the Academy’s contribution to the salary of the Mid-Career Fellow will be capped at an upper limit of £80,000. It is not expected that the total value of an award will exceed £160,000 (BA contribution to FEC). Awards can be held over a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 12 months, beginning in the autumn of 2016.

Please refer to Funder’s website for eligibility criteria

Closing date: 16/09/15 17:00

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships

The aim of the British Academy in making these awards is to offer opportunities for outstanding early career researchers to strengthen their experience of research and teaching in a university environment which will develop their curriculum vitae and improve their prospects of obtaining permanent lecturing posts by the end of the Fellowship. The primary emphasis is on completion of a significant piece of publishable research, which will be assisted by full membership of an academic community of established scholars working in similar fields.

Applicants must be supported by the UK host institution in which they wish to hold the Fellowship

Please see Funder’s website for eligibility criteria

45 awards are expected to be offered and awards are for 3 years.

Awards are offered on a Full Economic Costing basis. There is no fixed amount awarded for the Fellowships and the value of award will vary depending on the host institution. Awards cover the salary of the Postdoctoral Fellow to work full-time on the Fellowship, small-scale research expenses (up to a maximum of £6,000), costs towards the time of a mentor (equivalent to one hour per month for the 36 months of the Fellowship) and the host institution’s estates and indirect costs.

Applicants must be supported by one self-nominated referee. The referee should normally be the external examiner or, if not available, someone else who is as external to the applicant as possible.

Closing Date: (for outline applications) 07/10/15 17:00

44th International Congress of Americanists Fund

Surplus funds resulting from the 44th International Congress of Americanists, held in Manchester in 1982, were entrusted to the British Academy. Grants are offered for travel expenses in connection with a research project relating to Latin American studies and may support British scholars or scholars from Latin America.

Applications may only be submitted by scholars resident in the UK.
Maximum Award: £1,000
Closing date: 14/10/15

Elie Kedourie Memorial Fund

The object of this fund, established by the family of Elie Kedourie, FBA, is to promote the study of Middle Eastern and Modern European History, and the History of Political Thought by recent postdoctoral scholars of any nationality. Awards are offered to support any aspect of research, including travel and publication. Funds are not available to support travel to or attendance at conferences, workshops, or seminars, either in the United Kingdom or elsewhere.

Maximum Award: £1,000

Closing date: 14/10/15

Elisabeth Barker Fund

The Fund was established in memory of Elisabeth Barker (1910-1986), diplomatic correspondent and historian of modern Europe. This fund is intended to support studies in recent European history, particularly the history of Central and Eastern Europe. Grants may be made for individual, or collaborative projects and may support British scholars, or scholars from other European countries.

Maximum Award: £1,000

Closing date: 14/10/15

Thank-Offering to Britain Fellowship

The British Academy invites applications for the Thank-Offering to Britain Fellowship. This Fellowship enables an established scholar to have time away from their normal teaching and administrative responsibilities for one year to concentrate on a major piece of research that is related to “human studies, widely interpreted”.

This call is repeated every 2 years.

Closing date 18/11/15 17:00

British Academy/Leverhulme Trust

Senior Research Fellowships

The Academy continues to offer the Senior Research Fellowship scheme, with funding generously provided by the Leverhulme Trust (on a non-FEC basis). This enables mid-career scholars to have one year’s research leave with funding being provided to cover the costs of replacement teaching. There is an annual closing date in the autumn.

Eligibility: The Academy takes no account of an applicant’s age or current status (e.g. Professor, Lecturer) in determining eligibility for these awards. Rather, in all cases, award-holders are expected to be able to disseminate the results of their research not only through publications, but also through feeding into their future academic career after the end of the awards. Any field of study in the humanities and social sciences is suitable for support.

Closing Date: 18/11/15 17:00

British Council

Researcher Links workshops in the Philippines on sustainable cities

We have grants for early-career researchers to participate in a workshop in the Philippines entitled ‘Process Systems Engineering Approaches for the Provision of Supplies and Utilities for Sustainable Cities’.

The workshop is part of Researcher Links, funded under the Newton Fund, and is being organised by the University of Nottingham (UK) and De La Salle University (Philippines).

The grants will cover all transport, accommodation and meals. Participants are encouraged to purchase adequate travel insurance (not covered by grant).

Please refer to the Funder’s website for full details and eligibility criteria.

Closing date: 08/11/15

CRACK IT Challenges 2015

The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) is an independent scientific organisation that supports the UK science base through the application of the 3Rs.

CRACK IT Challenges is a challenge-led funding competition from the NC3Rs which is designed to fund collaborations between industry, academics and SMEs; minimise the use of animals in research; support the development of marketable products and/or improved business processes.

This year the Challenges are funded by the NC3Rs and Dstl with in-kind contributions from the Challenge Sponsors (for example, data, access to compounds and equipment).

This year the NC3Rs intends to launch two Challenges: the first one is called ‘METABODERM’ where successful completion of this Challenge will deliver new capability to understand/interpret human relevant skin metabolism, including rates of metabolism in the skin and approaches towards metabolite identification.

The second Challenfe is called ‘InMutaGene’ where successful completion of this Challenge will result in the development of a new platform to address the risks of insertional mutagenesis/oncogenesis and to improve the efficiency of translational research in gene therapy.

Please refer to the Funder’s website for further information on these Challenges

Closing date: (for Registration) 04/11/15 12:00

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs Scheme

Biotechnology YES, now in its 20th year, is an innovative competition developed to raise awareness of the commercialisation of ideas among early career researchers. The competition is funded by sponsorship and aims to encourage an entrepreneurial culture in the UK postgraduate and postdoctoral base for the benefit of the UK bioeconomy. The competition is organised jointly by The University of Nottingham – The Haydn Green Institute and Innovation and Skills Group, BBSRC.

Over the course of a three day residential workshop, teams will develop a business plan for a company based on a hypothetical but plausible idea based on real markets. The workshop comprises presentations and mentoring sessions from leading figures in industry and culminates in the presentation of the business plans to a panel of ‘equity investors’ drawn from industry and academia. Up to three teams from each workshop are selected to progress to the final stage in London.

In addition to the general Biotechnology YES workshops there are several themed workshops which are run in conjunction with industry: the Plants, Microbial and Environmental Workshop, hosted by Syngenta; the Biomedical Workshop, hosted by GSK and the Stevenage Biosciences Catalyst; and new for this year, the Food, Nutrition and Wellbeing workshop, hosted by Unilever. The Royal Society of Chemistry is also sponsoring a Chemistry YES workshop for the third year.

The benefits of taking part include a prize fund of £5,000, including a first prize of £2,500, a trip to the USA, and an invitation to the BIA Gala dinner. As well as enhancing their CVs, participants will develop and improve transferable skills such as communication, time-management, negotiation and team-building. There will be opportunities for networking with industry professionals, and increasing your commercial awareness and technology transfer knowledge.

Closing date: September 2015 – exact date to be confirmed

Economic and Social Research Council

Training Bursaries

The ESRC wishes to improve the standards of research methods and to stimulate the uptake of high quality training courses in research methods across the UK social science community.

Bursaries are available for up to £1,000 each to enable staff in the UK social science community engaged in research, teaching research methods or supervising research to update their research skills. Contract researchers working in HEIs are also eligible for the bursaries.

Please refer to funder’s website at link above for eligibility criteria

Maximum award: £1000

Closing date: 15/08/15 17:00

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Balance Network Funding

The Balance Network invites proposals for activities within the themes of ‘work-life balance in the digital age’ which support the network’s aims of collaboration and impact. These events will form part of the network’s programme of activities between November 2015 and April 2016. A maximum of £35k will be awarded in total, and we anticipate the majority of successful proposals will be under £4k. We aim to fund at least one activity led by an early career researcher.

All events funded through this invitation will feed into BEYOND BALANCE, a one-day large-scale Balance Network event taking place Monday 27 June 2016 at IET London, Savoy Place. Details will be circulated via the bulletin and made available on the funder’s website.

Maximum award: £4000

Closing date: 15/09/15 17:00

Healthcare technologies impact fellowships

Please note the above dates are indicative only and are subject to change

This is an advance notice that EPSRC will be issuing a call in early September 2015, inviting recently funded EPSRC fellows who have a permanent post to apply for funding to progress the outputs of their fellowship towards impact within a healthcare application. Proposal should align to one of the four Healthcare Technologies Grand Challenges. The fellowship can be a maximum of 24 months in duration. A budget of around £2.5 million will be available to support the call. EPSRC expects to fund 4 – 6 Healthcare Technology Impact Fellowships depending on demand and available budget.

This call is open to all EPSRC fellows holding a permanent post, whose fellowship end dates are in the period 01 July 2014 – 30 September 2016. Prospective applicants are encouraged to discuss their proposal with the call contacts (see below) at the earliest opportunity.

Please refer to the Funder’s website for full details.

Healthcare Technologies Programme Grants

Please note the above dates are indicative only and are subject to change.

This is an advance notice that EPSRC’s Healthcare Technologies theme will shortly be issuing a call for ‘Healthcare Technologies Programme Grants’. The full call document will be available by early September.

The Healthcare Technologies Theme has recently announced a new long term strategy, and in order to deliver on this, the EPSRC invites applications for Programme Grant proposals that seek to address significant major research challenges that align to the Healthcare Technologies Grand Challenges of: Developing Future Therapies – Supporting the development of novel therapies with technologies to enhance efficacy, minimise costs and reduce risk to patients (note: this specifically relates to drug, biological, cell and regenerative therapies); Frontiers of Physical Intervention – Restoring function, and optimising surgery and other physical interventions to achieve high precision with minimal invasiveness; Optimising Treatment – Optimising care through effective diagnosis, patient-specific prediction and evidence-based intervention; Transforming Community Health and Care – Using real-time information to support self-management of health and wellbeing, and to facilitate timely interventions.

Applications should also draw on one or more of the cross-cutting capabilities of:

Advanced materials

Disruptive technologies for sensing and analysis

Future manufacturing technologies

Medical device design and innovation

Novel computational and mathematical sciences

Novel imaging technologies

Programme Grants are a flexible mechanism to provide funding to world-leading research groups to address significant major research challenges and are intended to support a variety of activities focussing on one strategic research theme. It is expected that proposals will be interdisciplinary and collaborative.

Please refer to the Funder’s website for further information on the Programme Grants scheme, including details of the peer review process and assessment criteria.

Applicants must discuss their suitability for Programme Grant funding with one of the EPSRC contacts for this call before submitting an Outline application.

Up to £15 million will be available to fund 3-5 Programme Grants through this call for proposals.

Closing date: (for Outline) 27/10/15 16.00

Systems Integration of energy supply and demand

The RCUK Energy Programme is bringing together engineers and physical scientists from across the energy sector to tackle the research challenges involved in integrating the energy supply, storage, transmission and demand sectors.

The RCUK Energy Programme seeks to encourage cross energy-sector collaboration designed to enable future energy systems integration. This integration will help the UK meet its ambitious 2050 emission targets (the UK is legally committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the UK by at least 80% by 2050, relative to 1990 levels) and address the energy trilemma by providing resilient, affordable and sustainable future energy systems.

In this call we seek applications for research addressing the co-evolution of supply and demand across an integrated network over the next 35 years – in order help identify potential solutions and frame the challenges. Proposals should pull together existing and complimentary research from across the whole energy-sector to add meaningfully additionally and context.

All proposals must cover research covering the entire energy sector from supply to demand, and can include storage, across the energy networks of electricity, heat and gas.

Up to £5 million is available for this call with EPSRC looking to fund a research centre. The successful proposal must clearly identify how the research will complement and add to existing RCUK Energy Programme investments, in particular the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). Applicants are strongly encouraged to open a dialog with existing RCUK Energy Programme investments before submitting an application.

Maximum award: £5 million

Closing date: 24 /09/15 16:00

Medical Research Council

Confidence in Concept Scheme

Ensuring that fundamental science is translated into new therapies, diagnostics and medical devices is central to our mission. The Confidence in Concept scheme aims to accelerate the transition from discovery science to the early stages of therapeutic/biomarker development by providing locally-administered, responsive and flexible funding to support preliminary translational work.

The award can be used flexibly by the institution to support a number of preliminary-stage translational projects. The projects supported should aim to provide sufficient preliminary data to establish the viability of an approach –– before seeking more substantive funding (e.g. from the Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS).

Applicants are encouraged to explore how awards could be used to develop academic-industry interactions. People exchange (in either direction) is permitted, where focused on the delivery of specific project objectives. Other routes (e.g. co-funding projects, developing early-stage collaborations) are also encouraged. Standard terms and conditions apply (see in particular the “MICA” webpage).

Institutions may apply for an award between £250k and £1.2m.

We anticipate that individual projects funded from an institution’s award will be of the order of £50-100k and approximately 6-12 months in length, although this will be dictated by the needs of each project.

Institutional awards will be of 24 months duration. Successful institutions are expected to allocate funds to projects within the first 12 months of the award.

Closing date: 15/10/15 16:00

Proximity to discovery – industry engagement fund

This Fund is designed to provide flexible funding for innovative ways to enable the initial development of academic-industry collaborations.

MRC’s Confidence in Concept (CiC) scheme provides responsive and flexible funding to support preliminary work aimed at assembling the data to support an application for a translational project grant. CiC permits academic-industry collaboration where focused on the delivery of the specific project objectives. The Proximity to Discovery: Industry Engagement Fund aligns with CiC to further enable research organisations to establish academic industry relationships. Short term people exchanges between industry and academia are seen as a key way of exchanging skills and knowledge and developing a longer term working relationship. Proximity to Discovery: Industry Engagement Fund can be used for people and knowledge exchange at the very earliest stage of a collaboration and may not necessarily be aligned to a specific project objective.

Please refer to Funder’s website for further details and examples of potential uses.

Institutions may apply to this scheme and CiC in the same round. The two applications do not need to be led by the same individual but the applying institution will need to present a persuasive case that the proposed governance structures will be coherent.

Institutions applying to the scheme must be able to demonstrate that they have sufficient critical mass to be able to deliver engagement with industrial partners that will result in partnership opportunities.

Applications are not expected to be in excess of £250k and are to be spent within 18 months of the award starting.

Only one application per institution is permitted. It is expected that applications will be led by one or more senior members of the institution (e.g. Dean of Medical School or equivalent).

A total budget of £15M is available to support CinC and Proximity to Discovery: Industry Engagement Fund.

Natural Environment Research Council

Antimicrobial resistance in the real world

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in the Real World is a programme under the AMR Cross-Council Initiative. This call is co-funded by NERC, the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC), and has potential co-funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

This programme aims to address the need for a greater understanding of the role of the outdoor environment and host microbiome in influencing the evolution, acquisition and spread of antibacterial resistance, and as a reservoir for resistance. The programme is restricted to antibacterials and resistant bacteria or resistance genes, of relevance to bacteria of clinical and/or veterinary importance. Research supported can be based in agricultural, aquaculture, wastewater and natural environments, the human and animal host microbiome, and also includes elements of the way people and human communities interact with the environment.

Research Grants should be up to £1.5m (100% FEC), with funding for up to four years’ duration, and projects starting no later than 1 May 2016 and complete by 31 March 2020.

Maximum award: £1.5million at 100%fEC

Closing date: (for outline) 06/10/15 16:00

Sustaining Water Resources for Food, Energy & Ecosystem Services in India

NERC and India’s Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO) – Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) jointly invite proposals for research on sustaining water resources for food, energy & ecosystem services in India. This collaboration is supported by the Newton-Bhabha Fund, established by the governments of the UK and India to provide a framework for increasing research and innovation collaborations that support sustainable economic growth, and builds on existing NERC-MoES activities.

Proposals are sought for interdisciplinary collaborative research projects involving UK and Indian researchers. The focus should be on the main hydrological processes and how they interact within one of the 3 case study regions: the Himalayas, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, or Peninsular India.

Up to £3m is available from NERC for this call with up to £1m (80% FEC) available for the UK contribution to each of the case studies, which will be matched by MoES in terms of research effort.

Closing date: (for Notification of Intent) 07/09/15 16:00

Research Councils UK

RCUK-CONICYT Research Partnerships Call: UK – Chile Call for Proposals

Research Councils UK (RCUK) and National Commission for Scientific Research and Technology (CONICYT) are pleased to invite applications to the RCUK-CONICYT Research Partnerships Call.

This initiative will provide funding for high-quality collaborative research projects between UK and Chilean researchers which contribute to the economic development and welfare of Chile and to developing countries more broadly. We invite proposals which address the following topics:

Disaster Management
Diet and health
Education, Inequality and Social Reform
Sustainable Aquaculture for Nutrition and Food Security

The objective is to deliver significant 2-3 year research funding for internationally competitive and innovative collaborative projects between researchers from Chile and the UK that will allow the pursuit of shared research interests.

Proposals within the themes listed above are welcomed from across the remits of the UK Research Councils. Recognising the multidisciplinary nature of the thematic areas, the development of interdisciplinary collaborations is particularly welcome.

Consortia should consider how their proposal makes the best use of available expertise in the UK and Chile, the added value of collaboration and how the proposal will meet the ODA requirements of this Newton Fund activity. Whilst still currently on the OECD DAC list, Chile may graduate from the list in the next few years and, as a result, and a condition of the Newton Fund, proposals must contribute towards the economic development and welfare of Chile and articulate a broader applicability to the issues of poor people globally.

Closing date: 08/10/15 16:00

Wellcome Trust

Wellcome Trust Centres

Funding for world-leading groups proposing novel and innovative ways of tackling important research and translational questions.

The Wellcome Trust awards Centre status to programmes that we expect to catalyse and enable world-leading research and innovation in fields that are central to our mission. We expect our support to allow Centres to achieve exceptional impact in any or all of basic research; translation into clinical practice; health product research and development; and public policy.

We currently fund eight Centres at UK universities and four Medical Engineering Centres.

We are now offering other groups the opportunity to become Wellcome Trust Centres. We invite eligible institutions in the UK and Republic of Ireland to submit Letters of Interest proposing new Centres, for a competition to be decided in late 2016. We will also consider renewal applications from existing Centres.

We encourage Centres to develop specific innovation and translation strategies and to support effective programmes of public engagement, and to identify the necessary resources.

Our existing Centres work in four broad areas of biomedical science – neuroscience; cell and developmental biology; genetics/genomics; and infectious disease – and in medical engineering.

For this new competition, we will consider proposals in any area relevant to the Trust’s mission, including the humanities and social sciences as well as basic biomedical research and translation.

Centres will normally be funded for five years, with the possibility of competitive renewal (we expect to make the next set of awards in 2021).

Please refer to the Funder’s website for further details of what costs the fund will support; what is expected of the host institution; key stages and dates of the application process.

This is a one-off call for applications.

Closing date: (for Letter of Interest) 21/09/15 12.00

July 15, 2015

MRC Annual Report 2014/15

Funding opportunities Jo Garrad

The MRC have published their Annual Report for 2014/15. This includes a strategic overview and highlights their key activities.

You can also read Research Professionals article on the decrease in MRC’s success rates.

March 19, 2015

MRC removes PhD eligibility criteria for fellowships and launches career framework

Funding opportunities, Guidance, Research news Jo Garrad

Until now, the period within which someone could apply for an MRC fellowship has been different for different fellowships. The restrictions will be removed on 18 March, coincident with the launch of the career framework.

The MRC Interactive Career Framework was constructed following broad consultation with medical research groups and a review of medical research careers comprising interviews with nearly 400 non-clinical medical researchers, the MRC said.

The interviews were conducted with MRC award winners, and focused on the ten to 20 years following their receipt of funding. One finding of the review was that 44 per cent of interviewees finished their PhD “with either no idea or only a general idea of what they wanted to do next”, the MRC said. In addition, 60 per cent said they had not received enough careers advice.

The removal of the restriction on when researchers can apply for a fellowship was an outcome of the review. “Many of those who contributed to the review spoke of the lack of flexibility in making research career choices resulting from the fact that researchers have only a certain number of years after their PhD in which to apply for fellowships, after which point they’re ineligible,” the MRC said.

The MRC is seeking feedback on the framework, which it says will be developed further with additional career routes, case studies and tools.

March 9, 2015

Changes to MRC strategic skills priorities

BU research, Funding opportunities, Guidance Jo Garrad

Following completion of a review of MRC’s strategic skills priorities, the revised priority list has now been published on their website along with a report of the skills survey outcomes.

The review has brought a refocus of the early career Skills Development Fellowships (previously Strategic Skills Fellowships) and will support training in two main areas:

– Development of Quantitative Expertise: covering mathematics, statistics, computation and informatics applicable to any biomedical or health related data sources, from molecular to population level.

– Development of Expertise at the Social Science interface: with a focus on areas of health economics and/or mixed methods research.

Applicants can either be seeking to move from a quantitative/economics/mixed methods background to biomedical research or can have a background in biomedical sciences and be seeking to develop skills in one of the priority areas. All proposals must include development of new expertise and skills in the areas described above. Eligible applicants would normally be in the early years of post-doctoral research or seeking a clear change of discipline to one of the priority areas. Pre-doctoral applicants or those ready to transition to independence will be redirected to other MRC support mechanisms.

The next deadline for this competition is 16th June 2015. For further details, deadlines and how to apply, please visit the pages here: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/skills-careers/fellowships/skills-development-fellowships/ . If you have any specific MRC queries, please contact the team at fellows@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk

If you wish to apply to this scheme then please contact the RKEO Funding Development Team in the first instance.

November 5, 2013

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities Naomi Kay

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

The AHRC are running an International placement scheme providing funded research fellowships at leading international research institutions. The maximum award is unspecified, Closing date is 15 Jan 14.

The AHRC are offering Collaborative research grants in partnership with the São Paulo Research Foundation enabling transnational British and Brazilian teams to apply for funding for collaborative research projects. This is an open call with no set deadline. The proposal total should not exceed £2 million.

The BBSRC are offering Modular training partnerships designed to help develop master’s-level training in areas of significant need for industrial sectors. The award maximum is unspecified with a closing date of 28 Jan 14.

The BBSRC invite proposals for their Welfare of managed animals strategic priority area. The maximum award is not specified, closing date: 09 Jan 14.

The BBSRC are offering funding for the Animal health research club. The club’s research focuses on improving the resistance of farmed animals. A maximum of £5.5 million is available to support a variety of projects at 80% full economic cost. Projects usually last 3 -4 years but funding of up to £2m for a maximum of 5 years will be considered. Closing date: 11 Dec 13.

The EPSRC ICT pioneers competition is now open, providing recognition for UK PhD students who can communicate and demonstrate the excellence and exploitation potential of their research. There are four prizes of £2000 each are available. Closing date is 04 Dec 13.

The fourth call from CHIST-ERA is now open from ERA-Net CHIST-ERA. Proposals for this call should be transformative and highly multidisciplinary research projects in ICST. The indicative budget is approximately €11.6 million, closing date 21 Jan 14.

EUREKA’s Eurostars programme is supporting SME’s using research to gain competitive advantage. Funding is provided on a country by country bases with an average project budget of €1.4 million. The maximum award is unspecified with a closing date of 13 Mar 14.

The MRC are offering UK-Japan collaborative proposals, specifically looking at neuroscience disease challenges and the use of next generation opitical microscopy technologies. The maximum MRC contribution will not be more that £120,000 over three years. Closing date 05 Dec 13.

The MRC are offering a Senior non-clinical fellowship providing non-clinical researchers opportunities to become research leaders. The maximum award is not specified and the closing date is 30 Apr 14.

The MRC are awarding funds in Stratified medicine to support investigator-led methodological research into the challenges raised by stratifying patient groups. Over the next 4 years, £60 million will be committed to this area of research. Maximum award is not specified, closing date: 23 Jan 14.

NERC are offering Biodiversity and ecosystem service sustainability knowledge exchange grants, aiming to stimulate collaboration between business and research organisations. Proposals should be for up to 18 months and cost between £30,000 to £100,000 at 80% full economic cost. Award amount maximum: £100,000. Closing date: 14 Jan 14.

NERC are looking for projects on Volatiles, geodynamics and solid earth controls on the habitable planet. Award maximum not specified, closing date: 15 Jan 14.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh are offering Scottish Enterprise/RSE enterprise fellowships to encourage the development of a new Scottish businesses based around a technological idea. Fellowships cover the fellow’s salary for one year. There is no maximum award and it will close 28 Nov 13.

The Royal Society are offering funds to run small three-day South Africa-UK scientific seminars to bring together groups of early- to mid-career scientists from South Africa and the UK. Grants are worth up to £12,000 to be used to cover costs of international airfares for up to 5 scientists, local travel costs, accommodation and organisational support. Award maximum is £12,000, closing 18 Feb 14.

The TSB are offering Infrastructure for offshore renewables. Funds will be given to collaborative, business led projects looking to reduce costs associated with offshore wind, wave and tidal stream energy generation through technology. Registration closes 29 Jan 14 with a final submission date 05 Feb 2014 .

Improving cell and tissue analysis for stratified medicine. The TSB seek development of innovative technologies to enhance cell and tissue sample analysis. Projects should be between £200,000 and £1.5 million and last up to three years. Award maximum not specified, closing date: 04 Dec 13.

The Wellcome Trust are offering Doctoral studentships in medical humanities. The award will cover stipend, conference travel, research expenses, overseas fieldwork, and university and college fees for up to 3 years. Maximum award unspecified, closing date: 02 Apr 14.

The Wellcome Trust People Awards support projects to explore the impact of biomedical science on society, its historical roots, effects on different cultures, or the ethical questions that it raises. Up to £30,000 is available per project. Closing date: 31 Jan 14.

Wellcome Trust are offering Capital funding for learned societies. This scheme provides funding, usually for up to £200,000, to projects that support the scholarly activities of learned societies. There is no specified deadline or maximum award.

Society and ethics doctoral studentships are available from the Wellcome Trust to enable scholars to undertake full-time research on a topic related to the ethics and society programme. Maximum award is not specified, closing date: 02 Apr 14.

Research training fellowships are available from the Wellcome Trust to support medical, dental, veterinary or clinical psychology graduates who have limited research training, but who wish to develop a career in academic medicine. Award amount maximum not specified. Closing date is 07 Feb 14.

Society and ethics small grants are available from the Wellcome Trust to support small-scale research projects, scoping exercises or meetings whose subject matter falls within the remit of the ethics and society programme. The maximum grant is £5,000. There is no closing deadline.

October 7, 2013

October is EU-tastic! The four sessions which give you all the EU funding info you need!

EU Corrina Lailla Osborne

EU funding remains a bit of an enigma for most people. I remember how overwhelming I found it when I first began to unpick the tangle of the different funding strands, rules of participation, deadlines and conditions.Thankfully you don’t need to suffer in the same way. Horizon 2020 will be released soon (the replacement for FP7 and worth tens of billions of Euros) and I am here to guide you through it. As well as a Simple Guide to Horizon 2020 funding which I will release in early 2014 to demystify the funding schemes for you, I have arranged for four sessions to be held at BU in October to give you all the resources you need for your EU journey.

1. Health in Horizon 2020

The European Commission National Contact Point for Health – Dr Octavio Pernas madea special trip to BU on October 7^th to inform anyone interested in health research (from nursing care models to medical devices) of what to look out for under Horizon 2020 and expanding on other complementary funding programmes. The session detailed how you can make the most of the National Contact Points to help with your application. Slides from this presentation are available here: I:\R&KEO\Public\RDU\European Related\Horizon 2020\Health in H2020 Presentation.

2. All things Horizon 2020 and 1-2-1s with UKRO

Bournemouth subscribes to information services from the fabulous UK Research Office (UKRO) and for many years they have been providing us with the latest EU information on funding calls, policy and providing advice on how to make a great application.

They will be visiting on October 9^th to tell you in simple terms what Horizon 2020 is, the areas which will be funded within it and how you can make the most of UKRO by help with finding partners and gathering key bits of information. The two hour session will be followed by 1-2-1 appointments where you can get advice on your specific area of expertise and ask anything you want about EU policy making or funding. You can book your place for the information session here and for the 1-2-1s by emailing Dianne Goodman.

3. All things Marie Curie

You can’t fail to have heard me banging on about how wonderful these fellowships are and how pleased I am that they will feature in Horizon 2020. These grants are absolutely the best way to kick start your EU career and you only need one non-UK partner to apply. You can either apply to have an academic come to the university from another country or you can go to another country as part of the fellowship scheme. You can have a fellowship with an academic or with an industrial partner and you can even apply for entire departments to be involved in exchanges. I’m proud of how engaged BU colleagues are with Marie Curie and the grants we already hold from this scheme.

The session is divided into two parts with both being held on October 16^th. The first is a brief intro to the schemes and the second is a more detailed session on how to approach and structure your bid. You can book your place for either session here.

4. The tricks of writing a winning Horizon 2020 proposal

Having already had sessions providing you with an overview of the various funding opportunities within Horizon 2020, you need to know the tricks of writing a winning bid. Writing bids for the European Commission is quite a different skill to writing for UK funders and this session on October 17^th will guide you through the journey. We’ve had some fantastic feedback from this session in the past and attending will help get you on the right path to create your proposal. You can book your place for the information session here.

July 26, 2013

MRC to deliver talk at BU on Healthcare funding in Horizon 2020!

EU Corrina Lailla Osborne

I am thrilled that the MRC will be making a special trip to BU to inform us of what will be released under the Health programme in Horizon 2020 on October 7^th!

The session (10- 12:30) will provide you with the opportunity to hear the latest developments in Horizon 2020 and complementary funding programmes which are most relevant for healthcare researchers, businesses and SMEs, together with a landscape of the UK based support systems and networks for SMEs and industrial engagement.

As the programme is looking for specific academia-SME collaboration we have also invited a number of SMEs to this event. A networking lunch will be followed by several 30min one-to-one sessions (from 1:30)with the MRC representative.

Places are limited – you can reserve your space and book a one-to-one by emailing Dianne Goodman before October 1st.

August 15, 2012

Assisted Living Innovation Platform (ALIP)

BU research, Funding opportunities Jo Garrad

Promoting physical activity in older age

Invitation for proposals: The cross-Research Council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing (LLHW) programme wishes to support research into the physiological effects and behaviours associated with physical activity and sedentary behaviour in the older population.

This nine funding partner call is issued under the auspices of the cross-Research Council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing (LLHW) programme and is led by the Medical Research Council on behalf of the BBSRC, the ESRC, the EPSRC and the UK health departments: Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates, NIHR, Health and Social Care Research and Development Office, Northern Ireland and the National Institute for Social Care and Health Research, Wales.

Despite wide spread recognition of the physical and mental health benefits of physical activity at all ages, activity levels commonly decline in older age, whilst the prevalence of sedentary behaviour increases. The cross-Research Council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing (LLHW) programme wishes to support research into the physiological effects and behaviours associated with physical activity and sedentary behaviour in the older population, which will inform the future development of effective interventions to motivate and sustain activity in this target population. Approximately £5M is available to support research arising from this call. Applicants may apply for up to £1 million (80% fEC) for a maximum period of three years.

Key dates


Call open for applications in Je-S	Monday 17th September 2012
Deadline for full proposals	4pm, Thursday18th October 2012
Potential triage of proposals	November 2012
Commissioning Panel meeting	March 2013
Decisions to applicants	By end March 2013

Contact

In addition to this document, applicants should read the MRC Applicant Guidance and Frequently Asked Questions for this call.

Dr Katie Finch

MRC programme Manager for Lifelong Health and Wellbeing, E-mail: llhw@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk, Tel: 01793 416350

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

July 25, 2012

MRC – PET neuroscience specialist postdoctoral training programme 2012

BU research, Funding opportunities Jo Garrad

Background

PET is a technology of key importance for understanding physiology and pharmacological mechanisms and for translation of discoveries through to the clinic. PET imaging techniques have good potential to provide high impact in both diagnosis and therapy across a range of diseases.

This call is for proposals of up to four years in duration for neurosciences research that depends on the use of PET imaging. The goal is to address continuing shortfalls in specialist post-doctoral training to enable skills development for PET imaging. The call for proposals follows up on a previously successful pilot scheme which made three awards in 2009, which sought to address two principal challenges for PET imaging in neuroscience research.

These were that:

Major academic centres are establishing new PET centres in the UK even though difficulties already exist in recruiting scientists with the necessary radiochemical, analysis or applications expertise;
It is difficult to develop or gain access to novel molecular probes for innovative applications of PET imaging.

These issues remain pertinent for the field, and this new call will seek to build further capacity in the field. Those Institutions successful under the pilot scheme will be welcome to bid under this open competitive call, where they will be assessed on an equal basis with other applicants. There is no assumption that the awards previously made will automatically continued.

Through the MRC the community is working with the MHRA to find ways to address the regulatory issues experienced by the community; this experts group includes representation from many UK Institutions engaged in PET research.

Objectives and remit

The scheme is being run through the MRC Neurosciences and Mental Health Board (NMHB) and is intended to allow suitably qualified post-doctoral researchers to both train in specialist PET-related disciplines and then potentially contribute towards the development of novel PET molecular imaging methodologies (for example, new molecular probes) that will benefit the neurosciences. It is hoped that at least four awards each employing at least one post-doctoral research assistant will be made.

To be employed on these grants, the trainee PET researchers recruited by the Institution are expected to have a clinical or non-clinical PhD in one or more of the following scientific disciplines:

chemistry
neuropharmacology
mathematics
biological sciences with experience of working in clinical imaging or with animal or cellular models

Key elements will be:

The provision by the host institution of a good training environment; and
Evidence that following an appropriate period of skills training, the trainee will have opportunities for independent research using PET imaging in an academic or industrial scientific environment.

Each award will be made for up to four years, with at least two years specifically designated for appropriate skills training relevant to PET. After training, the following years would be designated for application of these acquired skills to a neuroscience imaging problem. These time periods are suggested as a guideline only; the NMHB will be flexible if a good case is made for a different approach to suit a particular project, candidate or environment.

Further details are provided, under general features, training requirements and scientific details.

Funding available

£2m is available from the MRC’s Neuroscience and Mental Health Board. Applications will be considered by NMHB at its meeting to be held on 6th and 7th March 2013. Applications must be submitted via the JeS system by 4pm on the 25th September 2012. Applications should be submitted as a Standard Proposal, a Research Grant, to the NMHB September call and should include prefix to the title – PET Call.

Interaction with industry partners will be desirable, and preference will be given to applications that can offer evidence of meaningful collaboration with partners who are able to complement the bid and strengthen the training component of the award or otherwise enhance potential for success.

Awards may be made either to the same or to different academic centres – this has not been pre-specified and will depend upon the quality of the proposals.

For more information on General Features, Training Requirements, Scientific Details, Networking, and Advice to Applicants, please click here

Assessment process

Applications must be submitted via the JeS system by 4pm on the 25th September 2012. Applications should be submitted as a Standard Proposal, a Research Grant, to the NMHB September call and should include prefix to the title – PET Call.

Applications will be assessed by reviewers in November and December 2012. A specially convened review panel will meet to make triage decisions on the applications. Following the triage meeting, applicants will be contacted with the outcome. Applications will either be declined or go forward for consideration at the Neurosciences and Mental Health Board (NMHB) in March 2013. The Panel’s triage decision is final and not open to appeal. For those proposals going forward to the Board, applicants will be invited to respond to the referee comments. The timeline for this will be relatively tight.

NMHB members will receive the applications, external reviewers’ comments and the applicant’s response. Awards by the Board at the March meeting will be made in competition with other proposals at the Board and only research proposals of high quality will be funded.

Final decisions will be made by the Board and applicants will be informed of the decision and provided with Board feedback in March 2013. The Board’s decision is final and not open to appeal.

In addition to using the standard assessment criteria, where appropriate, key considerations for the Panel will be:

Eligibility for the call;
Quality and suitability of the research environment and of the facilities for the proposed work;
Quality and suitability of the general training environment(s)
Arrangements for mentoring of the post-holder once the grant-funded post is offered and accepted
Evidence that following the award, the trainee(s) will have opportunities for independent research using PET imaging in an academic or industrial scientific environment
Suitability of the specific training proposal and project(s) for developing the trainee’s skills and career;
Potential importance of the specific research being conducted as part of the training;
Strength and clarity of any collaboration and the potential for collaborations to strengthen the PET community in the neurosciences
Value for money.

If you have a query about this call please email: Joanna Jenkinson

E-mail: joanna.jenkinson@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

July 23, 2012

Dept. of Health, NIHR, MRC – Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation Programme

BU research, Funding opportunities Jo Garrad

Researcher-led Calls

The EME programme’s researcher-led workstream is an ongoing research funding opportunity funded by the MRC. You are welcome to submit an outline application at any time, however there will be three cut-off dates each year. If you would like them to alert you by email about future funding opportunities please click here.

Call reference	Deadline	Research brief	Guidance notes	Apply
12/127	13 November 2012 by 1pm	Access the research brief	Access the guidance notes

*Please note that once you have logged in, you will need to click on the ‘Apply for Funding’ button and select the call that you wish to apply to from the list*

Resources for applicants

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

May 15, 2012

Health Related Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities Jo Garrad

There are a large number of calls that have been announced in the Medical and Healthcare remit. A brief description of each of them is given below, together with a link to the call.

Medical Research Council:Joint Global Health trials scheme – this funds global health trials to generate new knowledge about interventions that will contribute to the improvement of health in low- and middle-income countries. The budget for the scheme is up to £12 million per year for three years.

Medical Research Council: Early Career Fellowship in economics of health – the scheme enables individuals to undertake challenging projects in excellent research and training environments. The fellowship is for a period of up to three years.

Medical Research Council: Methodology research fellowship – the scheme is aimed at researchers with a grounding in health research who wish to undertake a period of specialist training in the development and investigation of innovative research methods. The fellowship lasts up to four years and covers salary, training, consumables, and travel costs, capital equipment, and all other relevant costs under FEC.

Medical Research Council: New Investigator research grants – molecular and cellular medicine – these provide support for clinical and non-clinical researchers while they are establishing themselves as independent principal investigators. Grants are worth up to £600,000 and normally last three years. MRC will usually meet up to 80 per cent of the full economic cost.

Medical Research Council: Confidence in concept scheme – this provides awards to institutions to be used to support the earliest stages of multiple translational research projects. Grants will be between £300,000 and £1 million.

Cancer Research UK: Senior cancer research fellowships – this enables senior researchers to establish or to further develop an independent research group. Fellowships will last for six years and fund salaries for the fellow, up to two postdoctoral researchers, a technician and a PhD student. They also cover research expenses, consumables and equipment costs.

Cancer Research UK: Career Development Fellowships – these support non-clinical scientists who have shown promise in their initial studies in a cancer relevant research field, but may not yet have sufficient experience to obtain a more senior fellowship. Grants have a duration of six years and fund: salaries for the fellow, a postdoctoral researcher and a technician; consumables costs; equipment.

British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy: Research grants support research efforts in the following areas: mechanisms of antibacterial action; mechanisms of antibacterial resistance; antiviral resistance; antivirals; antifungals; antibiotic methods; antibiotic prescribing; antibiotic therapy; antiparisitics; evidence based medicine/ systematic reviews. Grants are worth up to £50,000 for projects of one year’s duration.

British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy: Project grants may be used for the following purposes: pump priming projects; supporting the completion of an existing project; introducing a novel technique for existing work; funding for trainees for projects/training (maximum value £5,000). Up to £10,000 is available for projects of one year ‘s duration.

Anatomical Society: Research Studentships provide basic maintenance and fees for postgraduate students working towards the award of a higher degree in the anatomical and related sciences. Studentships are tenable for a maximum of three years and must be held in a British or Irish university.

British Pharmacology Society: AstraZeneca prize for women in Pharmacology: This recognises women whose career achievements have contributed significantly to the understanding of a particular field in pharmacology through excellence in research. The prize is worth £1,000.

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

May 9, 2012

MRC announce Special training fellowship in biomedical informatics

Funding opportunities Jo Garrad

Special training fellowship in biomedical informatics (computational biology, neuroinformatics and health informatics)

The MRC has identified the application of informatics as an area of strategic importance to health and medical research. This special training fellowship is aimed at developing outstanding individuals who are seeking to move into the application of mathematical, statistical and computational methods to biomedical and health research problems.

The MRC is keen to support individuals with a clear ambition for their research and a strong and practical sense of how they develop their careers as leading biomedical scientists and informaticians. The special fellowship is awarded at the post-doctoral entry level only and all proposals must include a well-specified formal training element in addition to a research project. The award commonly provides 3 years support and the opportunity to enhance the research training through placement in an overseas research centre, a second UK research centre or in UK industry.

The MRC expect to make up to five awards a year.

Who can apply?

The fellowships are aimed at those with non-biological, biological, non-clinical or clinical backgrounds who wish to undertake training and research in biomedical informatics. This is a prestigious fellowship; therefore applicants are expected to demonstrate an excellent track-record relative to their time in research.

Applications are particularly encouraged from those with advanced training in the physical or mathematical sciences or in information technology, who wish to apply their expertise to biomedical problems. In particular, applications are encouraged in imaging informatics.

Applicants should hold either a PhD or DPhil in a relevant discipline or expect to do so by the time they intend to take up the award. Medical or dental applicants holding a PhD can apply at any stage in their careers from immediately post-registration up to specialist registrar grade or be at the equivalent level in general practice or dentistry. The majority of successful applicants are within six years of the completion of their PhD but this is not an absolute requirement.

Post-doctoral applicants have no residential restrictions and may come from any country. If you are invited to interview by the biomedical informatics training and career development panel, you would be expected to demonstrate a commitment to the UK research effort in the area of biomedical informatics beyond the period of a special training fellowship award.

What funding is provided?

An MRC special research training fellowship in biomedical informatics is usually awarded for three years or occasionally up to four years when there is special justification.

The fellowship provides the fellow’s personal salary, research training support costs, annual travel costs, and all other relevant costs under Full Economic Costs (see the guidance notes for completing the application form and the form itself for more details). Salaries for clinical applicants will be payable up to, but not including, NHS consultant level. In addition, a small amount of salary can be requested for supervision but this should be appropriately restricted.

Where the fellowship includes attendance on a formal course leading to a Masters degree, or parts of a taught course, course fees may be requested. All applications must include an appropriate taught training component.

Overseas/Second UK Centre/UK Industrial Training Period

The special research training fellowship in biomedical informatics provides the opportunity to spend time in an overseas research centre, a second UK research centre or UK industrial centre in year two or three of the award. The aim of this training component is to provide a concentrated period of training that cannot be achieved as effectively within the academic host institution. MRC would normally expect this training component to be a single visit lasting up to 12 months. However, the assessment panel may agree to requests for visits to more than one centre, if this can be justified on the grounds of training needs. These should not be simply collaborative visits but applicants are encouraged to consider this opportunity by the assessment panel. You should be prepared at interview to discuss in detail any visits proposed.

Deadlines and submission details

The MRC special research training fellowship in biomedical informatics competition is held once a year. There is no need to submit an outline application.

Please see fellowship deadlines dates for application deadlines.

Closing date: 19 September 2012

Short listing: January 2013

Interviews: 27 – 28 February and 1 March 2013

Take up dates: April – September 2013

Please apply for the Special Training Fellowship using the RCUK Je-S application system. Your proposal must be submitted through the MRC Je-S system by 4pm on the relevant Fellowhip Application deadline date.

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

Completion of specialist clinical training

If you are medically and dentally qualified and have not already completed your specialist or vocational training, you should have a clear idea of your plans for doing so at the time of application. Applicants wishing to pursue specialist or vocational training must consult their Postgraduate Medical Dean, Regional Advisor in General Practice, and Royal College prior to submitting the fellowship application to find out if the research may be acceptable as training towards the Certificate of Completion of Training. Enquiries and subsequent applications to the relevant body should be made in consultation with the prospective head of department.

Flexibility

The MRC tries to operate this scheme as flexibly as possible. As part of the MRC’s equal opportunities policy, consideration will be given to applicants who are returning to science following a career break. There are no age limits for any of our schemes and all fellowships may be held part-time to fit in with domestic responsibilities.

The MRC recognises the challenges faced by clinicians in combining research training with the demands of a clinical career. MRC therefore allow up to 20 per cent of fellows’ time for NHS sessions.

Alternatively, Fellows may spend up to six hours a week on other work such as teaching or demonstrating. The payment for this work may be retained in full if this is the host institution’s normal policy. Fellows may seek other research grants to be held concurrently with their award during its last six months only. However, they may not exceed the permitted time for other work on research grants.

Please see fellowship terms and conditions for further details.

Applications for further fellowship support

MRC special research training fellows who wish to consolidate their research skills and make the transition from post-doctoral research and training to become independent investigators are eligible to compete for an MRC clinician scientist fellowship (medical/dental graduates, nurses, midwives and members of the allied health professions) or, an MRC career development award (non-clinical scientists).

Guidance for applicants

For further information please refer to MRC’s contacts page.

May 8, 2012

MRC EoI for Research Consortia to establish a new cohort for intellectual disabilities research

Funding opportunities Jo Garrad

The purpose of the MRC Call for Expression of Interest (EoI) is to gauge the likely interest in establishing a new cohort for research on intellectual disabilities. The EoIs solicited will inform discussion at a workshop to be held in the autumn and representatives from those submitting EoIs will be invited. The objective of the workshop will be to scope the feasibility and discuss the logistics of establishment and maintenance of a cohort in intellectual disabilities research in the light of the EoIs submitted.

The establishment of a cohort in this area would meet one of the recommendations of the Mental Health Review that was led by the MRC and published in 2010. The cohort would be a resource for high quality, hypothesis-driven research in an area where there is a perceived research gap. The final decision will be taken following the workshop and is dependent on establishing its feasibility. Funds have provisionally been set aside.

Remit of this call for EoIs

At the moment MRC are seeking interest in establishing a cohort that would cover any condition or conditions that have arisen due to impairment of brain development before or during birth, or in the childhood years before the brain is fully developed; and which has been caused by any biological and/or environmental factors.
The cohort will be established for epidemiological research on mental health and to provide information on risk factors and interventions. MRC also intends to explore the opportunity for designing the cohort to provide health care providers and care-givers with information that will inform the design of better care.
The cohort should initially be established within the UK.

Rationale

The rationale for considering establishing a cohort is as follows:

The MRC-led review of mental health research noted the higher prevalence of psychiatric disorders and other co-morbidities among children with learning disabilities compared to children without learning disabilities; and the fact that those with more severe conditions are routinely excluded from patient and population based cohorts.
There is a strong need to understand how certain factors such as mental and physical health relate to health outcomes in those with intellectual disabilities.
From a scientific perspective, the study of rare and severe disorders can provide a unique insight into issues of much wider public health significance.
Establishing a well-characterised cohort of people with intellectual disabilities will enable more immediate studies of the different aspects of the possible phenotypes and might also provide the epidemiological information to assist the establishment and optimisation of clinical and social management across the age range.

What your EoI should address

At this stage MRC are seeking information about you, what research questions you consider to be most pressing, the feasibility and logistics issues you envisage and how you would seek to overcome them. EoIs should provide the following information:

About you

Please provide the name of a single Principal Investigator, with host institution, who might lead a future bid and be administratively responsible for any award.
Names and institutional affiliations of up to three co-workers.
Please do not include CVs or any information that cannot be shared. Information on relevant funding and publications would be useful.
Please indicate your consent for information from the EoI to be shared with delegates in order to inform the autumn workshop.

Note: MRC will consider proposals from any UK-based researcher who can demonstrate that they will direct the proposed research and be actively engaged in carrying it through. Researchers from overseas institutions may be included in a proposal as a collaborator where the nature of the research makes this necessary but it is anticipated that this cohort will be wholly UK-based at least at the start.

About the research question

It is important that EoIs make clear what new health research questions or hypotheses it will be possible to answer over the next five to ten years using the cohort resource. Therefore you should address the following

A description of the most pressing research questions for the next 5 years listing the expected outcomes (maximum 2 sides of A4).
What the proposed cohort will offer that other cohorts do not (nationally and internationally) and how it relates to other relevant cohorts?

Logistics and feasibility

As many of these syndromes are rare, undertaking research in this area presents very particular challenges such as recruiting large enough samples and the associated geographic spread of any cohort. Therefore you should address the following:

What will be the target population (inclusion/exclusion)?
What will be the starting age for cohort subjects?
Who will be the comparison groups?
What sample size do you envisage?
Who would be the participating centres?
What expertise do you have (or plans do you have to engage with specialists) in the area?
What would be the plans for establishing the cohort as a resource – how is it/ will it be used by the wider research community?
What questions do you think the workshop should address?
What costs to the nearest million do you envisage the cohort costing, broken down into three or four major headings
Initially, if funded, the cohort would be supported for five years. How would you manage continuation or discontinuation of the cohort beyond five years?
How will the cohort be used to inform clinical decision making and inform policy or social care?

At this stage no details are needed on governance arrangements for data sharing and data access by the wider research community but please make you ensure that you are familiar with MRC policy on data sharing and preservation.

How to submit the EoI

There is no template or form and EoIs should be emailed, by 4pm Friday 8th June 2012, to: sarah.main@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk

Do not exceed 6 sides of A4 (Arial 11 point) including references but you may append a 1 page diagram (e.g. Gantt chart/ flow chart).

Process and timescale following submission of EoIs

Following the workshop, the outcome will be reported to MRC Boards. If agreed, we hope that we will be able to invite proposals from competing consortia or commission a single group depending on how researchers agree amongst themselves to organise their response to any call. We anticipate that a call for funding will be issued in the spring of 2013.

May 8, 2012

MRC Call for Career Development Award

Funding opportunities Jo Garrad

The MRC career development award provides up to five years’ support for outstanding post-doctoral researchers who wish to consolidate their research skills and make the transition from post-doctoral research trainee to independent investigator. Applicants are expected to take advantage of the full five years’ funding available. It includes an option of 12 months research training outside the UK, in UK industry, or at another UK research centre, to enable fellows to acquire new transferable techniques and skills. The scheme also provides a jointly funded postdoctoral award in partnership with the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Who can apply?

Applicants should have a PhD or DPhil and have at least three to six years’ post-doctoral experience at the time of application deadline. Applications from existing MRC research fellows and post-doctoral researchers returning from overseas are particularly welcome. Applicants who hold a research-oriented MSc degree and have undertaken at least four years’ appropriate postgraduate research work – such as in medical statistics – may be considered.

Medically and other clinically qualified professionals who are clinically active should consider MRC’s Clinical Fellowships or Population Health Scientist Fellowship schemes.

As with all MRC fellowships, these awards are not available to individuals who hold a tenured academic position at the time of application. If you hold a tenured position, you may apply for funding under one of the MRC’s grant schemes.

There are no residence eligibility restrictions for this fellowship. As part of the MRC’s equal opportunities policy, consideration will be given to applicants who are returning to science following a career break. There are no age limits for any of our schemes and all fellowships may be held part-time to fit in with domestic responsibilities.

Scientific Remit

Proposals are encouraged across all areas of the MRC’s remit. Applications may range from basic studies with relevance to mechanisms of disease, to translational and clinical research.

Funding provided

The fellowship provides a competitive salary, research support staff, research consumables expenses, travel costs and capital equipment appropriate for the research project under full economic costs. The award also provides funding for research training outside the UK. Higher requests for resources must be justified in terms of delivering the objectives of the research proposal.

Tenure of award

An MRC career development award may be awarded for up to five years. Applicants are expected to take advantage of the full five years funding available. Part-time fellowships for individuals who wish to combine research with domestic responsibilities may apply for a period of up to 5 years pro-rata.

The MRC and Multiple Sclerosis Society training fellowship

Applications are invited for this joint award from non-clinical researchers who also wish to undertake research into understanding and treating multiple sclerosis.

Clinical researchers may apply for this joint funding scheme through the MRC clinical research training fellowship.

Deadlines and submission details

This fellowship competition is held twice a year, however applicants may only apply to one CDA competition in any 12 month period. There is no need to submit an outline application.

Please apply for the Career Development Award using the RCUK Je-S application system.

Please see the schedule and deadlines for fellowships for closing dates.

Your proposal must be submitted through the MRC Je-S system by 4pm on the relevant closing date.

Closing date: 10 October 2012

Short listing: February 2013

Interviews: 20 -21 March 2013

Take up dates: April – September 2013

Other work responsibilities

MRC career development fellows and research support staff funded through full-time fellowships may spend up to six hours a week teaching, demonstrating or supervising research staff not funded by the fellowship. Payment for such work may be retained in full if this is the host institution’s normal policy.

Applications for further support

Existing fellows who wish to continue developing their research careers, and who do not have an established position, would be eligible to compete for an MRC senior non-clinical fellowship.

Other grant support

Career development award holders are encouraged to apply as a principle investigator or co-investigator for grant support via an MRC research grant or collaboration grant, or grants from other funding organisations, subject to written approval from the MRC fellowship section. Fellows seeking this further support should ensure that the additional work can be carried out within the six hours per week allowed for other duties as stipulated under other work responsibilities and in the fellowship terms and conditions (part FA19). In certain cases consideration will be given to allowing the fellow to apply for grant funding which exceeds these limits.

Guidance for applicants

For further information please refer to MRC’s contacts page.

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

May 8, 2012

MRC call for Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship

Funding opportunities Jo Garrad

The MRC senior non-clinical fellowship is a highly prestigious award that provides non-clinical researchers of exceptional ability with exceptional opportunities to develop themselves to be research leaders. Applicants will be proven independent researchers with a track record of excellence in their scientific field, and will demonstrate significant promise as future research leaders. Support is now provided for seven years.

Who can apply?

Applicants will normally hold a PhD/DPhil and have at least six years’ post-doctoral research experience in academia or the wider economy. Applications from current MRC Career Development Award holders are particularly welcome.

Proposals are encouraged across all areas of the MRC’s remit from basic molecular science to applied clinical research. Medically and other clinically qualified professionals who are clinically active are ineligible, and should consider MRC’s Clinical Fellowships or Population Health Scientist Fellowship schemes.

MRC fellowships are not available to individuals who hold a tenured academic or research position, in the UK or overseas, at the time of application. If you hold a tenured position you should instead apply for funding under one of the MRC grant schemes. Similarly, individuals without formal tenure who are already supported by their Research Organisation as research team leaders should seek MRC grant funding rather than support via an MRC fellowship. There are no residence eligibility restrictions for this fellowship.

As part of the MRC equal opportunities policy, consideration will be given to applicants who are returning to science following a career break. There are no age limits for any of our schemes and all fellowships may be held part-time to fit in with domestic responsibilities.

Funding provided

The award provides a competitive personal salary for the fellow, research support staff, research consumables expenses and capital equipment appropriate for the research project, travel costs, and other appropriate items under full economic costs at a UK research organisation.

However, a Fellowship is not merely a large personal “grant.” Now that the awards are for seven years, candidates must show a commitment to developing the breadth of their research careers as well as excellence in depth. We recognise that plans for the later stages of a fellowship may be less detailed than those for the earlier years. Nevertheless, applicants should have ambitious and credible ideas for developing themselves as research leaders – scientists with vision and the ability to drive change.

Applicants are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship to spend time in an overseas research centre, a second UK research centre or a UK industrial centre. The aim is to provide a concentrated period of training that cannot be achieved as effectively within the academic host institution. MRC consider this period at a second centre to provide an invaluable opportunity to broaden fellows’ development towards becoming a research leader, and they would normally expect the Fellow to make one visit of up to 12 months. The interview panel may agree to requests for visits to more than one centre, if this can be justified on the grounds of training and development needs. These should not be simply collaborative visits. The Felllow should be prepared at interview to discuss in detail any visits proposed.

Tenure of award

An MRC Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship may be awarded for any period up to seven years. A mid-term review will be conducted by Panel members and MRC staff, to evaluate the fellow’s progress and institutional support, and also as an opportunity to provide mentorship and career advice for the fellow.

When applying, the case for support should describe a plan for seven years of research. However it is appreciated that during the tenure of the award, advances will be made and unexpected results may be produced which impact on the planned work, especially in the later years of the award. Consequently they encourage applicants to outline options for the last years of the fellowship rather than provide comprehensive details.

To account for the new longer duration, the case for support may be up to 12 pages in length.

Deadlines and submission details

This fellowship competition is held twice a year. There is no need to submit an outline application. Please see the schedule and deadlines for fellowships for closing dates.

Please apply for the Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship using the RCUK Je-S application system. Your proposal must be submitted through the MRC Je-S system by 4pm on the relevant deadline date.

Closing date: 10 October 2012

Short listing: February 2013

Interviews: 20 -21 March 2013

Take up dates: April – September 2013

Other work responsibilities

MRC senior non-clinical fellows and research support staff funded through full-time fellowships may spend up to six hours a week on teaching, demonstrating or other work. Payment for this work may be retained in full if this is the host institution’s normal policy.

Applications for other grant support

It is expected that senior fellows will seek grant support either from the MRC, through a research grant or other funding streams, or grants from other funding organisations. In applying for such funding, fellows should be mindful of their fellowship commitments (see above).

Guidance for applicants

For further information please refer to MRC’s contacts page.

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

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