Funding

Mental Health Research UK - PhD Scholarship Competition 2027

Internal Deadline: 9th April 2026

Mental Health Research UK (incorporating the Schizophrenia Research Fund) has announced a competition for four PhD Scholarships beginning September 2027.

Mental Health Research UK (MHRUK) are inviting applications for the following four PhD scholarships:

• Karen Menzies MHRUK PhD scholarship: Developing and validating novel biomarkers for schizophrenia and related psychotic conditions
• Karen Menzies MHRUK PhD scholarship: Childhood neuro-developmental antecedents for schizophrenia and related psychotic conditions
• The John Grace QC scholarship: Antecedents, causal factors, clinical characteristics, treatments and outcomes of peri-menopausal first-onset psychosis and related psychotic conditions
• Clair Chilvers MHRUK PhD scholarship: Risks, benefits and opportunities of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in mental health care

Please note, MHRUK does not fund health services research; research into autism; or research that involves animals. Applicants are required to be supported by two UK based PhD supervisors, and MHRUK are keen to give the opportunity for a researcher in the early stages of their career to be part of the supervisory team which may include being the primary supervisor. Applications must come from prospective supervisors within UK universities, not from students.

University Internal selection:  

Institutions can only submit one application for each scholarship (for a total of 4 applications maximum). Therefore, this call will be managed according to the University’s restricted calls procedure.

To take part in the internal selection, please complete our online form. If asked to log-in, please use your crsid/Raven details by 9 April 2026.

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

• CVs for lead and co-supervisors, including publications and numbers of PhD students supervised and experience/expertise in the proposed field of study (max. 3 pages). NB: There should be a minimum of two supervisors. The funder is keen to give the opportunity for a researcher in the early stages of their career to be part of the supervisory team which may include being the primary supervisor.

Project summary (max 800 words):

• Please describe the project and include why this work is novel, timely, feasible and important and how it works well as a PhD studentship.
• State clearly the expected outcomes and impact of the studentship particularly outside of academia and in the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of mental health conditions.
• Describe how this project/your department will involve potential beneficiaries of the research in this PhD research study as part of a PPI strategy. (For more details on patient and public involvement in research please see NIHR guidance)
• Describe your approach to supporting and developing PhD students, including project-specific training needs, facilities, equipment, generic training, transferable skills, peer support, teaching opportunities and support for wellbeing.
• Head of Department support letter from the department that will hold the grant, confirming their support for the project and agreement to host the grant.

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

• Quality of applications, considering project idea and track record of supervisors as well as wider research environment.
• Novelty, feasibility and impact of the proposed project
• How well the proposed project will work for a PhD studentship
• Plans for PPI, training for the scholar, and support for wellbeing

For further information including regarding eligible fee rates, see the call page, application guidelines and associated terms and conditions document. 

C2D3 Early Career Researcher Seed Funding 2026

Deadline: 16th April 2026

C2D3 are awarding Seed Funding to University of Cambridge Early Career Researchers, up to £3,000 per project. The aim of the funds is to provide a step towards an independent research career. Applications should focus on interdisciplinary data science or AI.

Projects

Preference will be given towards activities that address one or more of the following:

• Increase engagement opportunities for underrepresented groups
• How the seed fund fits into the applicant’s career plans to apply for a larger grant
• Foster external industry collaborations
• Foster other external collaborations

Examples of interdisciplinary projects that could be funded are:

• Providing a short internship for a student, with yourself as the mentor
• Collaboration with a short industry project
• Host a skills-development or research workshop
• Building a network to pursue your next project

Eligibility: Who can apply?

Funding is open to Early Career Researchers who are: a) employed within a University department AND b) working within the remit of this call.

For the purposes of this funding call, an Early Career Researcher is defined as: a postdoctoral researcher or research fellowship holder who does not hold a permanent position at the University of Cambridge.

For more information and application form please visit their website.

Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowships 2026/27

Internal Deadline: 20th April 2026

The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) will soon announce the Research Fellowships 2026/27.  Please note that although the website has not been updated, RAEng have communicated several important changes for the 2026/27 round which are outlined in the attached document and touched on below. Note that RAEng have replaced their one stage with a two-stage application model with an expression of interest stage and second invited applications stage. Otherwise, we expect that all details will remain the same to last year's call. 

The scheme's objectives are to support the best early-career researchers in establishing their independence and international reputation, provide long-term support enabling the pursuit of an ambitious programme of engineering research and impact and develop ambassadors for the Academy and advocates for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines. Please note that RAEng have increased the award value to £800,000 per award, over 5 years at 80% FEC.

Research Fellowships are aimed at early-career researchers. Applicants must have a PhD, which was awarded (or the PhD has been unconditionally approved) no more than four and a half years (NB: not four years as previously) before the submission deadline which is expected to be 10 December 2026. Therefore, the final cut-off date for the award or unconditional approval of the applicant's PhD is 25th December 2021. This period includes the applicant's work experience in academia or/and in industry in the UK or/and worldwide. There are some exceptions for extenuating circumstances. For more information, please consult the eligibility guidance which applies to last round.

Unlike earlier rounds, we expect that again the 2026/27 round will only include the Research Fellowship scheme as the Engineering for Development Research Fellowship (EDRF) scheme has been removed. However, RAEng will continue to accept applications under the EDRF umbrella in the current round and they will be treated no differently to Research Fellowship applications.

For more information about this scheme, please see the funder's call page, again noting the caveat that currently some of the information applies to the previous round (2025/26 round). 

Key dates provided by funder (see the attached document for more information; internal Cambridge deadlines in red):

Expression of interest stage opens: 5 May 2026
Internal Cambridge deadline: 20 April 2026
Expression of interest stage closes: 25 June 2026 
Access mentoring (for invited applications only): 12 October-26 November 2026
Submission invited application stage period opens: 26 October 2026
Submission invited application stage period deadline: 10 December 2026

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

Royal Society Wolfson Fellowships 2026, Round 2

Internal Deadline: 28th April 2026

The Round 2 of the Royal Society’s 2026 Wolfson Fellowships scheme will be opening on 06 May 2026, and the University’s internal selection process will now commence.

• A five-year Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship

This strand focuses entirely on recruitment, enabling UK institutions to enhance their offering with a £300,000 fellowship award to international research leaders wishing to relocate to the UK. The funding can be used flexibly to conduct high-quality research as part of their start-up package. The funding can cover salary enhancement of up to 20%, research expenses at 100% fEC, research assistants at 80% fEC, 4-year PhD studentships, and other justified research costs. Award holders are expected to hold a full-time post at the University.

• A 12-month sabbatical Visiting Fellowship

This strand allows excellent international researchers a flexible 12-month sabbatical period at a UK university with an award of up to £125,000 to build and develop international collaborations and networks with the host UK university. The fellowship can be held full time for 1 year or flexibly over 2 years – but the total period of the sabbatical must always amount to 12 months. The funding can cover bursary for visiting fellows up to £80k, research expenses including small equipment up to £10k, and other justified costs. The scheme requires for the candidate to be employed at an overseas institution.

Eligibility for both strands:

• Applicants can be of any nationality.
• Research must be within the eligible subjects.
• The applicant must be currently based overseas.
• Candidates should be talented researchers with a proven track record for high quality scientific research. This may include, as appropriate: a strong publication record, being invited to conferences as keynote speaker and evidence of scientific leadership and/or supervising or mentoring junior researchers.
• The Royal Society recognises that diversity is essential for delivering excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The Society wants to encourage applications from the widest range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to maximise innovation and creativity in science for the benefit of humanity.

Recent changes to the 5-year Fellowship strand

• Candidates no longer need to have a formal offer of employment at the point of application. However, award holders will still be expected to be offered (the equivalent of) a permanent post at a UK institution. This intention should be clearly stated in the institutional letter of support.
• Overseas researchers who have arrived in the UK prior to the application deadline will now be eligible to apply for the scheme, with the expectation that they would not normally have been in the UK for more than six months prior to the round closing deadline. A justification will be requested for applicants already based in the UK at the point of application.  
• Award holders can now start their Fellowship up to one year from the offer of award being made, allowing flexibility on moving dates and all the arrangements that need to occur to enable a significant move to the UK.
• The contract start date no longer needs to correlate with the award start dates. 
  Check the 2026 Round 2 scheme notes on the Royal Society website (when available) for more details of when Fellowships are expected to commence.

Note on funding:

Please note that this funding (both strands) cannot be used to cover salary on-costs (employer’s NI and pension contributions) or Estate and Indirect costs directly associated with the Fellow.

Assessment criteria:

Internal applications will be assessed using the Royal Society criteria:

• Candidate’s track record.
• The strength of the strategic case for the nomination and fit to the University’s research strategy.
• The high quality and originality of the candidate’s proposed research vision – including the potential impact of the research and benefit to the UK science base.
• Visiting Fellowships only: the mutual benefit to the University and the researcher, including potential to develop ongoing international collaborative links, supervise or mentor junior researchers, share ideas and practice.

University Internal selection:

Institutions nominating more than one candidate across both strands will be expected to: (1) make a strong case against the organisation’s strategic priorities, (2) outline internal selection process to the funder, and (3) detail what other support (direct or in-kind) will be provided to the applicants. Therefore, this call will be managed according to the University’s restricted calls procedure.

If interested in nominating a candidate, departments are requested to complete our online form by 28 April 2026. If asked to log-in, please use your University SSO/Raven details.

For your convenience, the attached document outlines the questions asked in the online form as it cannot be saved and/or returned to for future editing.

Internal deadline: 28 April 2026

Funder deadline: 01 July 2026

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk.

British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Grand Challenge 2026

Deadline: 14th May 2026

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has announced the first of their challenge-based research programmes, the Cardiovascular Grand Challenge. 

BHF will make at least one award of £10M over 5 years. Research proposals must address significant unmet needs or opportunities in one or more areas under this year's theme of "AI-powered transformation in cardiovascular health: from discovery to clinical practice". These areas include: understanding disease mechanisms; determining disease risk and implementing preventive measures; early and accurate diagnosis of evolving disease (when medical intervention is likely to be more effective); discovery and development of new drugs and other innovative treatments; and delivery of improved clinical care and information to patients. This call will be a two-stage competition, requiring first an outline application followed by a full application from shortlisted teams. 

Teams entering the competition need to mobilise knowledge, talent and resources from multiple fields and sectors, working on a scale that goes above and beyond conventional research programmes. As dictated by the specific area(s) that they address, proposals should aim to integrate a range of complementary research approaches (e.g. discovery, translation, clinical validation, epidemiology), disciplines (e.g. biomedical/non-biomedical researchers and clinicians), technologies (in particular, AI and complementary data science approaches) and sectors (e.g. academia, biotechnology, pharma). BHF also expects applicants to leverage matched funding and in-kind contributions, such as people/skills and facilities, from partnering academic institutions, commercial/industrial organisations and/or other sources, which in totality are comparable in scale to the requested award.

For more information, please consult the call web page (including a recent webinar for the scheme near the bottom of the webpage) and the outline application guidance. There will be a Q&A session on 12 May, 2026 at 2 pm, for which you can sign up here.

University Internal selection: 
Institutions can only lead on 3 applications in distinct areas with distinct teams. 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 14 May, 2026 (NB: if asked to log-in, please use your CRSID/Raven details; note that a Form cannot be saved and returned to).   

Call Open for Expressions of Interest for New Strategic Research Initiatives (SRIs)

Deadline: 15th May 2026

The competition for expressions of interest (EoI) in developing new Strategic Research Initiatives (SRIs) is now open. The competition will be in two stages: an EoI stage and an invited full application stage. Details of the full application stage will be sent to the invited applicants in the early Summer, with funding to start in October 2027. The deadline for the EoI stage is 15 May 2026.

SRIs will be awarded funding for up to eight years in total:  £65K per year for five years initially and, following a competitive review process, if successful SRIs may be awarded funding for a final three years. 

The application form for the EoI stage can be found here: EoI stage: Strategic Research Initiatives – Fill in form

If you have any questions, then please email rpc@admin.cam.ac.uk.

Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard Award 2026: Round 12

Deadline: 3rd June 2026

The Academy of Medical Sciences has invited institutions to begin their internal triage processes for the Academy’s competitive Springboard Awards – Round 12.

Springboard offers a bespoke package of support to biomedical researchers at the start of their first independent post to help launch their research careers. This scheme is targeted at those who are in the early stages of their first independent research position and have not yet obtained substantial research funding support from other sources, such as large research grants or large fellowships. Proposals are accepted across the full breadth of biomedical research as long as the research aims to improve human health. 

The award for Round 12 will provide funding of up to £125,000 over two years to support research costs (excluding applicant salary) and professional development. The award also gives access to the Academy's one-to-one mentoring scheme and a programme of events and activities developed for awardees' benefit. Please note that all applicants who successfully make it through internal selection receive an invite to take part in AMS's Mentoring programme, regardless of the outcome of their application.

For more information, please see the AMS website, the Springboard Round 12 application guidance and Frequently Asked Questions document. 

Eligibility criteria:

To be eligible, applicants must:

• Hold a salaried academic position that incorporates research.
• Have sufficient time remaining on their contract to complete the proposed Springboard project.
• Be in their first independent (salaried) position (i.e. group-leader level who is line managed not supervised).
• Have been appointed to this position within the last 5 years, i.e. 5 years from 3 June 2026 (FTE; exceptions made for career breaks).

Candidates must not:

• Currently hold a clinical contract of any kind (including honorary contracts).
• Be in receipt of substantial research funding as the Principal or Co- Investigator exceeding £150,000 for the two-year Springboard award (excluding your personal salary, overhead and indirect costs). See the worked-out example provided by AMS here for reference. 
• Have already secured a significant fellowship. Candidates who have already secured significant fellowships are not considered to be in the spirit of the scheme. Please see the list in the attached form under question 4.
• Be a postdoctoral researcher employed on a grant awarded in the name of another Principal Investigator.
• Hold a Research Associate position where they are under someone’s supervision.
• Have already secured a promotion onto a second independent post (there is an exception for those who can demonstrate that their second position was a side-ways step).

Please note that AMS permits only one resubmission to this scheme. A resubmission is classified as the second time that a candidate has been nominated by their HEI and submitted a full application to the Academy.

An applicant’s eligibility with respect to career stage and length of contract must be confirmed in the Head of Department letter for the internal selection step. If you are uncertain about any aspects of eligibility, please contact the Research Strategy Office at researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk

Cancer Research Horizons Therapeutic Catalyst Award