MRC supports research that will transform our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning disorders of the human nervous system. This includes multi and interdisciplinary research that investigates the physiology and behaviour of the human nervous system over the life course, and how to treat and prevent disorders of the brain and improve mental and neurological health.
Through our funding mechanisms, including applicant-led and strategic investment we support a portfolio of research in the following science areas:
- neurodegeneration
- clinical neurology
- neuroinflammation
- mental health
- addictions and substance misuse
- behavioural and learning disorders, including autism
- cognitive and behavioural neuroscience
- sensory neuroscience, including vision and hearing
- neurobiology and physiology relevant to disease
- pain
- injury and repair
- sleep and circadian biology, pertaining to disease
- neuroimaging and neurotechnologies
We strive to support a diverse portfolio of research of UK and global health relevance, addressing both investigation of longstanding research questions and emergent higher risk opportunities.
Strategic activities
Mental health
MRC supports world-class mental health research, creating new opportunities to treat and prevent mental illness. The MRC’s Strategy for Lifelong Mental Health Research was published in early 2017 and informs our priorities and strategic direction. It builds on MRC’s strengths in integrative discovery science, linking across genes, animal studies, human psychological studies, in vivo imaging and circuit biology in the context of childhood development and adulthood and experimental medicine.
Its key elements are to:
- employ a lifelong perspective to mental health with a focus on children and adolescents
- explore the comorbidity of physical and mental health
- stratify medicine for mental health research
- harness data using informatics as a tool
- invest in global mental health
- prevent mental illness by drawing together biological, social and environmental factors and finding opportunities for action in early life, which is also an important area for the UK Prevention Research Partnership
- build capacity
We are delivering on the ambitions of this strategy with our investments in Adolescence, Mental Health and the Developing Mind, in partnership with:
- Economic and Social Research Council
- Arts and Humanities Research Council
- UKRI Mental Health Platform
Neurodegeneration
We continue to support neurodegeneration research through our regular applicant-led mechanisms to complement the work of the Dementias Platform UK and the UK Dementia Research Institute.
Find out more about our work on neurodegeneration associated with the dementias.
We support research that can deepen our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, including the impact of comorbidities. We also support research on neurodegenerative conditions that result in progressive degeneration or death of nerve cells, including multiple sclerosis, and disorders of the auditory, visual, motor and autonomic nervous systems.
Pain research
The Advanced Pain Discovery Platform (APDP) is jointly funded by MRC, ESRC and BBSRC and Arthritis UK with support from Medical Research Foundation and Eli Lilly to deliver a consortium-based platform of national scale. This platform will break through the complexity of pain and reveal potential new treatment approaches to address a wide spectrum of chronic and debilitating clinical conditions.
Strategic activities and partnerships
Where concerted action is needed, MRC invests through major investments, including institutes, units and MRC Centres of Research Excellence (CoRE). These incorporate strong leadership, challenge-focused research, training or capacity-building, and the application of innovative technology and methodology to tackle major research challenges. Many of these involve strategic partnerships, for example co-funding.
We work with other research councils, biomedical research charities and government departments, including:
- Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
- Department of Health and Social Care
- Ministry of Defence
- Office for Life Sciences
We also work with international funders or industrial partners, including:
- Dementias Platform UK
- TBI-REPORTER
- Network of European Funding for Neuroscience Research
- JPND Neurodegenerative Disease Research
- European Partnership for Brain Health
- Network of Centres of Excellence in Neurodegeneration
- Eating Disorder collaboration (co-funded with Medical Research Foundation, ESRC, AHRC and the National Institute for Health and Care Research)