The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) 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 funding 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:
- use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
- insert each new image onto a new line
- provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
- files must be smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
Watch our research office webinars about the new Funding Service.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
References
Applications should be self-contained, and hyperlinks should only be used to provide links directly to reference information. To ensure the information’s integrity is maintained, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers should be used. Assessors are not required to access links to carry out assessment or recommend a funding decision. Applicants should use their discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.
References should be included in the appropriate question section of the application and be easily identifiable by the assessors for example (Smith, Research Paper, 2019).
You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.
Deadline
We must receive your application by 2 October 2024 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
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.
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
If your application relates to the Artificial intelligence, engineering biology and quantum technologies highlight notice, you should also refer to this and the critical technology in your summary.
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.
Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.
Application questions
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 application
Enter ‘N/A’ into the text box if this is your first time applying to experimental medicine stage one for your proposed research. You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
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 field(s) or area(s)
- 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: 1,650
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 visualise your project plan, you must also provide an embedded legible Gantt chart to support your response that should include:
- project tasks (these being short, achievable and measurable activities) with, where relevant, the party responsible for delivering the task and dependency relationships between tasks
- at least two progression milestones (to include the project end goal), these being major specifically-timed decision points
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
- the statistical analysis plan, providing sufficient details for the replication of any sample size calculations; and consideration of potential sources of biases and the strategies that will be adopted to minimise their effects
- 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
- the specific population groups in relation to their diversity characteristics and the proposed analysis, following the MRC embedding diversity in research design policy
- target and acceptable levels of participant recruitment across the project timeline
- evidence of recruitment feasibility
- the human 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. If you are not proposing to do this, a strong justification is required
- 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 controlled
- 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 550 words
- methodology and experimental design 550 words
- risk management 330 words
- infrastructure and equipment 220 words
References may be included throughout the approach section. You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
References may be included within this section.
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
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.
UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new Funding Service.
For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.
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 third party organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities.
Important note: If your application includes industry project partners, you will also need to complete the Industry Collaboration Framework (ICF) section during the stage two application. Find out more about ICF.
You must ensure that any third party individual or organisation you include within the Funding Service as a project partner, also provides you with a supporting email or letter of support (see next section ‘Project partners: letters or emails of support’).
The individual named as the project partner contact, cannot be included in your application as a member of the core team, in any core team role.
The project partner organisation cannot be an applicant organisation, where any member of the core team is based. For example, you cannot include a different department based within the applicant organisation as a project partner.
If an individual or organisation outside the core team is responsible for recruitment of people as research participants or providing human tissue for this project, list them as a project partner.
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 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.
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.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
Project partners: letters (or emails) of support
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
Enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box, or if you do not have any project partners enter ‘N/A’.
What supporting statements we are looking for
Important note: We are only looking for you to provide project partner letters or emails of support from the following:
- a third party individual
- a third party organisation
Third party means the individual and organisation must not be involved in the application core team. You must ensure that any project partners providing a supporting document, are also added to the ‘project partners’ section within the Funding Service.
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.
What supporting statements we are not looking for
We are not looking for you to provide any letters or emails of support from individuals or organisations included in your application core team (this includes other departments within the same organisation). Any individual or organisation included in your application with a core team role cannot also be a project partner.
Do not include any other statements or any other type of information we have not requested, including letter or emails of support from colleagues simply expressing supportive opinions. We only expect letters or emails of support from your third party project partners uploaded to this section.
If you include any information not requested by MRC, your application will be rejected.
Supporting document guidance for third party project partners
Each project partner supporting letter or email you provide, should:
- be no more than two A4 pages
- confirm the partner’s commitment to the project
- clearly explain the value, relevance, and possible benefits of the work to them
- describe any additional value that they bring to the project
- include the name of the project partner organisation and contact information (this should match the partner contact and organisation name details you must add to the ‘Project partners’ section)
Project partners letters and emails of support are not required to be on headed paper or include handwritten signatures (electronic signatures are acceptable from the nominated partner contact).
Project partner responsibility for the recruitment of people
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)
Multiple project partners
If you have multiple project partners, you should:
- ensure each separate letter or email of support, does not exceed two pages of A4
- consolidate all the supporting documents provided by each project partner into a single PDF file before uploading
- ensure the PDF does not exceed the maximum file size of 8MB
For the file name, use the unique Funding Service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Project partner’.
Outline costs
Provide costs that reflect, as accurately as possible, the funding you will need.
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.
