MRC funding update

On 1 February, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Chief Executive Ian Chapman published an open letter to the research and innovation community.

The letter outlined UKRI’s new investment approach for the 2026 to 2030 spending review (SR) period.

This new approach is designed to ensure UKRI delivers the greatest possible impact for the public, with a more strategic, UKRI‑wide model for investing in research and innovation.

Curiosity-driven research

To meet these ambitions, a period of transition is underway that will allow the Medical Research Council (MRC) to refresh our approach to applicant-led funding and continue development of our research strategy.

I want to reassure you that we are committed to sustaining curiosity-driven research through grant awards.

This is also evident by UKRI’s overall 50% budget commitment in this area.

Curiosity-driven research delivers breakthroughs in our understanding of human health that are central to MRC’s strategic ambitions:

understanding disease mechanisms across scales
advanced treatments
early diagnosis
precision prevention

Wider funding for health research

It’s important to also make clear that the overall UKRI budget for biomedical and health research is in an excellent position.

The shift towards more coordinated UKRI‑wide themes, notably for MRC under the UKRI Life Sciences Priority Programme, will provide a high level of funding to our community beyond the allocation for curiosity-driven research.

In addition, MRC’s funding for fellowships, studentships, and MRC Centres of Research Excellence remain unaffected by these developments.

Re-opening applicant-led funding

This major change in approach for MRC and UKRI will take time and great care to implement.

As part of this implementation, you will see that we have had to pause several funding opportunities.

We will announce in the spring the precise timeline for re-opening funding opportunities.

We understand that this pause brings uncertainty, particularly for those who are preparing applications or awaiting new funding opportunities, and we are working hard to minimise disruption.

We expect to open our funding opportunities in the summer, with completion of the wider UKRI transition expected by the start of the 2027 to 2028 financial year (6 April 2027 to 5 April 2028).

Applications currently being assessed

Our transition to new ways of working also means we unfortunately expect to make a reduced number of awards to applications currently being assessed by our four research boards and developmental pathway funding scheme.

We recognise the effort and time that applicants, reviewers and board and panel members commit to this process. Please know we would not have taken these steps unless they were absolutely necessary to manage this period of transition.

Decisions on these applications are expected in April.

Please be reassured that MRC awards that have already been offered, accepted or started are unaffected by these developments.

Moving forward

We recognise that the pause to funding opportunities and reducing our financial commitments for current applications will be challenging for parts of our community. We are fully committed to engaging with you through this transition.

UKRI’s overall research and innovation budget is rising across this SR period, and new funding opportunities for the MRC community will be announced in due course.

We will continue to share updates and re-open funding opportunities as soon as we can.

Further information

If you have any questions contact the Research Funding Policy and Delivery (RFPD) team at rfpd@mrc.ukri.org

Paused funding opportunities

These funding opportunities have been paused:

Funding opportunities that are closed with applications under review

These funding opportunities are closed and the applications are under review:

Patrick Chinnery

Executive Chair, Medical Research Council

Professor Patrick Chinnery FRS FMedSci FRCP is the Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council (MRC).

Professor Chinnery is also a practising neurologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where his clinical expertise complements his leadership, bridging advanced science and healthcare delivery.