Funding opportunities

Find life sciences 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

Longitudinal Prize on ALS: The £7.5 millionPrize incentivises the use of AI-based approaches to transform drug discovery for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common form of motor neurone disease (MND). Closes 3 December 2025.

BHF Translational Awards: to progress the development of novel, innovative technologies towards benefits to human cardiovascular health. No limit on the amount of funding, projects usually last for up to 3 years. Preliminary application deadlines 4 February 2026, 5 August 2026.

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.

UKRI: Industrial Partnership Awards: Academic-led research with significant industrial involvement and where an industry partner contributes cash at least equivalent to 10% of the full economic costs of the project.

UKRI: Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs): mechanism to transfer knowledge and to develop graduate and postgraduate personnel for industrial careers. Each partnership, lasting between 1 – 3 years, employs one or more high-calibre KTP Associates (early-career researchers) to work on an innovative project within industry. The KTP programme runs continuously throughout the year.

Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF): UK registered businesses can apply for funding for life science manufacturing capital investment projects (with a total cost of at least £8 million) which help increase UK health resilience. The LSIMF will be UK and sector wide and will provide capital grants for investments in the manufacture of human medicines, medical diagnostics and medtech products. The fund will remain open until all the funding has been allocated. Closes 31 March 2030.

BHF Clinical Study Grants: supports funding for over £500,000 for: Interventional clinical trials, Observational studies of specific patient groups, clinical studies. Grant duration is typically 5 years.

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.