Pre-announcement – Restricted Call: MRC Centre of Research Excellence funding opportunity – round 3 (indicative internal deadline: mid November 2024)
Full details for this funding opportunity are not yet available. The call is expected to open on 09 October 2024. This notification is to bring the scheme to the attention of schools and departments so that early planning and discussions can start taking place. Internal selection deadlines and requirements, as well as any updates to this information, will be circulated once the call opens in October.
The MRC have issued a pre-announcement of round 3 of their Centre of Research Excellence (MRC CoRE) opportunity to enable UK research organisations to tackle complex and interdisciplinary health challenges.
For round three the MRC invites outline applications to address challenges across any part of MRC remit, including discovery, understanding mechanism, and development of concepts or interventions for prevention or treatment. Competitive outline applications will propose bold and ambitious research focused on a specific and defined challenge with the potential to prove transformative to biomedical research, health research or both within 14 years. An MRC CoRE should be outward facing, harnessing the best talent in the UK to deliver upon their proposed vision and providing a stimulating environment to train the next generation of researchers and technologists.
Applications can be from a single research organisation or in partnership across multiple organisations and may include project partners. International co-investigators can be included if they provide expertise that is not available in the UK.
MRC CoRE awards provide support for up to 14 years The initial duration of an award is 7 years with review in year six to approve release of the second period of funding. The full economic cost (FEC) of a project for the first seven years can be up to £26.25 million and would be funded at 80% FEC (with identified exceptions funded at 100%). The maximum MRC contribution for the first seven years is £21m.
A proposal will require clearly defined institutional support, including: provision and maintenance of lab space, access to existing facilities, HR services, and underpinning of key staff positions.
University Internal selection:
An institution may lead one application in round 3. Therefore, this call will be managed according to the University’s restricted calls policy and full details of the internal selection process will be circulated once the call opens.
It is likely that the panel will assess internal applications against the following criteria, but this will be confirmed/amended as needed once the call opens:
(i) Importance of and approach to the challenge – including research approach, translation and knowledge transfer
(ii) Capability to deliver – including leadership team and partnerships & collaborations
(iii) MRC CoRE environment – including training, careers and capacity building
Please note that applications from existing MRC units may be submitted in addition, and do not count towards the one lead application per organisation limit. Such applications therefore do not need to be submitted to the internal selection process.
Funder timelines:
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk
Posted on 13/08/2024
