Funding opportunities

The main goal of this funding opportunity is to improve adult diagnosis of type 1 diabetes (T1D), with special emphasis on the early stages of the disease.

They encourage research proposals that address one or more of the following areas, including but not limited to:

• Immune Activation and Autoimmunity
• Islet Pathology and Beta Cell Function
• Autoantibodies and Biomarker Validation
• Accuracy in Misdiagnosis and Diagnostic Tools
• Epidemiology Studies

This request for application (RFA) will award grants to non-profit and for-profit entities such as academic institutions and industry partners of up to $900,000.00 each and up to 3 years.

The main goal of this funding opportunity is to enhance genetic risk assessment for type 1 diabetes (T1D), with a focus on improving prediction across ancestral backgrounds and advancing genetic risk scores (GRS) to support future use in real-world screening, and the detection and prevention of T1D.

This Request for Applications (RFA) will award grants to non-profit and for-profit entities such as academic institutions and industry partners of up to $900,000.00 each and up to 3 years.

The Early Career Patient-Oriented Diabetes Research Award is intended for clinical researchers at a relatively early stage of their independent career. Clinical researchers who have received their first faculty-level appointment less than 5 years before the submission date are eligible to apply for this award. Applicants must have an MD or MD-PhD or PsyD, hold an appointment or joint appointment in a subspecialty of clinical medicine in a clinical department, and conduct human clinical research. In exceptional circumstances, non-MD candidates will be considered if their work is likely to contribute significantly to a clinical outcome. 

For the purposes of this award, clinical research is defined as research conducted with human subjects for which the investigator directly interacts with the subjects.

Breakthrough T1D fosters the development and productivity of the best and the brightest established independent researchers who will bridge the gap between the bench and bedside. The primary purpose of the Career Development Award is to attract qualified and promising scientists early in their faculty careers and to give them the opportunity to establish themselves in areas that reflect the Breakthrough T1D research emphasis areas.

In the five-year term of the award, awardees will focus their research efforts on a subject directly related to Breakthrough T1D mission goals and Breakthrough T1D Research Strategy, and position themselves to work at the leading edge of type 1 diabetes research. These awards are designed to assist exceptionally promising investigators. Although Breakthrough T1D is especially interested in fostering careers in clinical investigation, Career Development Awards may emphasize either basic or clinical topics.

The Advanced Postdoctoral Fellowship program is designed to attract qualified and promising health scientists, to provide an opportunity to receive full-time research training, and to assist these promising individuals in transitioning from a fellowship to an independent (faculty-level) position. Breakthrough T1D envisions the 3-year award term as a period in which fellows will receive critical research training that will position them to work at the leading edge of their chosen field. An additional, optional 1-year transition award will further assist fellows to proceed to independent faculty or research appointments and will serve as a bridge between the fellowship and independent competitive research funding. During the fellowship phase, the applicant is required to work with a sponsor who can provide a training environment conducive to beginning a career in diabetes-relevant research. At the time of activating the award, the applicant must have a doctoral degree (PhD, MD, DMD, DVM, or equivalent) from an accredited institution and must not be simultaneously serving an internship or residency.

Postdoctoral fellowships from Breakthrough T1D are designed to attract qualified, promising scientists entering their professional career in the T1D research field. The applicant is required to work with a sponsor who can provide a training environment conducive to beginning a career in type 1 diabetes-relevant research. At the time of activating the award, the applicant must have a doctoral degree (PhD, MD, DMD, DVM), or the equivalent from an accredited institution and must not be simultaneously serving an internship or residency.

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.

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project will be up to £4 million. BBSRC will fund 80% of the FEC with a maximum of £3.2 million per project over a maximum of five years.

The duration of this award is maximum of five years.

Funded consortia should:

• foster cross-sector partnerships that bring together a range of expertise and disciplines, adopting multi-disciplinary working
• encompass disciplines not traditionally involved in veterinary sciences to facilitate novel thinking
• focus on veterinary vaccine technology platforms that can have broad applicability and are not only focused on tackling one disease or a single pathogen
• focus on any pathogens and AMR effecting animal health
• improve the health of any livestock or aquaculture relevant species

Projects must be led by UK research organisations eligible for BBSRC funding.

The funding opportunity will open on 11 June 2025.

The BSI and International Veterinary Vaccinology Network are co-hosting an in person workshop on 24 June to support the development of applications to this call.  Find out more and register your interest here. 

Round 11 of BactiVac Network catalyst funding for pump priming projects is now OPEN. Funding is available to support collaborations between Network members in bacterial vaccinology to explore new approaches and strategies to advance their vaccines in partnership with LMICs and industry, and acquire the data to support substantive funding applications. BactiVac aims to fund a diversified portfolio of projects to catalyse research in bacterial vaccinology.

The catalyst funds are flexible, typically up to £70,000 GBP and aim to provide deliverables within six months post-award. Projects are required to align to one of the following: 

• Focus on pathogens with outbreak potential
• Tackle the global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) challenge

Submission deadline for applications is 15 June 2025 (23.59 hours UK time).

For more details and regular updates, please follow BactiVac on X (Twitter) @BactiVac using the hashtag #BactiVacFunding. You can also download BactiVac Catalyst Funding flyer to circulate and/or display within your organisation. For all queries, please email: bactivac@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Applications open on 3 February 2025

Funding to support ambitious research and innovation across UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s remit.

You must be an early career researcher or innovator who is either:

• looking to establish or transition to independence
• developing their own original and ambitious plans within a commercial setting

This funding opportunity aims to:

• develop, retain, attract and sustain research and innovation talent in the UK
• foster new research and innovation career paths including those at the academic, business and interdisciplinary boundaries, and facilitate movement of people between sectors
• provide sustained funding and resources for the best early career researchers and innovators
• provide long-term, flexible funding to tackle difficult and novel challenges, and support adventurous, ambitious programmes

You must be based at, and have the support of, an eligible academic or non-academic institution eligible for UKRI funding.

There is no minimum or maximum project cost. UKRI will fund 80% of the full economic cost (FEC).

Your project can last for up to four years, with the option to apply to renew for a further three years.

Postdoctoral career development fellowships provide an opportunity for exceptional postdoctoral clinicians to consolidate their research experience.

Postdoctoral clinicians may apply for Crick funding to spend one year full-time or two years part-time working in a Crick research group, on a project agreed between the fellow and the Crick group leader.

This scheme aims to:

• Foster long-term clinical links and collaborations.
• Provide clinicians with a postdoctoral extension of their research experience, and with scientific networking, training and career development opportunities.
• Provide a platform from which fellows may apply for external funding, e.g. clinician scientist fellowships, to be held at the Crick or elsewhere.

Fellows at the Crick will be embedded in a vibrant multidisciplinary research community of more than 1000 scientists carrying out research to improve our understanding of health and disease. 

This opportunity would suit talented and motivated postdoctoral clinicians who are passionate about research and show outstanding potential for continuing a career in academic medicine and research. Applicants should have completed a medical degree, or equivalent clinical professional qualification, and hold, or be about to hold, a research PhD. 

The application submission window for Crick fully funded fellowships (route 1) is open from early March 2025 to end of April 2025. 

Applications from fellows with funding for their own salary support (route 2) are welcome all year round.