Apply for funding to establish a national human nervous tissue sample resource.
This will be a pilot to enable researchers to access living and post-mortem nervous tissue.
The resource should support neuroscience and mental health research.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for MRC funding.
We will fund between two to four projects, from a total fund of £5 million. We will fund 80% of the full economic cost.
Your project may last up to 36 months.
This funding opportunity is open to applicants from eligible UK-based organisations, in accordance with standard MRC eligibility rules.
This includes:
MRC guidance on institutional and individual eligibility.
Recognising the value of regional research and leadership, proposals can be submitted that involve multi-institutional collaboration. However, proposals must be submitted by a single lead organisation which is UK-based.
Organisations are permitted to submit a maximum of one lead application to this funding opportunity.
Individuals may be the principal investigator on only one application. Applications may include researcher co-investigators as set out in the MRC researcher co-investigator guidance.
International co-investigators are eligible for inclusion where they provide expertise that is not available in the UK. Please contact us to confirm eligibility prior to submission.
We welcome collaboration with an industrial partner or partners, which should be managed via an MRC industry collaboration agreement.
Research involving human brain and nervous tissue is necessary to support cutting-edge, fundamental and disease-oriented neuroscience and mental health research.
Innovative approaches and development of new capabilities for the provision and characterisation of human nervous tissue are needed to increase the range of data available to understand neural systems and disease across biological scales.
Enhancing the integration of data derived from living nervous tissue (such as samples collected through diagnostic or neurosurgical procedures) with that from human cellular models (for example organoids) and post-mortem analyses has the potential to deliver a step change for this.
This opportunity for funding is to support an innovative pilot demonstration for a national human sample resource. This will enable researcher access to well characterised living (such as tissue or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collected through diagnostic or neurosurgical procedures) and post-mortem nervous tissues.
To be within scope, proposals are required to:
It is anticipated that these awards will build new capacity by linking expertise and resourcing from multiple disciplines including (but not restricted to):
A central focus of the programme should be on implementing and encouraging ‘open science’ that ensures the widest possible research access to samples and data derived from these.
Applicants should address specifically how barriers to sample and sensitive data access can be minimised for individual researchers or multi-site, multi-disciplinary consortia. Appropriate levels of care for the valuable and depletable human tissue and biosample resource, together with donor data privacy, will need to be maintained.
Proposals may exploit existing tissue and data resources, but would be expected to augment these in major ways. Demonstrations of how new approaches to increasing the usefulness of human nervous tissue samples (for example through enhancing meta-data associated with samples) that can be adopted and scaled to a larger resource are encouraged.
Added value to programmes can come from development of ways in which existing resources, such as nationally collated health or NHS datasets, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) or clinical infrastructure, or well characterised population-based cohorts can be utilised.
Applicants must outline appropriate milestones for monitoring progress against objectives and will need to consider the longer-term vision for a new resource, beyond the initial pilot (including potential routes of further funding).
Proposals should consider approaches and frameworks to assure continued use and enhancement of the resource, for example:
Proposals are welcomed across the full remit of the opportunity. However, we particularly encourage programmes that address one or more of the following key strategic gaps and areas of need identified through UKRI MRC stakeholder consultation:
It is expected that proposals will consider:
Total funding of up to £5 million is available to support proposals under this opportunity. We expect to fund two to four programmes and applications may request funding for up to 36 months.
Awards are expected to start in spring 2022.
Funding will be awarded at 80% full economic cost (unless otherwise stated) and can be requested to cover:
Read a full account of grant costs in the MRC guidance for applicants.
This funding opportunity will operate initially through a mandatory expression of interest prior to a full application stage for invited applicants.
Full proposals will not be accepted from applicants who have failed to submit an expression of interest.
Expressions of interest should be provided through the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system. Only the principal investigator will be required to register on Je-S at the initial expression of interest stage.
The expression of interest form (DOCX, 82KB) should be completed and uploaded to Je-S by 16:00 on 2 December 2021.
The form includes the request for:
This is to carry out internal checks by MRC head office to confirm that investigators are eligible to apply and that expressions are within remit for this opportunity.
The expression of interest will also help us manage conflicts at the assessment stage and assist with identifying potential partnerships with other applicants in overlapping strategic areas. It will not involve any expert assessment.
When applying select:
You must ‘submit document’ which will send your application to your host organisation’s administration.
Your host organisation’s administration is required to complete the submission process. Applicants should allow sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process between submitting your proposal to them and the opportunity closing date.
Applicants should ensure they are aware of, and comply with, any internal institutional deadlines that may be in place.
The full proposal should be submitted through the Je-S system by the host research organisation by 16:00 UK time on 1 February 2022.
The proposal should follow standard MRC application guidelines.
All investigators (principal investigator, co-investigators and research co-investigators) are required to have a verified research proposal type Je-S account.
If you are a new Je-S user, to start the create account process and gain access to the Je-S system, accept the terms and conditions (Je-S).
Principal investigators are advised to contact all co-investigators and research co-investigators at the earliest opportunity, to ensure they have created the required ‘research proposal’ type Je-S account (allowing them to be included in the Je-S form as co-investigator).
Co-investigators and research co-investigators without the required type of Je-S account will not be able to be included within the proposal.
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.
Please see the MRC guidance for applicants for general guidance when creating the attachments required for your proposal.
All full applications require a completed proposal form accompanied by a number of mandatory attachments which include:
The case for support forms the main body of your proposal and should follow the standard MRC case for support content and specifically include:
MRC reserves the right to amend the application process in the case of high demand.
All eligible proposals that are in scope of the funding opportunity will be assessed by a specially convened independent, multidisciplinary expert panel.
We aim to communicate funding recommendations within one week of the full panel meeting. The decision of the panel is final and will not be open to appeal.
Applications will be assessed on:
Email: neurotissueresource@ukri.org
Any queries regarding the submission of proposals through Je-S should be directed to the Je-S helpdesk.
Email: jeshelp@je-s.ukri.org
Telephone: 01793 444164
Opening times: Je-S opening times
Supplementary to the standard MRC grant conditions, additional conditions will be added to this opportunity. These will include, but are not limited to the following conditions.
This award is contingent upon meeting the progression milestones set out at the full application stage. Failure to meet progression milestones may result in termination of the award at the discretion of MRC.
Without specific prior written approval, MRC will not reimburse the host institution for the costs of any work contributing to a later milestone should it be decided that the criteria of an active milestone have not been met and the programme is terminated.
Grant holders must establish an external advisory board, or equivalent body, to act as a ‘critical friend’ and provide advice on the running of the programme and related activities. This board must meet with grant holders at least once a year, with the grant holders providing the external advisory board with an annual written report before the meeting detailing the project’s:
