You can apply for academically-led experimental medicine projects, conducted in humans, based around a clearly articulated gap in understanding of human pathophysiology, with a clear path to clinical impact.
These grants will produce new mechanistic insights, identifying opportunities to modify disease pathways and enabling novel therapeutic or diagnostic approaches for future development.
All disease areas and interventions are welcomed by the panel.
The application must involve an experimental intervention or challenge in humans, perturbing the system to explore disease mechanism.
The challenge may be, but is not limited to:
- pharmacological
- immunological
- physiological
- psychological
- infectious.
The following types of proposals are eligible for support:
- the use of novel readouts or technologies especially related to early evaluation of clinical efficacy
- the use of drugs, other interventions or measures with established safety profiles in new settings or conditions, for example repurposing drugs as tool compounds to probe disease mechanism
- deep characterisation or phenotyping of subjects using samples from clinical studies may be included where there is a clear link to a current treatment strategy but should not be the sole focus of the proposal
- acceptable approaches include the identification and verification of responder patient populations (precision medicine strategies).
Proposals which are predominantly descriptive will not be shortlisted. An experimental approach, and a clear plan for establishing causal relationships and mechanisms, is expected.
The following activities are ineligible for support:
- characterisation or phenotyping work aiming to elucidate disease aetiology (supported by the research boards)
- experimental intervention or challenge in animals, using clinical assets to explore disease mechanisms and pathways (supported by the research boards)
- development and evaluation of novel therapeutics, diagnostics or devices (supported by the developmental pathway funding scheme (DPFS))
- high-throughput screening approaches to target validation
- pre-clinical model development and validation (supported by the research boards)
- clinical efficacy trials (supported by the EME funding scheme).
There is no limit to the amount of funding you can apply for or the length of your project. You should instead justify the timescale and resources needed in the context of the proposed work.
Collaborations
Applications including partnerships with charities or industry are encouraged where these add value to the project, for example, in terms of access to expertise, technologies, reagents or funding. Please note that industrial collaboration is not a prerequisite for application.
Applications involving collaboration with industry should adhere to the MRC Industry Collaboration Agreement guidance. The lead applicant must be the academic partner, and the project must be academically-led.
Please note that we do not fund the work of your industrial partners.
