Funding Directory

A funding model supported by the Vanguard Initiative, which is a collaborative programme supporting industrial modernisation and innovation through industry-led and cross-regional cooperation.

Fellowships are available for European and Japanese researchers from any discipline to carry out a research visit in either Japan or Europe, respectively.

The Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme seeks to fund high-quality, well-designed research that addresses the needs of NHS and social care leaders. Projects will be conducted by efficient and capable research teams. This is a two-stage, researcher-led funding opportunity. Applicants submit an outline application first; invited candidates then complete a full application at stage two.

The Royal Society Faraday Discovery Fellowships offer up to £8 million over 10 years to support mid-career research leaders in science, engineering, or mathematics. Aimed at building world-class UK teams, the fellowships fund salaries, research, and staff. Projects must pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven research with transformative potential, across any discipline.

The CRUK research funding programme awards a wide range of fellowships and grants to support researchers, across all career stages, conducting clinical, pre-clinical, discovery and translational research to advance the detection, diagnosis, treatment, and potential cure, of all forms of cancer.

What is the feasibility, acceptability, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of newborn screening for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)? An appropriately designed study to allow the evaluation of the addition of SMA screening to the newborn blood spot screening programme.

Funding for investigator-led research proposals that meet the remit and mission of the BBSRC, including research projects, new facilities or infrastructure provision, pilot projects, proof of concept studies, equipment purchase and research networks.

What is the clinical and cost-effectiveness of screening for asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) in pregnancy? A retrospective study assessing the impact of early pregnancy ASB screening. Applicants should include an internal pilot to confirm data collection feasibility and ensure study completion.

The Professor Michael Nicholson Awards programme, funded by Kidney Research UK and the Stoneygate Trust, supports UK-based researchers in advancing kidney transplant science. Aiming to improve transplant longevity, increase kidney availability, and develop machine perfusion techniques, the programme fosters innovation and leadership in the field. Now in its third year, it offers research project grants, start-up grants for new hypotheses, senior non-clinical fellowships, transplant surgeon PhD fellowships, and PhD studentships focused on kidney transplantation.

Grants available for researchers wishing to undertake fieldwork abroad in life sciences.

This scheme provides funding for early-career researchers from any discipline who are ready to develop their research identity. Through innovative projects, they will deliver shifts in understanding related to human life, health and wellbeing. By the end of the award, they will be ready to lead their own independent research programme.

The BAPRAS Pump Priming Funds offer up to £20,000 to support UK-based plastic surgeons and trainees in early-stage clinical or laboratory research. Aimed at generating preliminary data or feasibility work, the scheme includes two streams—for clinical trials and lab consumables—and prioritises early-career researchers and new, unstarted projects.

The Anticancer Fund is requesting proposals for projects involving secondary data analysis of data from clinical cancer trials to address new research questions that are beyond the original study objectives. Proposals should focus on research questions aligned with the Anticancer Fund's overall mission: to innovate with existing therapeutic tools to improve survival outcomes.

The ZOLL Foundation is a US-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation that was established in 2013 by the ZOLL Medical Corporation. The Foundation provides seed grants for young researchers around the world to support medical research that saves lives. Its scope encompasses a wide range of areas including, but not limited to, emergency medicine, critical care, trauma, cardiovascular health, pulmonary health, neuroscience, and translational research focused on applying discoveries to enhance training and delivery in clinical practice.

The BAPRAS Clinical Trials Pump Priming Fund provides up to £20,000 to consultant plastic surgeons for early feasibility studies that support future large-scale clinical trials. Only one BAPRAS funding application is allowed per round.

This scheme offers funding to early-career researchers from any field who are prepared to establish their research identity. Through pioneering projects, they will contribute new insights into human life, health, and wellbeing. By the end of the award period, recipients will be equipped to lead their own independent research programmes.

The MRC offers experimental medicine grants for academically-led human intervention studies addressing key gaps in disease understanding. Projects aim to generate mechanistic insights to enable new therapies or diagnostics. All disease areas qualify if the intervention is safe and hypothesis-driven. Applications must show clinical value, strong rationale, and clear milestones.

Fondation Maladies Rares, in collaboration with the Wolfram Syndrome Association, invites proposals for research into Wolfram syndrome—a rare genetic disorder. The call supports innovative basic, translational, or clinical research across biomedical disciplines, aiming to improve understanding, diagnosis, management, or treatment of the disease to enhance patient outcomes.

The EPSRC supports health technology researchers through placements in diverse environments to build skills and collaborations. Funding covers pilot projects, cross-disciplinary research, and skills development focused on improving health, early diagnosis, and new interventions. Placements can last up to 36 months, with flexible arrangements across institutions or industry.

Funding to support investigator-initiated studies and education projects, on molecular profiling in oncology and reproductive health, with the aim of increasing high quality molecular profiling for health care providers serving cancer patients and improving clinical outcomes.

Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS is a global network supporting early-stage life sciences startups in MedTech, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare solutions through funding, incubation, expertise, and industry connections across 11 sites. Their QuickFire Challenge crowdsources innovative solutions worldwide. The current challenge, Unlocking Urologic Oncology, seeks next-generation treatments for genitourinary cancers, specifically bladder and prostate cancer. Innovators can apply for funding, mentorship, and support through JLABS’ global incubator network to advance their solutions.

This funding call is focused on advancing beta-cell replacement therapies for Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) by tackling key challenges such as developing renewable cell sources, standardising manufacturing processes, improving graft survival and immune tolerance, and creating reliable monitoring and AI-based predictive tools. It seeks to establish regulatory-compliant standards, optimise preclinical and clinical development, define patient-centred outcomes using real-world evidence, explore reimbursement models, and integrate these therapies into diabetes care through collaborative European networks and specialised training. The call emphasises sustainability, regulatory engagement, ethical considerations, and collaboration with existing European projects to accelerate the development of safe, effective, and accessible beta-cell treatments.

The Pathfinder Challenge funds early-stage research to develop GenAI autonomous agents aiding clinicians in holistic cancer care. Using advanced AI, including geometric deep learning and graph neural networks, these agents aim to enhance diagnosis, reduce errors, and personalise treatment. Projects focus on breast, cervical, ovarian, prostate, lung, brain, stomach, or colorectal cancers.

This funding call aims to improve how brain-related disorders are diagnosed and how patients are grouped for treatment by focusing on the biological causes of symptoms rather than traditional classification systems. It supports using an existing data platform to bring together and analyse different types of patient information using advanced computer techniques like AI. The results will be tested in clinical studies and the data platform will be made available for future research. The call also stresses working closely with people who have experience of these conditions, healthcare workers, regulators, and others to prepare the healthcare system for these changes. It highlights the importance of fairness, including making sure data is representative, reducing bias, and involving all relevant groups.

The Childhood Cancer Therapeutic Catalyst programme accelerates early-stage therapeutic development for childhood and young people’s cancers. It funds target validation, novel drug approaches, platform and assay development, and drug discovery feasibility.

Prostate Cancer UK, a leading charity, funds bold, innovative UK research to improve prostate cancer diagnosis, treatment, and care. Its 10-year strategy prioritises better diagnosis, treatment, and data use. Research Innovation Awards support clinical and fundamental projects (1–5 years), including pilots, encouraging multidisciplinary, international collaboration and cross-disease ideas.

This funding supports translational research developing innovative, commercially viable technologies for arthritis care. It seeks advanced Proof of Concept projects needing validation of technical, market, or commercial potential to attract industry investment. Focus areas include medical devices, diagnostics, cell therapy, regenerative medicine, and novel therapeutics.

Fight Kids Cancer (FKC) is a European initiative supporting innovative research and clinical trials to improve treatment, survival, and quality of life for children with cancer. The 2025/26 call focuses on paediatric bone and soft tissue sarcomas, aiming to fund impactful, less toxic therapies through collaborative pan-European research.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is providing funding to establish a large-scale multidisciplinary research hub drawing on expertise across the EPSRC and health research community to support people to live healthier lives and prevent ill health. Proposals should address long term research challenges in the priority area(s) of prevention, early diagnosis and self-management of health.

Research and Partnership Hubs for a Healthy Society will establish large, multidisciplinary hubs that harness engineering and physical sciences to build strategic research capacity in healthcare technologies. The aim is to support healthier lives through advances in prevention, early diagnosis, and self-management of health.

Founded in 1971, COST is an intergovernmental framework supporting European scientific cooperation by funding networking activities, not research. COST Actions are four-year interdisciplinary networks open to researchers from academia, SMEs, and public bodies across all science fields. Proposals must involve at least seven member countries and promote inclusivity and interdisciplinarity.

The WCRF Regular Grant Programme supports innovative research on how diet, nutrition, body composition, and physical activity influence cancer prevention and survivorship. Applicants must be senior researchers with a PhD, based at eligible institutions outside the Americas, focusing on investigator-initiated or pilot feasibility studies.

World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) International funds innovative research on cancer prevention, treatment, and survivorship. Through the INSPIRE Research Challenge, it supports early-career investigators exploring modifiable factors like diet, activity, environment, stress, sleep, and immunity, aiming to advance understanding and reduce cancer risk through impactful lifestyle-related discoveries.

The Wellcome Mental Health Award: Transforming Early Intervention funds research on scalable interventions for young people with anxiety, depression, or psychosis. It offers a £200,000 Foundation Phase (12 months) to develop proposals, followed by a £5–8 million Impact Phase (up to five years) to implement and evaluate effective, feasible, and sustainable projects.

The MRC’s Developmental Pathway Gap Fund (DPGF) supports early-stage, high-risk translational projects for new or repurposed medical interventions. It bridges initial ideas and larger funding by generating key data to de-risk development. Projects must focus on a single critical step and aim to address any human disease, globally or in the UK.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) supports pilot studies exploring the biological and genetic causes of cancer health disparities. Funding is available for mechanistic research, new models and methods, and secondary data analysis. The NOFO also aims to build a national network of researchers in this field and expand key resources like biospecimens and patient-derived models. Early-stage projects that lay the groundwork for future in-depth studies are encouraged.

HTA call 2025/367 invites proposals to evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of an intervention training older adults to stand up after a fall, compared to usual care. Falls often lead to long-lies, causing serious health impacts and high NHS costs. The study aims to improve outcomes and reduce healthcare burden.

HTA call 2025/318 invites proposals to evaluate the social and mental wellbeing benefits of intergenerational practices in care homes and schools. With rising loneliness in both older adults and young people, this study aims to assess how structured, intergenerational group activities impact mental health, reduce isolation, and improve caregiver outcomes.

The NIHR Public Health Research Programme invites applications to develop dynamic models assessing public policies on e-cigarette and tobacco use. Research should evaluate effects of pricing, regulation, marketing, and quitting support on different populations and health inequalities. Economic evaluation, stakeholder involvement, and knowledge mobilisation are essential.

Sigma Theta Tau International Honour Society of Nursing - known as Sigma - is an international representative body for nurses and nursing. Its mission is to advance world health and celebrate nursing excellence in scholarship, leadership and service, and to respond to trends and issues in nursing and healthcare. The Sigma/Council for Advancement of Nursing Science (CANS) grant encourages qualified nurses to improve global health through research. Proposals for clinical, educational or historical research, including plans for broadly disseminating the research findings, may be submitted for the grant.

This NIHR Public Health Research funding call is seeking a single UK-based research consortium to explore how local climate change adaptation efforts affect health and health inequalities. With up to £2.5 million available over 3–5 years, the funded work will evaluate local government-led interventions (excluding health sector-specific actions) and generate evidence, best-practice recommendations, and real-world solutions. The goal is to support effective, inclusive climate adaptation that addresses the wider determinants of health and reduces health disparities.

The NIHR is funding a multicentre cluster randomised trial (£1,996,829; Jan 2024–May 2027) to evaluate a primary care training and support programme for the secondary prevention of domestic violence and abuse. The study will assess the intervention’s effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, providing robust evidence to inform responses to serious violence.

PHR Call 2025/340 invites a single research consortium to conduct a 3–5 year programme evaluating the impact of local climate change adaptation on health and health inequalities. Backed by NIHR’s focus on climate, health, and sustainability, the research will assess how local and regional government actions to adapt to climate risks affect population health, particularly in vulnerable communities. The programme should generate real-world, scalable solutions and best-practice recommendations to support equitable local adaptation. Multidisciplinary UK-based consortia can apply for up to £2.5 million, with a two-stage application process via NIHR’s online system.

The NIHR Public Health Research (PHR) Rapid Funding Scheme supports urgent, small-scale baseline data collection or feasibility studies for non-NHS public health interventions. Aimed at time-sensitive opportunities like natural experiments, projects must demonstrate urgency, align with PHR goals, and lead to a full evaluation proposal with potential to inform public health policy.

The NIHR HTA Call 2025/375 invites proposals evaluating the clinical and cost-effectiveness of ambulance service led interventions, including those delivered by air ambulance teams. Interventions should be managed by professionals such as paramedics or urgent care clinicians, with applications encouraged across a wide range of urgent, emergency, and critical care settings.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) supports discrete, well-defined projects in any area of cancer research using the National Institutes of Health R03 small grant mechanism. The National Institutes of Health R03 small grant mechanism supports discrete, well-defined projects that realistically can be completed in two years and that require limited levels of funding. Examples of the types of projects that the R03 grant mechanism include, but are not limited to, the following:  Pilot or feasibility studies.Secondary analysis of existing data.Small, self-contained research projects.Development of research methodology.Development of new research technology.

The Dame Josephine Barnes Bursary from POGP supports educational and research efforts in pelvic, obstetric, and gynaecological physiotherapy. It can fund courses, international travel to promote women’s health, or serve as seed funding for Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) in research. Open to UK-based applicants and international initiatives.

Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test (Earlier.org) is a US-based non-profit organisation, established in 1995, that is dedicated exclusively to funding research focused on developing innovative methods for the earlier detection of breast cancer. Its mission is to support the creation of a biological test capable of identifying breast cancer at its earliest stages, potentially even before a tumour has formed. Earlier.org provides funding to support pilot projects that explore new techniques for early breast cancer detection. Grants are intended to provide preliminary data that can lead to more substantial peer-reviewed funding.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) invites mechanistic research that aims to understand how and why expectancy effects occur in a cancer context, elucidate their role in cancer symptom management, and identify patients, symptoms, cancer sites and contexts in which expectancy effects can be leveraged to improve cancer outcomes. Expectancies are defined in this context as beliefs about future outcomes, including one's response to cancer or cancer treatment. Expectancies can be evoked by social, psychological, environmental and systemic factors. Expectancy effects are the cognitive, behavioural and biological outcomes caused by expectancies. Expectancy effects can be generated by expectancies held by patients, clinicians, family members, caregivers and/or dyadic/social networks.

The Oxford–Harrington Rare Disease Scholar Award supports UK-based researchers advancing rare disease discoveries towards clinical impact. Scholars receive £100,000, tailored drug development expertise, and project support. Offered by the Oxford–Harrington Rare Disease Centre, the award also provides access to further funding while allowing researchers to retain full intellectual property rights.

The NIHR Work and Health Research Awards fund large, cross-disciplinary projects tackling key issues like long-term conditions, disability, sickness absence, COVID-19 impact, workforce mental health, and health inequalities. Aimed at improving employment and health outcomes, proposals should involve cross-sector teams, support implementation in systems like ICSs, and deliver public benefit.

This NIHR funding supports research into community-based interventions to improve veterans’ mental and physical health. It should address challenges of transition, stigma, and access through population-level approaches such as housing, employment, and coordinated care. Robust outcomes, economic evaluation, and stakeholder engagement are essential to inform policy and enhance holistic care.

This NIHR Public Health Research call invites proposals evaluating public mental health interventions to promote wellbeing or prevent mental ill-health in men. It emphasises a life‑course approach, targets health inequalities, encourages community‑level initiatives, and demands economic evaluation and involvement of people with lived experience.

This funding opportunity supports developing data and metadata standards for wearable technology to improve mental health research. Recipients will collaborate with manufacturers, researchers, and ethics experts to enable data integration, like DICOM for imaging. Funding depends on NIH budgets; projects may last up to four years with no budget cap.

Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is inviting research projects that implement early phase (Phase 0, I and II) investigator-initiated clinical trials focused on cancer-targeted diagnostic and therapeutic interventions of direct relevance to the research mission of NCI's Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD) and Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancies (OHAM).  The proposed project must involve at least one clinical trial related to the scientific interests of one or more of the following research programs: Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, Cancer Imaging Program, Cancer Diagnosis Program, Radiation Research Program, Complementary and Alternative Medicine Program, and/or the HIV and AIDS Malignancies Research Programs. 

This funding opportunity supports clinical trials of orphan products (phases 1–3) for rare diseases with unmet medical needs. It aims to evaluate safety and/or efficacy to support new indications or labeling changes, ultimately increasing approved treatments and advancing innovative, collaborative approaches in rare disease drug development.