Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: Molecular and cellular medicine research: Jan 2022

Opportunity status:: Closed
Funders:: Medical Research Council (MRC)
Funding type:: Grant
Publication date:: 16 August 2021
Opening date:: 15 October 2021
Closing date:: 11 January 2022 4:00pm UK time

Apply for funding for research projects focused on molecular and cellular medicine.

You must:

be a UK-based researcher employed at an eligible research organisation
have at least a postgraduate degree.

You can involve more than one research group or institution in the project.

There is no limit to the funding you can apply for, but it should be appropriate to the project. We will usually fund up to 80% of your project’s full economic cost.

Projects can last up to five years, but they typically last three to four years.

Who can apply

Any UK-based researcher with an employment contract at an eligible research organisation can apply. You will need to:

have at least a postgraduate degree, although we usually expect most applicants to have a PhD or medical degree
show that you will direct the project and be actively engaged in the work.

You can include one or more industry partners as project partners in your application. International co-investigators can be included if they provide expertise not available in the UK.

The focus of this funding opportunity is molecular and cellular medicine research. There are similar opportunities across other areas of medical research within the MRC remit, including:

population and systems medicine
infections and immunity
neurosciences and mental health
applied global health.

There are also other types of awards, including:

programmes
partnerships
new investigator.

You should contact us if you are not sure which opportunity to apply to.

What we're looking for

The MRC’s Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board funds research into basic biological mechanisms or technologies relevant to human health and disease.

We aim to increase understanding of:

the structure and function of molecules and complexes
the cellular environment during development and mature states
how biological systems respond to challenges (for example, drugs and toxins) and diseases.

We lead MRC’s investments in cancer, from fundamental discovery science to epidemiology, experimental medicine and early translation. Research focused on specific organ systems or diseases (with the exception of cancer and haematology) is normally supported through our other research boards.

Research we fund includes, but is not limited to, the following areas:

cell biology
structural biology and biophysics
molecular and functional genetics, epigenetics, genomics
developmental and stem cell biology (excluding neurobiology)
regenerative medicine
molecular haematology
development of new tools and technologies relevant to MCMB remit, such as nanotechnology, chemical biology and synthetic biology
medical bioinformatics (including biostatistics, computational biology and systems biology)
cancer
toxicology and adverse health effects of environmental exposures
pharmacology.

Find out more about the science areas MRC supports and our current board opportunity areas.

We encourage you to contact us first to discuss your application, especially if you believe your research may cross MRC research board or research council interests. If your application fits another research board remit better we may decide to transfer it there to be assessed.

MRC molecular and cellular medicine research grants:

are suitable for focused short or long-term research projects
can support method development or development and continuation of research facilities
may involve more than one research group or institution.

We will fund projects lasting up to five years, although projects typically last three to four years. If your project will last more than three years, you must justify the reason for this. For example, if you need time for data collection or follow-up.

If your project will last less than two years, it must be for proof of principle or pilot work only. We expect proof of principle proposals to support high-risk or high-reward research by critically testing a key hypothesis or demonstrating feasibility of an approach that could lead to fundamentally new avenues of research.

Contact one of our programme managers for advice if you would like to apply for a short or long-duration project.

You can request funding for costs such as:

a contribution to the salary of the principal investigator and co-investigators
support for other posts such as research and technical
research consumables
equipment
travel costs
data preservation, data sharing and dissemination costs
estates or indirect costs.

We will not fund:

research involving randomised trials of clinical treatments
funding to use as a ‘bridge’ between grants
costs for PhD studentships
publication costs.

How to apply

Application deadlines for Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board funding are usually around January, May and September, although sometimes dates can change, so check the funding finder for details.

You can submit to any of the available deadlines in the year. We do not expect you to submit more than two applications at the same time and encourage you to focus on application quality, not the number you can submit. Read our guidance for applicants on the MRC resubmission process.

Applying through Je-S

You must apply through the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system.

For more information, please read the Je-S how to apply guidance (PDF, 191KB).

If you need help in applying, you can contact Je-S on 01793 444164 or by email jeshelp@je-s.ukri.org.

You should give your administrative department sufficient notice that you intend to apply. Your organisation must submit your application before 16:00 on the deadline date.

When applying select:

council: MRC
document type: standard proposal
scheme: research grant
call/type/mode: Research Boards Jan 2022 Submissions.

Indicating the proposal is a research grant

Select the ‘grant type’ option from the proposal document menu, within the Je-S proposal form. Within the section, select the radio button adjacent to the ‘research grant’ option and select the ‘save’ button.

Guidance for applicants

Our MRC guidance for applicants will:

help you check your eligibility
guide you through preparing a proposal
show you how to prepare a case for support
provide details of any ethical and regulatory requirements that may apply.

Industrial partners

If you want to include one or more industry partners as a project partner, you must also:

complete the project partner section in Je-S
submit an MRC industrial collaboration agreement (MICA) form and heads of terms
include ‘MICA’ as a prefix to your project title.

Find out more about MRC industry collaboration agreements.

How we will assess your application

When we receive your application, it will be peer-reviewed by independent experts from the UK and overseas.

You can nominate up to three independent reviewers. We will invite only one to assess your application and may decide not to approach any of your nominated reviewers.

Peer reviewers will assess your application and provide comments. They will also score it using the peer reviewer scoring system against the following criteria:

importance: how important are the questions, or gaps in knowledge, that are being addressed?
scientific potential: what are the prospects for good scientific progress?
resources requested: are the funds requested essential for the work? And do the importance and scientific potential justify funding on the scale requested? Does the proposal represent good value for money?

Read the detailed assessment criteria for each MRC grant type.

We will review these scores and comments at a triage meeting and expect to continue with the highest-quality applications with potential to be funded. If your application passes the triage stage, we will give you the chance to respond to reviewers comments.

A board meeting will then discuss your proposal and decide if it is suitable for funding.

We make a decision within six months of receiving your application.

Find out more about our peer review process (MRC).