These investments support and fund cross-discipline research activities that will address the biological, medical, social and economic aspects of addiction and substance misuse.
Area of investment and support
Area of investment and support: Addiction research
The scope and what we're doing
The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) lead a strategy for addiction and substance misuse research, to fund cross-discipline activities addressing the biological, medical, social and economic aspects of addiction and substance misuse.
MRC’s investment in addiction
We fund addiction research through the MRC applicant led responsive mode funding scheme and the following units and centres:
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge
- MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit
- MRC-Chief Scientist Office (CSO) Social and Public Health Sciences Unit.
Find out more about the facilities and resources MRC funds.
MRC addiction research clinical training programme (MARC)
We also fund the MRC addiction research clinical (MARC) training programme, jointly with Imperial College London, the University of Bristol and King’s College London. In recognition of the need for extra capacity to support addiction research in the UK (particularly in academic psychiatry and clinical psychology), MARC aims to build capacity in clinical addiction research and develop future leaders in the field.
The programme increases exposure to addiction research during clinical training, supports outstanding clinical trainees to undertake clinical research training (PhD) fellowships, develops multidisciplinary expertise in addiction research, and provides academic mentorship to clinical trainees in addiction research.
Last updated: 2 November 2026