The MRC New Investigator Grant (NIG) is aimed at supporting people who are ready to become independent researchers.
New Investigator funding opportunities are available in the following areas:
- Infections and immunity
- Molecular and cellular medicine
- Neurosciences and mental health
- Population and systems medicine
- Experimental medicine
The New Investigator Grant aims to support individuals seeking to transition to independence who have not previously led a research team or been awarded a substantial grant as fellow or project lead.
It supports a research project, combined with a range of other academic or clinical activities including:
- time spent on other research grants
- clinical duties
- teaching
- research organisation administration duties
- other time spent in faculty
You must demonstrate how your proposed activities, and the time commitments across them will contribute to your transition to independence. The application is assessed based on how this enables the applicant to establish their independence within a career structure supported by the host organisation.
The new investigator should apply for salary costs for a proportion of their contracted working time, usually up to 50%. The proportion requested should be justified in the application and suitable for leading the research project as you transition to independence.
Difference between New Investigator Grants and Fellowships
A New Investigator Grant is distinct from a fellowship that supports 100% of the fellows time.
Fellowships such as Career Development Award (CDA) or Future Leaders fellowship (FLF) are personal awards that aim to support individuals seeking to transition to independence through protected research time to drive forward an ambitious programme of research, training and personal career development. See MRC fellowships for more information.
We want to help early career researchers applying to our NIG scheme by explaining what we expect from a great NIG application in this short video:
Video credit: MRC. On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript is available on YouTube.