UKRI Translation: MRC Impact Acceleration Awards
The Medical Research Council offers single-step support to develop a new or repurposed medicine, medical device, diagnostic, or other medical product. Projects should tackle a high-risk development step backed by prior funding and generate critical data that either de-risks onward progression or supports an evidence-based decision to stop.
Experimental medicine stage one
MRC funding for academically led research using experimental interventions or challenges in humans to investigate mechanisms of disease. Projects should address an important mechanistic question and show a credible route to clinical impact. The opportunity covers all disease areas and supports established and new investigators. Purely efficacy-focused trials and untargeted observational studies do not meet this mechanistic remit. Applicants must be based at a research organisation eligible for MRC funding; international project co-leads may participate under UKRI rules. There is no fixed award ceiling or project-duration limit: applicants must justify resources and timescales. MRC normally funds 80% of full economic cost and 100% of permitted exceptions. Submit stage one through Funding Service opportunity OPP1248 by 7 October 2026 at 16:00 Europe/London (BST). Successful applicants are invited to stage two. This listing concerns the October 2026 round, which is currently open.
Translational Research in Tuberous Sclerosis as a Model for Autism and Epilepsy
Immunosuppression for Parkinson's disease - a new therapeutic strategy?
Caroline Williams-Gray is a Principal Research Associate in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, and an honorary consultant neurologist specializing in Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders. She leads a translational research group investigating the clinical and biological heterogeneity of PD, with the ultimate goal of developing more targeted therapies for different Parkinson’s subtypes. Her recent work has focused on the theory that the immune system plays a significant role in mediating the heterogeneity of PD and its progression. Her lab is investigating this using blood and CSF -based immune markers, PET neuroimaging and neuropathology in stratified PD cohorts; and she is leading the first randomized controlled trial repurposing a peripheral immunosuppressive drug (azathioprine) to slow the progression of PD.
Can we have jam today and jam tomorrow ?Improving outcomes for older people living with mental illness using applied and translational research
This talk will examine how approaches such as ‘big data’ and new ways of delivering clinical trials can improve current services for older people with mental illness (jam today) and identify and deliver new treatments in the future (jam tomorrow).
Bedside to bench and back again, a path to translational pain research?
Pain has both a sensory and emotional component and is driven by activation of sensory neurones called nociceptors that are tuned to detect noxious stimuli in a process called nociception. Although nociception functions as a detect and protect mechanism. and is found in many organisms, this system becomes dysregulated in a number of conditions where chronic pain presents as a key symptom, for example osteoarthritis. Nociceptors do not innervate empty space though and do not act alone. Going beyond the neurone, other cell types, such as fibroblast-like synoviocytes interact with and modify the function of nociceptors, which is likely a key contributor to the chronification of pain. In this talk, I will look at how combining pre-clinical mouse work with human tissue and genetics might provide a way to accelerate new analgesics from bench to bedside, giving examples from our work in joint pain, bowel pain and labour pain.
European University for Brain and Technology Virtual Opening
The European University for Brain and Technology, NeurotechEU, is opening its doors on the 16th of December. From health & healthcare to learning & education, Neuroscience has a key role in addressing some of the most pressing challenges that we face in Europe today. Whether the challenge is the translation of fundamental research to advance the state of the art in prevention, diagnosis or treatment of brain disorders or explaining the complex interactions between the brain, individuals and their environments to design novel practices in cities, schools, hospitals, or companies, brain research is already providing solutions for society at large. There has never been a branch of study that is as inter- and multi-disciplinary as Neuroscience. From the humanities, social sciences and law to natural sciences, engineering and mathematics all traditional disciplines in modern universities have an interest in brain and behaviour as a subject matter. Neuroscience has a great promise to become an applied science, to provide brain-centred or brain-inspired solutions that could benefit the society and kindle a new economy in Europe. The European University of Brain and Technology (NeurotechEU) aims to be the backbone of this new vision by bringing together eight leading universities, 250+ partner research institutions, companies, societal stakeholders, cities, and non-governmental organizations to shape education and training for all segments of society and in all regions of Europe. We will educate students across all levels (bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral as well as life-long learners) and train the next generation multidisciplinary scientists, scholars and graduates, provide them direct access to cutting-edge infrastructure for fundamental, translational and applied research to help Europe address this unmet challenge.