Funding opportunities
Find life science R&D funding opportunities and links to related support.
Featured opportunity
Research and partnership hubs for a healthy society – July 2025
Deadline 21 October 2025
Apply for funding to establish a large-scale multidisciplinary research hub drawing on expertise across the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (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.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for EPSRC funding.
Funding opportunities
Farming Futures R&D Fund: Precision Breeding Competition: UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £12.5 million for precision breeding of arable and horticultural crops. This funding is from the Farming Futures R&D Fund, a part of the Farming Innovation Programme. Closes 25 June 2025.
Defra Farming Innovation Investor Partnership: UK registered SMEs can apply for a share of up to £5 million to develop innovative farming solutions. This must align with private investment from selected investor partners. Closes 2 July 2025.
Accelerated Knowledge Transfer 4 (AKT4) Addiction: UK registered academic institutions, RTOs or Catapults can apply for a share of up to £2 million to fund innovation projects with businesses, not for profits or public sector organisations. Closes 2 July 2025.
Royal Society of Biology outreach engagement grants are open exclusively to applications for funding of up to £1,000 to run a citizen science project. Closes 6 July 2025.
UKRI Gap fund for early-stage development of new healthcare interventions: Apply for MRC funding to generate critical data that builds confidence in developing a new or repurposed medicine, medical device, diagnostic test, or other medical intervention. Closes 9 July 2025.
UKRI Pre-announcement: Engineer next generation veterinary vaccine technology platforms: A joint BBSRC-Defra programme aims to fund ‘plug and play’ veterinary vaccine platforms, leveraging transformative technologies, interdisciplinary approaches, and cross-sector partnerships, focusing on entire platform technology pipeline from antigen discovery to delivery and underpinned by immunological understanding to address unmet veterinary vaccine needs. Closes 16 September 2025.
UKRI: Experimental medicine stage one: Apply for MRC funding to investigate the causes, progression and treatment of human disease. This is an ongoing funding opportunity. Application rounds close every April and October.
UKRI: Developmental pathway funding scheme: stage one: Apply for MRC funding to develop and test novel therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics and other interventions. This is an ongoing funding opportunity. Application rounds close every March, July and November.
Wellcome Leap builds bold, unconventional programmes optimized to deliver breakthroughs in human health over 5 – 10 years, and funds them at scale.
NC3Rs partnerships and impact awards are designed to accelerate the adoption of existing 3Rs models, tools and technologies into routine practice. 2024 round is closed – look out for updates on 2025 round.
NIHR Research Support Service Hub
Supports researchers at any stage of their career to develop competitive funding applications for health, public health and social care research.