Funding

Internal Deadline: 21st July 2025

Blood Cancer UK has announced their Early Career Advancement Fellowship call.

These fellowship awards are designed to enable the most talented early career blood cancer researchers, who have already obtained a PhD and undertaken further research as a postdoc or equivalent, to transition towards independence as a researcher. To be eligible to apply, candidates can be from clinical or non-clinical backgrounds and will have had up to a maximum of six years’ full time equivalent active research experience. For clinical applicants, candidates may remain clinically active for up to a maximum of 50% FTE during the fellowship. Researchers who have already transitioned to independence are not eligible to apply. See the funder’s guidance for applicants for more details.  

Applications should align with at least one of the funder’s three priority research themes:

• Prevention
• Early detection and predicting outcomes
• Treatment

The proposal could involve discovery or translational research, small-scale clinical studies, or research projects associated with ongoing clinical trials. These fellowships are not designed to directly support the design/delivery of clinical trials. The fellowship candidate should be the lead applicant, but the application should include a named supervisor at the host organisation who will be asked to provide a letter of support.

Fellowships will be awarded for up to three years’ full time or five years’ part time and will be in the region of £400,000-£450,000. The funder aims to support up to five fellowships in this round – four from their core budget plus an additional ‘Langmuir Fellowship’, which will be specifically focused on myeloma and will be funded by a donation from the Langmuir Family Foundation.

University Internal selection:  

Institutions can only submit up to two applications to this round. Therefore, this call will be managed according to the University’s restricted calls procedure. Your Department’s research grants team and/or Departmental Administrator (or equivalent) must be made aware of your internal application, and a support letter signed by the Head of Department is required.

To take part in the internal selection, please complete the online form by 21 July 2025. If asked to log-in, please use your crsid/SSO details; note that the form cannot be saved and returned to.

You will need the following documents and information to complete the Form:  

• Proposal summary (max. 800 words) covering:
• Research synopsis (200 words max)
  
  • Brief personal statement
  • Details of associated clinical study or clinical trial (if applicable)
• Candidate’s CV
• Letter of support signed by the proposed supervisor and the Head of Department.

• Novelty and timeliness of the proposed research
• Feasibility and strength of scientific design
• Candidate suitability and capability to deliver

If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk 

NIHR Research Professorships and Global Health Research Professorships

 is expected that NIHR will issue a call for the Research Professorships, Round 16 (RP) and Global Health Research Professorships, Round 9 (GHRP) in September. Both schemes are aimed at health, public health and adult social care researchers, and methodologists with an outstanding research record of clinical and applied health, and/or care research and its effective translation for improved health and care. For both schemes, the priority is on promoting effective translation of research into practice. For the Global Health Research Professorships, the focus is on translation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Each award will consist of a five-year package of maximum £2M (on average between £1.7 and 1.8M) to support a professorship, including support posts, research running costs, a travel fund and a leadership and development programme which includes access to the NIHR Leadership Programme. 

Candidate and research eligibility:

For both schemes: Candidates will need to demonstrate a steep career trajectory over the last 5-10 years and will have spent no more than five years at their current level of seniority at the time of application. Candidates should not already be established leaders in their field but be on an upward trajectory to become leaders after the period of award. Nominees should be working in the fields of experimental medicine, public health, health services research, social care research or methodological research. They should have a demonstrable record in effective translation of research into improved health, public health or adult social care. Applications involving basic research or work involving animals or their tissue will be deemed ineligible.  

For more information about the scheme, including detailed requirements and eligibility, please see the general call pages and the previous round’s guidance pages Round 15 Guidance for the Research Professorships  and   Round 8 Guidance for the Global Health Research Professorships.

Key expectations

For both schemes:

Salary recycling:

The basic salary of the Research Professor is funded by NIHR. Host institutions are required to recycle the salary costs released from the Professor’s previous role. This means the institution must reinvest those funds to build research capacity—such as hiring new academic or research staff, supporting early career researchers, or enhancing research infrastructure. This plan must be clearly documented and is assessed as part of the application.

Institutional support and future employment:

Institutions must demonstrate a strong and sustained commitment to the nominee. This includes ensuring that the individual has access to appropriate administrative and research support and guaranteeing the availability of necessary infrastructure and facilities. In addition, institutions are expected to support the nominee’s leadership development, including their participation in the NIHR Leadership Programme.

For RP only:

Institutions must commit to supporting the individual beyond the lifetime of the award. This includes a long-term employment plan and sustaining the individual’s role and research leadership after the NIHR funding ends. The award is intended to strengthen institutional research leadership capacity, so there should be a clear plan for the nominee’s long-term integration into the institution’s strategic research direction 

University Internal selection for both calls:   

NIHR restricts the number of nominations Higher Education Institutions (HEI) can put forward to these funding calls. The limit of the number of applications per HEI in each round applies regardless of whether the HEI will be the lead employing organisation or the partner organisation:

• For the Research Professorship, NIHR allow a maximum of 3 nominations provided that at least one applicant is from an ethnic minority group. This is in addition to the requirement that at least 1 applicant is female if more than 1 nomination is made. If the University puts forward 2 nominees, at least one applicant must be female. 

• For the Global Health Research Professorship, NIHR allow a maximum of 2 nominations. If the University puts forward 2 nominees, at least one applicant must be female.  

Therefore, this call will be managed according to the University’s restricted calls procedure.  

Schools have been asked to each provide a ranked lists of individuals they recommend are supported to apply to this round of funding. Departments should therefore await communication from their School office to understand the selection/ranking process and timetable. Please note that applicants that haven’t been through the School ranking stage of the internal selection process will not be accepted or included in the University of Cambridge submission for this funding call.

Internal deadline for Schools to submit ranked candidates: 22^nd September 2025

Anticipated funder deadline: 10^th December 2025

If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk.  

EPSRC Strategic Infrastructure

Internal Deadline: 21st October 2025

EPSRC’s Strategic Infrastructure scheme offers funding to purchase strategic infrastructure, including equipment, resources, or a combination of both. The funding aims to improve UK scientific capability and enable cutting-edge research of high priority to EPSRC. The minimum funding threshold is £400,000 at full economic cost (FEC).  More information on EPSRC’s definition of strategic infrastructure can be found here.

University Internal selection:  

The scheme operates as a rolling, open-ended opportunity with no set submission deadlines – however, EPSRC expects no more than six applications from each institution in their annual cycle, which begins each June. Due to increasing interest in this call at Cambridge, it will now be managed according to the University’s restricted calls procedure. Your Department’s Research Grants Team and/or Departmental Administrator (or equivalent) must be made aware of your internal application, and a support letter signed by the Head of Department is required.

To take part in this new annual internal selection, please complete our online form (NB: if asked to log-in, please use your crsid/Raven details; note that a Form cannot be saved and returned to) by 21 October 2025.

If you wish to submit an application to EPSRC before 21 October 2025, please complete the online form and contact us directly to discuss your proposal and the timeframe for internal assessment.

You will need the following documents and information to complete the Form:

• A summary document (max. 800 words) covering the following:

• 1. Purpose & vision: Why is this infrastructure needed and what transformative research will it enable that cannot be achieved elsewhere? How will it enhance and complement the existing regional or national research capability and what is the evidence of user demand? (approx. 250 words)
  2. Approach, accessibility and sustainability: Summarise what professional/technical support will be in place, and outline the proposed approach to financial, technical and environmental sustainability. How will users be identified, prioritised and supported? (approx. 300 words)
  3. Applicant and host institution capability to deliver: What experience does the team have in managing strategic infrastructure and why is the University of Cambridge the best place to host the proposed infrastructure? (approx. 250 words)

• Letter of Support from the Head of Department, indicating that the department is aware of and supportive of the application.
  
  • Provide an indication of institutional support agreed or in discussion and how the department will use its existing capacity to best complement the proposed infrastructure. Contributions can come in many forms e.g. direct contribution towards the infrastructure; in-kind investigator time; funding a research technical professional; contributing refurbishment costs.
• Approximate value of the infrastructure required (quotes not required for this internal EoI). 
• Target submission date for the application to EPSRC.

Applicants are encouraged to speak to relevant teams in advance of their EoI, for help with initial planning. These include the West Cambridge equipment sharing team (wcsp@admin.cam.ac.uk), the Research Relations team (cdb29@cam.ac.uk), and for applicants from the School of the Biological Sciences the Scientific Research Facilities Strategic Lead (stc46@cam.ac.uk), as well as any local research facility leads in their department.

Review and Selection:

• If more than six applications are received by the stated deadline, a full internal selection process will be undertaken. The six selected applicants will receive advice on next steps for developing the application for submission to the funder. Proposals deemed suitable but not selected for submission in the current year (June 2025-June 2026) will be carried forward to the next annual selection cycle.
• If fewer than six applications are received by the internal deadline, they will be reviewed at that point, and applicants will be offered feedback and guidance on how to proceed. The internal deadline will then be extended, and additional applications will continue to be considered on a rolling, case-by-case basis.

Internal Assessment Criteria: 

Please note that the assessment of internal applications will focus on the following core funder criteria: 

• Purpose and vision
• Approach, accessibility and sustainability
• Applicant and host institution capability to deliver

If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025-26

The British Academy (BA) have now announced their popular Postdoctoral Fellowships scheme, with a deadline for submissions of 1^st October 2025. This communication is to provide departments with an overview of the University’s processes for this round of the scheme.

As with previous years, the University will not be conducting an internal central selection process, Departments are requested to identify and prioritise the strongest applications to ensure only high-quality proposals are put forward to the funder. Supporting applicants whose projects or track record are not sufficiently strong will prevent them from being able to reapply.  

The School Research Facilitators will run an online information session for applicants on 16th July at 1pm. Please encourage potential applicants to register via this link.

The outline stage for this scheme is exempt from the usual Research Operations Office (ROO) deadlines because the funder does not request financial information at the this initial stage. Departments are asked to follow Small Applications Processes for this scheme, regardless the value of the proposal (NB: this still includes submitting an ‘outline X5 costing’). Please note that departments are expected to notify ROO of an intention to submit any grant applications with a minimum of four weeks’ notice – ROO colleagues will find this early notification incredibly helpful for this scheme.

Funder deadline: 01^st October 2025

If you have any questions, please contact researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk.