Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: Pre-announcement: Experimental medicine to define mechanisms of gambling disorder

Opportunity status:
Upcoming
Funders:
Medical Research Council (MRC), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), UK Research and Innovation
Funding type:
Grant
Total fund:
£10,000,000
Maximum award:
£3,000,000
Publication date:
5 August 2026
Opening date:
Closing date:

Apply for funding for academically led experimental medicine studies in humans that deepen mechanistic understanding of the causal mechanisms underlying the effects of gambling activities, products and interventions in gambling disorder.

Your project must:

  • focus on a mechanistic hypothesis
  • include an experimental intervention or challenge in humans
  • be independent from gambling industry associations

To lead an application, you must be based at a research organisation eligible for Medical Research Council (MRC) funding. If you are taking the next step towards becoming an independent researcher, you may be eligible to apply as a ‘new investigator’.

This is a pre-announcement and the information may change. The funding opportunity will open on 8 October 2026 when more information will be available on this page.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible.

Who is eligible to apply

To be eligible to apply for this funding opportunity you must:

  • show that you will direct the project and be actively engaged in the work
  • be looking to investigate the causes, progression and treatment of human disease

If you do not have a contract of employment for the duration of the proposed project, by submitting an application the research organisation is confirming that, if it is successful:

  • contracts will be extended beyond the end date of the project
  • all necessary support for the project and the applicants will be provided, including mentorship and career development for early career researchers

New investigator applicants

We welcome applications from early career researchers. The new investigator award is aimed at researchers who are capable of becoming independent researchers and who are now ready to take the next step towards that goal.

If you are applying for this funding opportunity as a ‘new investigator’, you must also:

  • have your research organisation support
  • be able to demonstrate that your skills and experience at the time of your application match those of the ‘transition to independence’ career stage, as set out in the MRC skills and experience table
  • use this grant to support your long-term career goals and chosen career route
  • be able to demonstrate you are the sole intellectual leader of the application and the proposed work

If you meet the eligibility criteria, you can also apply as a new investigator, if you:

  • are employed as a postdoctoral research assistant, although this grant cannot start until your current work finishes
  • hold a lecturer appointment, a junior fellowship or another research staff position
  • hold, or have held, an early career training fellowship such as a MRC skills development fellowship
  • do not have a contract with your chosen host organisation
  • are not currently based at the eligible research organisation that has agreed to host your new investigator award
  • are either a non-clinical or clinically active researcher
  • have any number of years of experience

Who is not eligible to apply as a new investigator

You are not eligible to apply if you have already achieved independence. New investigator awards support individuals who have not previously led a research team or been awarded a substantial grant as fellow or project lead (formally known as principal investigator).

A substantial grant is typically defined as for three or more years and including salary support for one or more additional team members.

You are also not eligible to apply as a new investigator if you have:

If you are unsure whether you meet the eligibility criteria as a new investigator or have any questions about your eligibility, you should contact gamblingexpmed@mrc.ukri.org to find out whether you can apply.

See further details on the New Investigator Award.

Your other team members (new investigators)

We recognise and support the value of team science and interdisciplinary research, which may be important to your career development. Therefore, project co-leads, specialists and other team roles may be included if you are applying as a new investigator.

Your team members should bring essential complimentary research, technical expertise or skills to the project, that you as the new investigator project lead cannot provide, or you are aiming to develop.

We encourage you to use the appropriate application sections, such as ‘Applicant and team capability to deliver’, to make your leadership role clear and justify the team around you.

It is not usually appropriate for a current or recent supervisor, or lab head of the new investigator, to be part of the applicant team as this may make your leadership unclear. If this is essential to the proposed work, it must be specifically justified.

Who is not eligible to apply

You are not eligible to apply for this funding opportunity as a project lead if you are based at an international research organisation. This does not include MRC Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) or MRC/UVRI (Uganda Virus Research Institute) and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit.

If you are employed by these organisations you cannot apply as project lead or project co-lead, but can participate as project partners on an application led by an eligible UK organisation:

  • businesses
  • charity and third sector organisations

However, charities and third sector organisations that are approved UKRI Independent Research Organisations are eligible to apply as project lead or project co-lead.

UKRI wishes to clarify that, as well as not being permitted to host awards, under the Research Programme on Gambling, UKRI does not permit funding to be provided to Gambling Commission licence holders who are subject to the levy. We have also placed restrictions on co-funding from such organisations.

Furthermore, UKRI would not expect individual researchers to concurrently hold funding from licence holders subject to the levy while receiving funding from the Research Programme on Gambling.

Any engagement with project partners, especially those from the gambling sector, must be demonstrably independent, evidence-based and research-led. Engagement must align with the programme’s public interest objectives to further understanding of gambling and gambling-related harm.

International researchers

As MRC is the lead funder for this funding opportunity, international researchers can apply as ‘project co-lead (international)’.

Project co-leads (international) make a major intellectual contribution to the design or conduct of the project. Their contribution and added value to the research collaboration should be clearly explained and justified in the application, using the appropriate application sections, such as ‘Applicant and team capability to deliver’.

Read UKRI project co-lead (international) eligibility for more details. Please contact us if you are uncertain about eligibility.

You should include all other international collaborators (or UK partners not based at approved organisations) as project partners.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.

We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:

  • career breaks
  • support for people with caring responsibilities
  • flexible working
  • alternative working patterns

UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

What we're looking for

Demand management

Demand management is not being applied to this funding opportunity.

Aim

The over-arching aim is to generate a more integrated mechanistic understanding of gambling disorder development, progression and recovery which may help identify modifiable targets and build an evidence base for future prevention and treatment strategies. Outcomes could also inform policy changes for example regulation of gambling products and related advertising.

Scope

It is increasingly recognised that gambling disorder arises through the interaction of biological, psychological and social processes. Modern gambling products and environments are rapidly evolving and incorporate features designed to maximise engagement by leveraging human reward, learning and attentional processes.

The mechanisms through which these factors interact to shape risk, trajectory and recovery of gambling disorder are poorly understood. Advancing our understanding of the causal mechanisms through which gambling disorder develops and progresses, and how interventions modulate outcomes, is essential to defining risk and developing new treatment and prevention strategies.

This funding opportunity will fund high-quality academically led experimental medicine research projects in humans that generate causal mechanistic insights into gambling disorder. Studies must address a clearly articulated gap in understanding of gambling disorder and include clear measurable, clinical, behavioural, cognitive or neurobiological outcomes to investigate causal biological, cognitive or psychosocial mechanisms.

Applications should move beyond identifying correlates and behavioural endpoints to test causal pathways underlying gambling addiction emergence, progression or response to treatment. Applications are also welcome which help elucidate mechanisms associated with clinical trajectories of gambling disorder including mental health impacts.

For the purposes of this funding opportunity, the term gambling disorder encompasses the clinical condition as defined by recognised diagnostic criteria, whilst acknowledging that gambling-related problems and addictive gambling behaviours may occur across a broader spectrum of severity.

Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged but highly focussed projects would equally be in scope. Although not primarily aimed at discovering new treatments, the approach must have a clearly articulated path to impact in treatment, prevention or policy of gambling-related harms.

Successful projects will generate new mechanistic insights, including those that may:

  • explore intersections between gambling, gambling products and addiction across biopsychosocial domains
  • identify opportunities to modify trajectories
  • enable the future development of novel therapeutic or diagnostic approaches

Evidence of meaningful public and patient involvement in applications is essential to ensure that the implications of lived experience as well as the safeguarding and protection of study participants have been considered. Public and patient contributors recruited through partner gambling harms charities will review and assess application lay summaries for the relevance and impact of the proposed research.

Successful projects will be required to coordinate with the GHR-UK evidence centre.

This is a pre-announcement. Full details on the process and assessment areas will be provided when the funding opportunity opens on 8 October 2026.

There will be a funding opportunity information webinar on 5 October 2026. Please register to attend this webinar.

For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the Additional information section.

Duration

The duration of this award is three years.

Funding available

The FEC of your project can be up to £3 million.

MRC will fund 80% of the FEC.

What we will fund

This funding opportunity will run through the MRC Experimental medicine scheme. For more information on the activities that are and are not supported through this scheme, please contact gamblingexpmed@mrc.ukri.org

Project partner

A project partner is a collaborating organisation in the UK or overseas, including partners based in the EU, who will have an integral role in the proposed research. You may include project partners that will support your research project through cash or in-kind contributions, such as:

  • staff time
  • access to equipment
  • sites or facilities
  • the provision of data
  • software or materials
  • recruitment of people as research participants
  • providing samples, such as human tissue, for the project

Each project partner must provide a statement of support. If your application involves industry partners, they must provide additional information if the team project partner falls within the industry collaboration framework.

Find out more about subcontractors and dual roles.

Who cannot be included as a project partner

Any individual included in your application with a core team role cannot also be a project partner.

Any organisation that employs a member of the application core team cannot be a project partner organisation. This includes other departments within the same organisation.

If you are collaborating with someone in your organisation, consider including them in the core team as project co-lead, or specialist. They cannot be a project partner.

Supporting skills and talent

We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.

See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.

How to apply

We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system. We will publish full details on how to apply when the funding opportunity opens.

How we will assess your application

Assessment process

We will assess your application using the following process.

Your application will be assessed in a two-stage process.

Panel

Your stage one application will be considered by an independent panel of experts.

If successful, you will be invited to submit a stage two application, which will undergo further assessment.

The decisions of the Experimental Medicine Panel are not open to appeal.

For more information on how we prioritise applications for funding please visit How we make decisions.

Timescale

We aim to complete the assessment process within 35 weeks of receiving your application.

If you are successful at stage one, you will be invited to submit to the next stage two round planned to open 15 April 2027 with a closing date of 1 September 2027.

Feedback

We will notify you of the outcome of your stage one application within 10 working days of the stage one panel meeting. We will give feedback within eight weeks of the stage one panel meeting.

This is a pre-announcement. Full details on the process and assessment areas will be provided when the funding opportunity opens on 8 October 2026.

Principles of assessment

We support the San Francisco declaration on research assessment and recognise the relationship between research assessment and research integrity.

Find out about the UKRI principles of assessment and decision making.

Using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in expert review

Generative AI may be used only for the purpose of language refinement during application assessment. When using generative AI to refine the language of a review, expert reviewers and panellists must ensure that:

  • no part of the application being assessed is entered into a generative AI tool
  • no personal information from the application is disclosed
  • generative AI is not tasked with understanding, summarising or evaluating the application’s content

Expert reviewers and panellists must also:

  • comply with relevant intellectual property and data protection legislation
  • not take into account or speculate within their assessment whether generative AI has been used to develop the application

For more detail see our policy on the use of generative AI.

Sharing data with co-funders

We will need to share the application (including any personal information that it contains) with Department for Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) so that they can participate in the assessment process.

For more information on how DCMS uses personal information, visit the DCMS personal information charter for further detail.

We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.

Assessment areas

The full criteria for assessment will be published when the full application funding opportunity opens.

Contact details

Get help with your application

If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page

The helpdesk is committed to helping users of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service as effectively and as quickly as possible. In order to manage cases at peak volume times, the helpdesk will triage and prioritise those queries with an imminent opportunity deadline or a technical issue. Enquiries raised where information is available on the Funding finder opportunity page and should be understood early in the application process (for example, regarding eligibility, content or remit of a funding opportunity) will not constitute a priority case and will be addressed as soon as possible.

Contact details

For help and advice on costings and writing your application please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

For questions related to this specific funding opportunity please contact gamblingexpmed@mrc.ukri.org

For general questions related to MRC funding including our funding opportunities and policy please contact rfpd@mrc.ukri.org

Any queries regarding the system or the submission of applications through the Funding Service should be directed to the helpdesk.

Email: support@funding-service.ukri.org

Phone: 01793 547490

Our phone lines are open:

  • Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
  • Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

To help us process queries more efficiently, we request that users highlight the council and opportunity name in the subject title of their email query, include the application reference number, and refrain from contacting more than one mailbox at a time.

For further information on submitting an application read How applicants use the Funding Service.

Additional info

Background

In April 2023, the Department for Culture, Media, and Sports (DCMS) published a white paper setting out the government’s plans for modernising regulation of the gambling sector. One of the key proposals in the white paper is the introduction of a statutory levy on gambling operators.

Following a public consultation, which ran from 17 October 2023 to 14 December 2023, and an analysis of the responses to the consultation, the government has introduced a statutory levy charged to all licenced gambling activity. This is at varying levels depending on the sector and nature of the gambling activity to ensure impacts are proportionate.

The statutory levy was introduced via secondary legislation and commenced in April 2025 with funding flowing later that year. The levy will be collected and administered by the Gambling Commission under the strategic direction of the government, replacing the current system of voluntary industry contributions.

Levy funding will be directed in specific proportions for the purposes of research, prevention, and treatment. Each stream of the levy system will also have a central commissioner. The streams are:

  • research (20% of funding to UKRI and the Gambling Commission for the establishment of a bespoke research programme)
  • prevention (30% of funding to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) to create a co-ordinated GB-wide approach to prevention)
  • treatment (50% of funding to the NHS in England, Scotland, and Wales to commission treatment and support services)

Within the stream of funding allocated to UKRI for the new Research Programme on Gambling (RPG), UKRI have commissioned a multi-disciplinary Gambling Harms Research UK (GHR-UK) Evidence Centre.

This will coordinate a cohort of GHR-UK Innovation Partnerships that have been funded to fill gaps in the existing evidence base and assist UKRI in developing a research agenda following the introduction of the levy.

Further information on the gambling levy can be found in the following resources:

Research and innovation impact

Impact can be defined as the long-term intended or unintended effect research and innovation has on society, economy and the environment; to individuals, organisations, and the wider global population.

Webinar for potential applicants

We will hold a webinar on 5 October 2026. This will provide more information about the funding opportunity and a chance to ask questions.

Register for the webinar

Research disruption due to COVID-19

We recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major interruptions and disruptions across our communities. We are committed to ensuring that individual applicants and their wider team, including partners and networks, are not penalised for any disruption to their career, such as:

  • breaks and delays
  • disruptive working patterns and conditions
  • the loss of ongoing work
  • role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic

Reviewers and panel members will be advised to consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19 related disruption might have had on the capability to deliver and career development of those individuals included in the application. They will be asked to consider the capability of the applicant and their wider team to deliver the research they are proposing.

Where disruptions have occurred, you can highlight this within your application if you wish, but there is no requirement to detail the specific circumstances that caused the disruption.

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