You can apply for academically-led experimental medicine projects that are conducted in humans, based round a clearly articulated gap in understanding of human pathophysiology and have 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.
The panel welcomes all disease areas and interventions.
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 where there is a clear link to a current treatment strategy but this 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. We expect an experimental approach, and a clear plan for establishing causal relationships and mechanisms.
The following activities are ineligible for support:
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.
