Medical Research Council Call for Applications: Partnership Grant – Applicant-Led

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is calling for Application for its Partnership Grant- Applicant Led to support exciting and ambitious partnerships in the remit of MRC.

Scope:

MRC is looking to fund exciting and ambitious partnerships between a team of researchers carrying out novel collaborative activities or capabilities that add value to high-quality research activities. These can be already supported by existing funding or will underpin future funding within the remit of the Medical Research Council (MRC).

Team-science approaches and multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary partnerships are wellcomed. You will need to demonstrate that you and your team have the right expertise and experience to deliver the activities. Additionally, details of the support for people and teams should be embedded in the design of your proposal, recognising the importance of supporting staff and the environment they work in.

MRC funds partnerships working to transform our understanding of human health and causes and mechanisms of disease, to accelerate diagnosis, advance treatment and prevent human illness.

Collaborative activities and capabilities can include:

• networking and partnership activities: establishing multidisciplinary collaborative partnerships or consortia, fostering or enabling a national or international strategy in an area, enabling knowledge sharing or creation across organisations
• infrastructure support for establishing a unique shared resource or helping to exploit it, for example, staff, systems, equipment, seminars and workshops. This could include networking activities, including outreach work and travel, with a defined output
• platform activities such as specialist data and software platforms or resources
• training, career development and capacity building in an area of unmet need to support the future delivery of high-value research capabilities
• funds to support small scale, pump-priming projects may be included, but specific research questions should not be the focus of the partnership. Any research projects should be interdisciplinary, high risk or gain projects which will demonstrate the novel capability of a new partnership

This list is not exhaustive. The activity or activities proposed should support the overarching objective of the partnership.

Eligibility: 

•  Only researchers at UK Entities can lead.
• Project co-leads (international) make a major intellectual contribution to the design or conduct of the project. Their contribution and added value to the research should be clearly explained and justified in the application.

Duration:

• Partnerships lasting up to five years.
• Projects should start between nine to 18 months after you submit your application.
• Sustainability of the partnership beyond the end of the grant should be considered within the proposal. It is only in exceptional circumstances that we would consider requests for renewals or follow-on activities.

Funding available: 

• There is no limit to the funding you can apply for.
• Funding costs can include:
  • contributing to academic leadership of the partnership
  • support for technical staff
  • consumables
  • equipment or infrastructure that is key to the aims of the partnership or provides a platform for activities associated with the partnership
  • travel costs
  • data preservation, data sharing and dissemination costs
  • estates and indirect costs
  • public partnerships and related activities, including payments to public contributors

Read more here. 

Deadline:

• No closing date
• Applications are accepted and processed continuously, so there is no need to focus on a specific deadline.