Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: Expression of interest: Experimental medicine to define new mechanisms of neurodegeneration

Opportunity status:
Open
Funders:
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Funding type:
Grant
Total fund:
£18,000,000
Maximum award:
£5,000,000
Publication date:
26 November 2024
Opening date:
Closing date:

Apply for funding to investigate the causes, progression and treatment of neurodegenerative conditions that give rise to dementia.

You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for Medical Research Council (MRC) funding.

Your project must:

  • include an experimental intervention or challenge in humans
  • focus on a mechanistic hypothesis
  • be in partnership with industry

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £5 million over a duration of up to five years. We will fund 80% of your project’s full economic cost.

Who can apply

Before applying for funding, check the Eligibility of your organisation.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new UKRI Funding Service.

For full details, visit Eligibility as an individual.

Who is eligible to apply

To be eligible to apply for this funding opportunity you must:

For applicants who do not have a contract of employment for the duration of the proposed project, by submitting an application the research organisation is confirming, if it is successful:

  • contracts will be extended beyond the end date of the project
  • all necessary support for the project and the applicants will be provided, including mentorship and career development for early career researchers

A research organisation may lead or partner on more than one application and applications may comprise more than one research organisation.

Individuals may be project lead on only one application. However, individuals can act as project co-leads on any number of applications.

Who is not eligible to apply

You are not eligible to apply for this funding opportunity as a project lead if you are based at an international research organisation. This does not include project leads from MRC Unit The Gambia or MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Before applying for funding, check the Eligibility of your organisation.

International applicants

You can include international applicants as project co-leads (international), where they will make a major intellectual contribution to the design or conduct of the project. The contribution and added value to the research collaboration should be clearly explained and justified in the application, see Applicant and team capability to deliver.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.

We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:

  • career breaks
  • support for people with caring responsibilities
  • flexible working
  • alternative working patterns

Find out more about equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI.

What we're looking for

Scope

You can apply for funding to support experimental medicine projects that are conducted in living humans, optimally in partnership with at least one industry partner. Your project should be ambitious and challenge-led, based round a clearly articulated gap in our understanding of neurodegenerative disease mechanisms. Although not primarily aimed at discovering new treatments, the approach should have a clear path to clinical impact.

Projects should draw on existing scientific, technical and clinical expertise, clinical research infrastructure and have significant links with industrial partners.

Successful projects will produce new mechanistic insights, including those that may:

  • identify opportunities to modify disease pathways
  • enable the future development of novel therapeutic or early diagnostic approaches
  • discover novel exploratory biomarkers to stratify disease and monitor disease progression
  • identify disease subtypes and refine treatments based on precision medicine and stratification through a deeper understanding of novel disease mechanisms

Applications should primarily focus on neurodegenerative conditions that give rise to dementia. However, applications may also include a focus on related neurodegenerative diseases which share similar underlying mechanisms where there is a significant knowledge gap.

In addition to generating new knowledge about pathogenesis, projects must be of high potential value to industry research and development, addressing known challenges that contribute to high failure rates in treatment development and helping to de-risk early phase dementia trials.

Evidence of public and patient involvement is essential.

Projects are particularly welcome that:

  • focus on pre-clinical, early-stage, or emergence of disease
  • widen patient involvement (including those with comorbidities and other understudied groups)
  • address gaps in our understanding of disease mechanisms in underrepresented populations
  • bring together expertise, tools and interventions from other relevant disease areas and disciplines, for example vascular and metabolic diseases
  • drive forward high-risk but high-reward research that pursues novel disease pathways
  • draw on, and validate, novel tools for experimental medicine studies in neurodegeneration(although tool development should not be a primary aim)

What your application must include

Your application must involve an experimental investigation in humans at its core, which has been designed to validate a mechanistic hypothesis. This should include an intervention or challenge, such as:

  • pharmacological
  • immunological
  • physiological
  • psychological(linked to sustained biological read-outs)
  • infectious

Activities we support

The following types of work are eligible for support:

  • the use of novel readouts or technologies related to early evaluation of a pathogenic mechanism
  • the use of drugs, other interventions or measures with established safety profiles in new settings or conditions (for example, repurposing drugs to probe disease mechanism)

We also support work activities that include the characterisation or phenotyping of subjects using samples from clinical studies or at-risk cohorts where there is a clear link to a current experimental medicine strategy. However, this should not be the primary or sole focus of your application.

Limited, hypothesis-driven, retrospective sample analysis may be included at the start of the project to improve the design of the interventional, experimental medicine study. Milestone criteria should clearly detail what data is required from the confirmatory analysis for the project to progress.

Prospective, nested studies within a larger cohort trial may be eligible provided they:

  • can demonstrate added value
  • are exploring disease mechanisms
  • test a novel hypothesis
  • address a different question to the main study

Competitive applications will aim to address a clear mechanistic question and provide strong rationale to justify the suitability of the research and experimental system proposed to test the presented hypothesis.

Activities we do not support

The following activities are ineligible for support through this funding opportunity:

We encourage you to contact us first at ExMedND@mrc.ukri.org to discuss your application.

Collaborations and connectivity

Projects should be guided by patient and carer perspectives, creating strong pathways to impact, addressing common goals of the wider research and patient communities. 

Projects must build on existing scientific, technical and clinical expertise, clinical research infrastructure and have significant links with industrial partners. Evidence should be provided of the nature of existing partnerships that underpin the application and the value these add.

Applications must include industry partners. This may be in terms of access to expertise, technologies, reagents or funding. You will need to complete the Industry Collaboration Framework (ICF) section. Find out more about ICF.

We anticipate that the funded projects will form a portfolio of complementary activity that will build on, and develop, existing scientific and technological platforms, resources and expertise within long-term investments across the UK, including and not limited to:

These investments provide various relevant resources for experimental medicine studies, including:

  • clinical research facilities
  • infrastructure for brain imaging (including MRI, PET and MEG)
  • pre-clinical and clinical cohorts for recruitment
  • multi-modal data analysis platform (DPUK Data Portal)
  • tools, templates and frameworks for streamlining study set up

Projects that will benefit from these resources are encouraged to make contact directly.

This funding opportunity will support high impact groupings that bring together the requisite knowledge, skills and infrastructure to address the challenge identified. Projects funded through this opportunity will work together, and with other relevant investments in the landscape, to share knowledge and best practice and to identify and exploit synergies.

Duration

Projects can be of duration of up to five years. You should justify the timescale of the project in the context of the proposed work.

Milestones

Milestones allow us to mitigate risk and support potentially high-risk projects.
Experimental medicine awards will typically have at least two milestones with specific success criteria that reflect major progress points and allow mechanistic hypotheses to be laid out and evaluated as the project progresses.

Your milestones should also provide a realistic indication of timelines for key steps, such as regulatory steps, study team recruitment, participant recruitment, study completion and data analysis.

Milestone success criteria should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely), and detail any robust go or no-go criteria. For all projects, it is advisable to structure the project so that the critical questions are addressed as early as possible in the plan.

Funding available

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £5 million. You should justify the resources needed in the context of the proposed work.

We will fund 80% of the full economic cost and 100% of permitted exceptions.

Find out more about full economic costing.

What we will fund

You can request funding for costs such as:

  • a contribution to the salary of the project lead and co-leads
  • support for other posts such as research and technical staff
  • research consumables
  • equipment
  • travel costs
  • data preservation, data sharing and dissemination costs
  • estates and indirect costs

You can also request costs for work to be undertaken at international organisations by international project co-leads. We will fund 100% of the eligible costs.

The total of such costs requested for international applicants from developed countries (those not on the OECD DAC List of ODA Recipients), India and China, must not exceed 30% of the total resources requested.

There is no cap on costs requested for international applicants from development assistance countries (DAC).

For more information on international costs and what we will and will not fund see costs we fund and the Collaborate with Researchers in Norway guidance.

What we will not fund

We will not fund:

  • research involving randomised trials of clinical treatments
  • costs for PhD studentships
  • publication costs
  • funding to use as a ‘bridge’ between grants

Team project partner

You may include team project partners that will support your research project through cash or in-kind contributions, such as:

  • staff time
  • access to equipment
  • sites or facilities
  • provision of data
  • software or materials
  • recruitment of people as research participants
  • providing samples, such as human tissue, for the project

Each project partner must provide a statement of support. Your application must involve industry partners and they must provide additional information if the team project partner falls within the industry collaboration framework.

Find out more about subcontractors and dual roles.

Who cannot be included as a team project partner

Any individual included in your application with a core team cannot also be a project partner.

Any organisation that employs a member of the application core team cannot be a project partner organisation. This includes other departments within the same organisation.

If you are collaborating with someone in your organisation, consider including them in the core team as project co-lead, or specialist. They cannot be a project partner.

Supporting skills and talent

We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.

Find further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.

How to apply

The expression of interest stage is mandatory. You must submit an expression of interest to MRC using the Expression of interest template (DOCX, 58 KB). You must then email your completed template to ExMedND@mrc.ukri.org

To manage demand, you may only submit one expression of interest as a project lead, however you may be involved as part of the research team on other applications. At the expression of interest stage, the research team does not need to be confirmed. Further team members will be allowed at the full application stage.

MRC must receive your expression of interest application by 22 January 2025 at 4:00pm UK time using the template provided. You will not be able to apply after this time.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.

Stage two: full application

Following completion of your expression of interest, you will be notified and invited to apply to the full application stage (stage two).

Full details on how to apply for stage two will be published when the full application funding opportunity opens on 10 January 2025.

Applications must include industry partners at the full application stage. If you are not able to finalise the industrial collaboration framework with your industry partner by this point, then you may submit your application to the MRC Experimental medicine stage one opportunity (closing date16 April 2025 at 4:00pm UK time).

We will run this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.

Personal data

Processing personal data

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 ExMedND@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.

If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.

How we will assess your application

Assessment process

Full details of how we will assess your application will be available when the full application stage launches on 10 January 2025.

Stage one: expression of interest

Information provided as part of the expression of interest will not be formally assessed.

We will use this information to:

  • check remit and fit to funding opportunity scope
  • anticipate expected submission levels
  • inform panel composition and membership and pre-approach peer reviewers

In the event of high demand for this funding opportunity, we reserve the right to introduce shortlisting at this stage.

Stage two: full application

We will assess your application using the following process.

Peer review

We will invite experts to review your application independently, against the specified criteria for this funding opportunity.

You will have 14 calendar days to respond to reviewers’ comments.

You will not be able to nominate reviewers for applications on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. Research councils will continue to select expert reviewers.

We are monitoring the requirement for applicant-nominated reviewers as we review policies and processes as part of the continued development of the new Funding Service.

Panel

Following peer review and applicant response, we will invite experts to collectively review your application against the criteria and rank it alongside other applications, after which the panel will make a funding recommendation.

MRC will make the final funding decision.

Find out more about MRC’s assessment process.

We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.

Feedback

We will notify of you of the outcome of your application within 10 working days of the panel meeting. We will give feedback on your application within eight weeks of the panel meeting.

Principles of assessment

We support the San Francisco declaration on research assessment and recognise the relationship between research assessment and research integrity.

Find out about the UKRI principles of assessment and decision making.

Using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in peer review

Reviewers and panellists are not permitted to use generative AI tools to develop their assessment. Using these tools can potentially compromise the confidentiality of the ideas that applicants have entrusted to UKRI to safeguard.

For more detail see our policy on the use of generative AI.

Assessment areas

The full criteria for assessment will be published when the full application funding opportunity opens.

Contact details

Get help with your application

If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page

IMPORTANT NOTE: The helpdesk is committed to helping users of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service as effectively and as quickly as possible. In order to manage cases at peak volume times, the helpdesk will triage and prioritise those queries with an imminent opportunity deadline or a technical issue. Enquiries raised where information is available on the Funding Finder opportunity page and should be understood early in the application process (for example, regarding eligibility or content/remit of an opportunity) will not constitute a priority case and will be addressed as soon as possible.

Contact details

For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

For questions related to this specific funding opportunity please contact ExMedND@mrc.ukri.org

Any queries regarding the system or the submission of applications through the Funding Service should be directed to the helpdesk.

Email: support@funding-service.ukri.org

Phone: 01793 547490

Our phone lines are open:

  • Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
  • Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

To help us process queries quicker, we request that users highlight the council and opportunity name in the subject title of their email query, include the application reference number, and refrain from contacting more than one mailbox at a time.

For further information on submitting an application read How applicants use the Funding Service.

Additional info

Background

Dementia is the biggest health challenge of our generation. One in three people born today will develop the disease. With 1.4 million people in the UK predicted to have dementia by 2040 and the current cost of £34.7 billion a year to the UK economy, there is a huge financial and societal impact, yet we are still without disease-modifying treatment.

There is significant opportunity to harness the UK’s strengths in:

  • discovery science
  • patient and population studies
  • data assets

These strengths, alongside advances in technology, analysis capabilities and biomarkers, have potential to deliver novel tools for experimental medicine that enable greater mechanistic understanding of disease processes.

Such findings will be critical for more efficient early-stage trials and improved prospects of success.

Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme

Improving translational capabilities in neurodegeneration and dementia was identified as a key healthcare challenge in the 2021 Life Science Vision.

On 14 August 2022, the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals Programme was launched. The programme aims to speed up the development of new treatments for dementia and neurodegenerative conditions. The programme works across the sector, with industry, academia, the NHS and other UK and global initiatives by developing innovations in biomarkers, data and digital sciences, and increasing the number and speed of clinical trials in dementia. 

Projects funded through this funding opportunity will work with the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme to support progress against its ambitions and to identify and exploit synergies across relevant investments in the landscape.

Support for applicants

You are strongly encouraged to engage with your organisation’s research governance office who will be able to offer guidance and support.

Guidance is available on the MRC Regulatory Support Centre, developed in collaboration with the Health Research Authority, for those conducting research with human participants, their tissues or data.

The vast majority of studies that involve human participants, their tissues or data, should undergo a research ethics committee (REC) review and many research studies may require an NHS REC opinion. The HRA decision tool can be used to determine whether your study requires this type of approval.

The Integrated Research Application System (IRAS) should be used when applying for NHS REC approval and for other regulatory approvals. IRAS is a single system for applying for the permissions and approvals for health and social or community care research in the UK.

Ethics and regulatory approval

We do not require ethics permissions and regulatory approvals to be in place when you submit an application. However, given that research involving human subjects or requiring the use of human tissue or organs may raise various ethical and regulatory issues, you will be required to demonstrate that you have adequately considered these matters.

Early discussions with regulatory bodies are advised to ensure that all requirements can be met in a timely manner. Once an application is successful, it is the responsibility of the host organisation to ensure that the appropriate ethics and regulatory approval has been obtained and that no research requiring such approval is initiated before it has been granted.

Resources

You may find the following organisations and resources useful when preparing an application.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research provides a clinical trials toolkit that gives practical advice to those planning or running clinical trials in the UK.

If you are considering a drug repurposing project you may wish to explore the Repurposing Medicines Toolkit, developed by Medical Research Council (MRC) and LifeArc.

Research and innovation impact

Impact can be defined as the long-term, intended or unintended, effect research and innovation has on society, economy and the environment, to individuals, organisations, and the wider global population.

Additional disability and accessibility adjustments

UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process if required.

Research disruption due to COVID-19

We recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major interruptions and disruptions across our communities. We are committed to ensuring that individual applicants and their wider team, including partners and networks, are not penalised for any disruption to their career, such as:

  • breaks and delays
  • disruptive working patterns and conditions
  • the loss of ongoing work
  • role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic

Reviewers and panel members will be advised to consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19 related disruption might have had on the capability to deliver and career development of those individuals included in the application. They will be asked to consider the capability of the applicant and their wider team to deliver the research they are proposing.

Where disruptions have occurred, you can highlight this within your application if you wish, but there is no requirement to detail the specific circumstances that caused the disruption.

Supporting documents

Expression of interest template (DOCX, 58 KB)

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