New £12million Medical Research Council funding scheme launched – Clinical Academic Research Partnership
The Clinical Academic Research Partnership scheme is aimed at consultants with a PhD or MD (or equivalent higher research degree), who are not currently research active, to participate in collaborative high-quality research partnerships with established leading biomedical researchers.
This is a new flexible route for research-qualified consultants to increase their research skills and experience by engaging with groups and centres of biomedical research excellence, enabling the cross-seeding of perspectives, ideas and connections needed to underpin future translational biomedical research.
Projects
Projects are welcome across all areas of the partnering funders’ (MRC, NIHR, Wellcome, CRUK, BHF etc) remits and interests and are open to clinicians in any specialty, including dentistry. Applications may range from basic discovery science to translational and developmental clinical research, and may address research questions from disease-specific mechanistic hypotheses through to research in priority areas such as population health, public health and molecular pathology.
Applications addressing global health issues resulting in primary benefit to those living in low and middle income countries, or those proposing interdisciplinary approaches are also welcomed. The proposed project should be tailored to the interests and expertise of the applicant and research partner, and designed to provide a mutually beneficial collaboration for both parties.
How to apply
- Most importantly, you must have a research question or idea to improve patient care.
- You should contact your senior clinical management team in the first instance.
- Then contact your research manager*, with your CV. They will help connect high-calibre clinicians with strong research pasts, with potentially interested research groups at The University of Manchester (who will be the host) to prepare an application.
Funding
Awards will be a minimum of one year and maximum of three years in duration. Each award will support between 30-50% of the applicant’s basic salary to support protected research time, and costs for consumables to undertake the project. No additional support for salaries may be requested.
£12 million is available over the first two rounds of the scheme, from which it is anticipated 45-50 awards will be made.
Deadline
- Submission:12 March 2019
- Panel meeting:April 2019
- Take up of awards expected: May-October 2019