This scheme aims to drive fundamental discoveries stemming from MRC discovery research and the wider academic community along the developmental pathway towards patient benefit and or commercialisation.
MRC Proof of Concept (formerly titled the Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme or DPFS) is the core MRC translational research scheme and forms a key part of our clinical and translational research strategy.
The aim of the scheme is to advance fundamental discoveries arising from academic research along the developmental pathway towards patient benefit and or commercialisation.
All disease areas are eligible for support from the scheme, and applications to this scheme can focus on the development of any innovative solution that aims to improve the prevention, diagnosis, prognosis or treatment of significant health needs. We also support projects that focus on developing research tools or platform technologies that increase the efficiency of developing interventions.
Individual projects can start and finish at any point along the translational pathway from prototype development, through pre-clinical refinement, to early-phase clinical studies (up to and including phase IIa).
Collaborations
MRC encourages partnerships in applications, with charities or industry, where these add value to the project. If your application involves a collaboration with one or more industry partners, review the MRC Industry Collaboration Framework.