Molecular and Cellular Medicine Research

UKRI is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Our organisation brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England, which is responsible for supporting research and knowledge exchange at higher education institutions in England, and the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.

Apply for funding for research projects focused on molecular and cellular medicine.

You must:

• be based at a UK research organisation eligible for MRC funding, this includes MRC units and centres.
• have at least a postgraduate degree.

You can involve more than one research group or institution in the project. There is no limit to the funding you can apply for, but it should be appropriate to the project. We will usually fund up to 80% of your project’s full economic cost. Projects can last up to five years, but they typically last three to four years.

What we're looking for: The MRC’s Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board funds research into basic biological mechanisms or technologies relevant to human health and disease.

We aim to increase understanding of:

• the structure and function of molecules and complexes.
• the cellular environment during development and mature states.
• how biological systems respond to challenges (for example, drugs and toxins) and diseases.

We lead MRC’s investments in cancer, from fundamental discovery science to epidemiology, experimental medicine and early translation. Research focused on specific organ systems or diseases (with the exception of cancer and haematology) is normally supported through our other research boards.

Research we fund includes, but is not limited to, the following areas:

• cell biology.
• structural biology and biophysics. -molecular and functional genetics, epigenetics, genomics.
• developmental and stem cell biology (excluding neurobiology).
• regenerative medicine.
• molecular haematology.
• development of new tools and technologies relevant to MCMB remit, such as nanotechnology, chemical biology and synthetic biology.
• medical bioinformatics (including biostatistics, computational biology and systems biology) cancer.
• toxicology and adverse health effects of environmental exposures.
• pharmacology.

We encourage you to contact us first to discuss your application, especially if you believe your research may cross MRC research board or research council interests. If your application fits another research board remit better we may decide to transfer it there to be assessed.

MRC molecular and cellular medicine research grants:

• are suitable for focused short or long-term research projects.
• can support method development or development and continuation of research facilities.
• may involve more than one research group or institution.

We will fund projects lasting up to five years, although projects typically last three to four years. If your project will last more than three years, you must justify the reason for this. For example, if you need time for data collection or follow-up. If your project will last less than two years, it must be for proof of principle or pilot work only. We expect proof of principle proposals to support high-risk or high-reward research by critically testing a key hypothesis or demonstrating feasibility of an approach that could lead to fundamentally new avenues of research.

You can request funding for costs such as:

• a contribution to the salary of the principal investigator and co-investigators
• support for other posts such as research and technical
• research consumables
• equipment
• travel costs -data preservation, data sharing and dissemination costs
• estates and indirect costs.

The focus of this funding opportunity is molecular and cellular medicine research. There are similar opportunities across other areas of medical research within the MRC remit, including:

• population and systems medicine
• infections and immunity
• neurosciences and mental health.'

There are also other types of awards, including:

• programmes
• partnerships
• new investigator. You should contact us if you are not sure which opportunity to apply to.

Who can apply: Any UK-based researcher with an employment contract at an eligible research organisation can apply.

You will need to:

• have at least a postgraduate degree, although we usually expect most applicants to have a PhD or medical degree.
• show that you will direct the project and be actively engaged in the work.'

You can include one or more industry partners as project partners in your application. International co-investigators can be included if they provide expertise not available in the UK.

We will not fund:

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