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Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences

 

Get in touch for more information or for support in applying for funding opportunities. 

Funding Opportunities


Drug Accelerator Awards

Round 1
Deadline for pre-proposal applications: 13th January 2025
Round 2
Deadline for pre-proposal applications: 2nd September 2025
 
These awards will help pioneer and accelerate novel drug development for the treatment of Parkinson’s, providing researchers the opportunity to generate the essential data and help bridge the gaps needed to get their projects/compounds ready to enter full scale drug discovery with an industry partner or the Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech.
They are looking for projects that will have a clear focus on translational drug development to make a difference to those affected by Parkinson’s.

The drug accelerator award preproposal form is available on our online application system. Applicants who are successful at the preproposal stage will then be invited to submit a full application via our online application system.

Duration and value
The duration of a grant is between 12 to 18 months.
There is no minimum award amount and the maximum award amount is £150,000.
For projects involving in vivo work, an award amount of up to £200,000 will be considered.
 
Eligibility
Grants are tenable only at a UK university, NHS Trust or small start-up biotech companies.
Principal applicants should hold employment contracts that extend beyond the period of the grant.
Co-applicants and collaborators may be based at institutions outside the UK or biotech companies. 
Only one resubmission of an application is accepted. Please refer to the information for applicants for more details.
Visit their website here for more information.

BBSRC Follow-on Fund

Opportunity opens: 22nd January 2025

The BBSRC Follow-on Fund (FoF) is designed to support the translation of fundamental research into practical application, including commercialisation. They want to ensure that innovation arising from BBSRC-funded research has the best opportunity to create positive impacts for society.


MRC Integrative Toxicology Training Partnership (ITTP)

Deadline: 14th February 2025

These studentships are administered and funded through the MRC Toxicology Unit, to build expertise in toxicology and related disciplines to ensure the safe development of drugs, materials, chemicals, and consumer products, and to assess risk from environmental exposure.
Applications should be submitted from potential academic supervisors with partners in industry, government agencies or other universities. Applicants are first required to attend a virtual interactive meeting hosted by the MRC Toxicology Unit on Wednesday 22nd January 2025 from 9.30 am to 12.00 pm.
 
Projects should combine cutting-edge science from any discipline with toxicology and should aim to address current hot topics in the field as well as increasing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying toxicity. The proposed work should be feasible for a PhD student to successfully submit as a thesis within four years.
These studentships include an annual residential summer school which provides training in fundamental and mechanistic toxicology, along with other relevant sciences.
 
Assessment criteria
Studentships will be awarded based on scientific quality, feasibility and the likelihood of success including:
· The novelty of the research proposal in the field of toxicology.
· The relevance of the proposal when considering present toxicological concerns for human health.
· Proposals that span and use a variety of in vivo and in vitro of skills.
· The likelihood of the applicant providing appropriate scientific environment and guidance to students.

Applications will be ranked by the ITTP Steering Committee.

How to apply
Applicants are required to attend a virtual interactive meeting hosted by the MRC Toxicology Unit on Wednesday 22nd January 2025 from 9.30 am to 12.00 pm.
To register for this meeting please email Kirsti Hornigold at ittp@mrc-tox.cam.ac.uk no later than Monday 6th January 2025 with your name, affiliation and a sentence or 2/3 words that describes your work.
Application forms will be available following attendance at the virtual interactive meeting.
 
Deadline
Completed application forms should be sent as a PDF to Kirsti Hornigold no later than Friday 14th February 2025.

BBSRC Flexible Talent Mobility Account (FTMA): Placement Call 2024

Deadline for application: 26th February 2025

Funding will support incoming or outgoing placements for knowledge exchange, relationship building or skills development, including with partners in policy, industry and third sector, or placements which aim to create impact outside academia. Proposals must focus on data intensive bioscience and be within BBSRC remit, but previous/current BBSRC or UKRI funding is NOT a requirement. Interdisciplinary applications are also welcome.

Postdocs and research technical professionals are encouraged to apply as lead applicant, with a group leader/line manager as co-applicant. Applications from researchers and technicians will be assessed separately.

The funds can be used for directly incurred costs such as salary, consumables or travel. More information can be found here.

  • Deadline for applications: 26 February 2025 at 16:00
  • Project Duration: from 1 day up to 6 months (part-time or full time)
  • Informal online 1:1 drop-in sessions are available to support applications, book now
  • Contact: please email Carmen Fernandez-Posada iaa@admin.cam.ac.uk  for queries and tailored advice.

2025 Milner Consortium Call

Deadline: 7th March 2025

Information webinar: 27 January 2025

Pharma partners in the Milner Therapeutics Consortium have identified topics for challenges that are a current priority for external collaboration with academics. These projects could provide a better understanding of a disease mechanism or discover and validate new therapeutic targets and can range from reagent sharing and 6-month pilots to 2-year postdoctoral funded collaborations. They are expected to lead to joint publications with the company partners.

Are you an academic at the University of Cambridge, Babraham and Wellcome Sanger Institutes? If  you have an idea for a potential pre-clinical collaborative project that would benefit from industry expertise and know-how? Milner is looking for project proposals that could provide solutions to current challenges in the following areas, and applications from cross-disciplinary teams are encouraged:

Neuroscience – Immunology & Inflammation – New technologies – Infectious Disease – Reproductive Medicine – Oncology – Metabolism and Cardiovascular disease

Information webinar

To learn more, please register to attend our information and Q&A webinar on 27 January at 2pm.

For full details, to download FAQs and an application form, please visit: milner.cam.ac.uk/consortiumcall


Cancer Research Horizons Therapeutic Catalyst Award

Open ended

Cancer Research UK is uniting all their drug discovery and commercialization activity to form Cancer Research Horizons. An integral part of Cancer Research Horizons is an exciting and ambitious approach to driving therapeutic innovation. The new organization will be home to over 200 drug discovery scientists and will use cutting-edge capabilities to tackle the biggest challenges in discovering cancer drugs to help accelerate patient benefit.

To support this vision, the Therapeutic Catalyst Award is designed to kick-start exploratory drug discovery efforts in cancer, to validate and de-risk targets and technologies, and to position them for onward investment and progression. As a researcher, you can take your idea from bench to patients with a single funder and partner. Successful projects will receive up to £250,000 for up to 18 months. Informal enquiries can be directed to Matthew Farren and Neil Jones

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Project Proposals for the Functional Genomic Screening Laboratory

Open now

The Milner Therapeutics Institute recently announced a new partnership with AstraZeneca and the Medical Research Council (MRC) to establish a new state-of-the-art functional genomics screening laboratory (FGSL) based at the Milner Therapeutics Institute. The call for project proposals is now open!

The call is relevant to UK-based academics, small/medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and pharma who have complex human in vitro models, such as organoids, co-culture models, etc., amenable to arrayed CRISPR screening. Through setting up collaborations with successful applicants, the FGSL will provide academic researchers, SMEs and pharma with access to arrayed functional genomics screening to better understand the biology represented by the model and where applicable, for target identification.

Please click here to find out more about the FGSL and call for proposals.