We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.
Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.
If the lead research organisation is an NHS organisation, check it is available in the Funding Service. You are encouraged to check this early as there may be additional steps for the organisation to be set up before you can apply.
To apply
Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.
- Confirm you are the project lead.
- Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org
Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service. We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this Opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any grant that might be offered to you.
- Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.
- Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
- Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
- Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.
Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.
When including images you must:
- provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it in the text box (this counts towards your word limit)
- insert each new image onto a new line
- ensure files are smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words. The following are not permitted, and your application may be rejected if you include:
- sentences or paragraphs of text
- tables
- excessive quantities of images
A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
References
References should be included within the word count of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.
Hyperlinks can be used in reference information. When including references, you should consider how your references will be viewed and used by the assessors, ensuring that:
- references are easily identifiable by the assessors
- references are formatted as appropriate to your research
- persistent identifiers are used where possible
General use of hyperlinks
Applications should be self-contained. You should only use hyperlinks to link directly to reference information. You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. Assessors are not required to access links to conduct assessment or recommend a funding decision.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI)
Use of generative AI tools to prepare funding applications is permitted, however, caution should be applied.
For more information see our policy on the use of generative AI in application and assessment.
Deadline
We must receive your application by 1 October 2025 at 4:00pm UK time.
You will not be able to apply after this time.
Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.
Following the submission of your application to the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.
Personal data
Processing personal data
Medical Research Council (MRC), as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.
We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.
Sensitive information
If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email experimental.medicine@mrc.ukri.org
Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].
Typical examples of confidential information include:
- individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave)
- declaration of interest
- additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section
- conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection
- the application is an invited resubmission
For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read UKRI’s privacy notice.
Publication of outcomes
MRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at board and panel outcomes.
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
Summary
Word limit: 550
In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.
We usually make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information. Make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:
- opinion-formers
- policymakers
- the public
- the wider research community
Guidance for writing a summary
Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:
- context
- the challenge the project addresses
- aims and objectives
- potential applications and benefits
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
- project lead (PL)
- project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
- project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
- specialist
- grant manager
- professional enabling staff
- research and innovation associate
- technician
- visiting researcher
- researcher co-lead (RcL)
Only list one individual as project lead. If you include more than one project lead your application will fail at the checking stage.
UKRI has introduced a new addition to the ‘Specialist’ role type. Public contributors such as people with lived experience can now be added to an application.
Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.
New investigator applications
Project co-leads, specialists and other team roles may be included. Team members should bring essential complimentary research, technical expertise or skills to the project, that you cannot provide, or are aiming to develop.
You should note that the role of researcher co-lead (RcL) is not permitted to be selected when you are applying as a new investigator.
To make your leadership role clear and justify the team around you, we encourage you to use the appropriate application sections such as:
- applicant fit to the funding opportunity
- applicant and team capability to deliver
It is not usually appropriate for your current or recent supervisor or lab head to be part of the applicant team, as this may make leadership unclear. If this is essential to the proposed work, it must be specifically justified.
Application questions
New investigator applicants
Word limit: 10
Do you consider yourself eligible to apply as a new investigator for this funding opportunity?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are eligible to apply as a new investigator, answer ‘Yes’ in the text box. At stage two, new investigators will be asked to provide information about their eligibility, career development and research organisation support.
If you are not applying as a new investigator, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Find out more about eligibility and applying for a ‘New Investigator Grant’.
Related applications
Word limit: 1,500
Is this application a re-submission of a previous experimental medicine stage one or stage two application and, if so, how have you considered and acted on the feedback you received?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If your application is a resubmission, ensure you:
- describe how feedback on your previous stage one or stage two application has been considered and acted on
- provide succinct responses to the panel’s comments on your previous stage one or stage two application
References may be included within this section.
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
Enter ‘N/A’ into the text box if this is your first time applying to experimental medicine stage one for your proposed research.
Vision
Word limit: 550
What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how your proposed work:
- is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the fields or areas
- has the potential to advance current understanding, or generate new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area
- is timely given current trends, context, and needs
- impacts world-leading research, society, the economy, or the environment
Within the ‘Vision’ section we also expect you to:
- outline the current clinical challenge, healthcare burden or knowledge gap
- summarise the current state of understanding about the relevant mechanisms of disease
- identify the current gap in mechanistic understanding
- state the mechanistic hypothesis to be tested
References may be included within this section.
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
Intervention
Word limit: 250
What is the planned intervention?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain the planned intervention to be used in the proposed work, including:
- the type of intervention, which may include compound, biologic, psychological, physiological, or infection
- relevant background information, including its established safety profile and use in other mechanistic studies
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
Approach
Word limit: 1,500
How are you going to deliver your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Within the Approach section we expect you to provide an outline project plan, including project milestones and timelines, demonstrating:
- how you propose to address the identified gap in knowledge
- the objectives of the proposed research in order of priority
- the primary and secondary experimental outcomes and how they relate to the experimental objectives
- how the proposed work packages will ensure the project objectives are achieved
- the success criteria that will be used for each milestone, detailing the robust Go or No-Go criteria
To support your project plan, you must also provide an embedded legible Gantt chart that should include project tasks and project milestones. Experimental medicine projects must include at least two progression milestones which are:
- major specifically-timed decision points (including the project end goal)
- defined by SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely) success criteria and, where appropriate, detailed and robust Go or No-go criteria
Within the Approach section we also expect you to outline the proposed methodology and experimental design, including:
- the experiments you will undertake to probe the stated hypothesis
- the data you will collect and how it will test the hypothesis
- the proposed trial design and why this approach is appropriate to meet the study objectives
As part of your methodology and experimental design, outline the nature of human participation in your proposed work, including:
- the characteristics of the participants (such as age, disease) and the rationale for their selection
- target and acceptable levels of participant recruitment across the project timeline
- evidence of recruitment feasibility
- the participant recruitment strategy, including the steps that will be taken if patient recruitment does not reach the set target
- if applicable, outline how any limited animal, library specimen or isolate cell work will inform the human-centric proposed work. For any research involving animals and tissues and cells, you must show how you will use both sexes (for further information, see Sex in experimental design). If you are not proposing to do this, a strong justification is required
- if applicable, explain and justify the inclusion of public partnerships and the added value these offer
You should detail any information regarding your statistical analysis plan in the ‘Reproducibility and statistical design’ section.
Outline the project risks and risk management, including:
- how likely the risks are to occur
- what their impact would be on the success and deliverability of the project
- your risk mitigation strategy, giving particular consideration to any potential safety risks and how these risks will be managed, by whom and related escalation or mitigations procedures
You may use a risk table if preferred.
You should also demonstrate access to the appropriate services, clinical support, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposed work, including details of:
- specialist equipment or infrastructure required to deliver the project objectives
- the use of existing clinical infrastructure such as Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres, NIHR Biomedical Research Centres, NIHR Clinical research facilities, patient cohorts
We suggest you structure your response using the following headings, with approximate words counts for each:
- project plan and milestones: 500 words
- methodology and experimental design: 500 words
- risk management: 300 words
- infrastructure and equipment: 200 words
References may be included throughout the approach section. We suggest you include your references under the most relevant heading. Any references you include count towards the approximate word limit indicated for each heading.
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
Reproducibility and statistical design
Word limit: 250
How will you ensure your proposed work is reliable, robust and reproducible?
What assessors are looking for in your response
We expect you to seek professional statistical or other relevant advice in preparing your statistical analysis plan, which may include:
- sample and effect sizes
- planned statistical analyses
Ensure sufficient details to justify your proposes sizes and statistical analyses plan.
Refer to the MRC guidance for applicants for further information, examples and online tools.
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word limit: 1,800
Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:
- the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
- the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work
- the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
- contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
The word count for this section is 1,800 words:
- 1,100 words to be used for R4RI modules (including references)
- 200 words to summarise the career stage of the core team (an example table will be provided within the Funding Service to assist you with your summary)
- 500 words for Additions, if necessary
Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you and, if relevant, your team (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.
Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed. Use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI. You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings:
- contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge
- the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships
- contributions to the wider research and innovation community
- contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit, including public partnerships
Additions
Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences, or outputs, but you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).
Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.
References may be included within this section.
The roles in funding applications policy has descriptions of the different project roles.
Project partners
Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.
A project partner is a collaborating person or organisation who will have an integral role in your proposed research. Their involvement may include direct (cash) and or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time, use of facilities or recruitment of research participants. Project partners may be in industry, academia, third sector or government organisations in the UK or overseas, including partners based in the EU.
A project partner is not anyone in your core team or anyone from your organisation or any of the other organisations represented by core team members.
Add the following project partner details:
- the organisation name (searchable via a drop-down list or enter the organisation’s details manually, as applicable)
- the project partner contact name and email address
- the type of contribution (direct or in-direct) and its monetary value
If a detail is entered incorrectly and you have saved the entry, remove the specific project partner record and re-add it with the correct information.
If there are specific circumstances where project partners do require funding for minor costs such as travel and subsistence, these project partner costs should be claimed and justified within the resources and costs section of your application.
Important information
If you are adding a project partner to this section, you must ensure they provide you with a letter or email of support and you upload it to ‘Project partners: letters or emails of support’.
If your project partners are from industry or a company, you must also complete the ‘Industry Collaboration Framework (ICF)’ section.
Project partners: letters (or emails) of support
Word limit: 10
Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the ‘Project partners’ section. These should be uploaded in English or Welsh only.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
What supporting statements we are looking for
We are looking for you to provide letters or emails of support from all your identified project partners.
What we are not looking for
We don’t want any other letters (or emails) of support, from people who are not your identified project partners, such as those simply expressing general support for your project. If these are included by you, they will be ignored by us and will not be used in the assessment process.
Important information
You should only provide letters or emails of support from people you have identified in the project partner section of your application, who will have an integral role in your proposed research.
What each project partner letter or email of support must include
Each project partner letter or email you provide should:
- include the name of the project partner organisation and contact information
- explain the project partners’ commitment to the project
- explain the value, relevance, and possible benefits of the proposed work, to them
- describe any additional value they will bring to the project
- not exceed two sides of A4 per project partner
Project partner letters and emails of support are not required to be on headed paper or include handwritten signatures (electronic signatures are acceptable).
The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.
Project partners from industry or a company
Industry or company project partners are required to download and complete the industry or company letter of support template. You must also complete the ‘Industry Collaboration Framework (ICF)’ section. Find out more about ICF.
Project partners responsible for recruiting research participants or providing human tissues or samples
If the project partner is responsible for the recruitment of people as research participants or providing human tissue, their letter or email of support should include:
- agreement that the project partner will recruit the participants or provide tissue
- confirmation that what is being supplied is suitable for the proposed work
- confirmation that the quantity of tissue being supplied is suitable, but not excessive for achieving meaningful results (if applicable)
Agreement with your project partners
Ensure you have prior agreement from project partners so that, if you are offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the ‘Project partners’ section.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
Outline costs
What are the expected costs of the proposed work?
Provide the approximate total values in GBP (£) for the expected directly incurred, directly allocated, indirect costs and exceptions. View the guidance on the costs you can apply for.
Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)
Word limit: 500
What are the ethical or RRI implications and issues relating to the proposed work? If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, explain why.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated:
- the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations
- how you will manage these considerations
Consider the MRC guidance on ethics and approvals.
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
