Funding

AHRC Design Generators Call Round 2

 AHRC has announced the AHRC Design Generators Round 2.

AHRC will award £150,000-£200,000 per project (funded at 80% fec) for innovative, design-led research projects of 9-12 months duration that contribute to the green transition. The aim is to generate new arts and humanities-based approaches and methodologies that harness design to address environmental sustainability, decarbonisation, circular economies, policy design and regenerative practices. The second round focuses on creating interventions within existing systems including healthcare, food networks, governance structures, financial infrastructures, and other societal frameworks. The majority of the disciplinary focus of the project must fall within AHRC’s subject remit (see section 7 of the AHRC research funding guide) and 50% of the application must comprise and evidence at least 50% design discipline coverage. 

The call is open to researchers across all career stages (see the Who is eligible to apply section for more information on eligibility). Every project must have at least one non-academic co-lead (examples include businesses, public sector organisations, third sector, civil society or community organisations) that supports the proposed activities and has the capacity to commit to delivering impact.

For more information, see the webpage here.

University Internal selection:

Institutions can only lead on 1 application and, in addition, may co-lead on 1 other application, but each application must be substantively different in both partnership team and project objectives. 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. 

If you are leading or co-leading an application for this call, you will need to take part in internal selection. Please complete the online form by 18 August, 2026 (NB: if asked to log-in, please use your University account and note that a Form cannot be saved and returned to).  

You will need the following documents and information to complete the Form: 
a document containing a list of team members, their roles in the project and their departments and organisational affiliation(s)
project summary (max 900 words) addressing the following:
Vision: What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?
Approach: How are you going to deliver your proposed work?
Applicant and team capability to deliver: Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
support letter from the Head of the Department that will host the award confirming their support for the project and agreement to host the award.

For more information, see the webpage here.

Purchase Mid-Range Equipment for Biomedical Research: MRC Equip

Internal Deadline: 8th September 2026

The Medical Research Council (MRC) has announced the Purchase mid-range equipment for biomedical research: MRC Equip funding opportunity.

This scheme supports the purchase of mid-range equipment for use across research within the MRC’s scientific remit. Applications must consist of a single piece of capital equipment, although this can include equipment that requires assembly or involves several components (not necessarily physically linked) provided they constitute a single technology platform. The primary purpose of the requested equipment must be biomedical research. Building on the Technician Commitment UKRI Action Plan, the funder particularly encourages applications from research technical professionals (RTPs).

Please note: This is a pre-announcement ahead of the call opening on 13th August 2026. Funder details may be subject to change upon official launch. We will communicate any major changes once the call opens.

Funding Available: The award range for this opportunity is £200,000 to £1,000,000. MRC will fund up to 100% of the full economic cost (FEC). If the total equipment cost exceeds this amount, the remainder must be met by other institutional or external contributions.

For more information please see the call page here.

University Internal selection:  

The University can only submit up to 5 applications to the MRC Mid-range Equipment call.

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 application requests they recommend and 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.

Internal selection deadline: 8th September 2026.

Funder deadline: 4:00 p.m. 5 November 2026.

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

Royal Society University Research Fellowships Scheme

The University Research Fellowship (URF) programme aims to support the next generation of research leaders to undertake cutting-edge research. The objectives of the URF programme are to enable outstanding early career scientists with the potential to become leaders in their field to:

• Build an independent research career at a UK university or research institution
• Gain the freedom, time, and long-term flexible support to pursue high-quality and innovative lines of scientific research
• Develop as research leaders by offering tailored high-quality professional development, networking and engagement opportunities.

Fellowships are for eight years, with years six to eight being subject to satisfactory progress demonstrated in a mid-fellowship review at the start of year four.

The Royal Society recognises that diversity is essential for delivering excellence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and 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. We regularly review and revise policies and processes to embed equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles in all aspects of the grant making process and ensure all talented applicants have an equitable chance to succeed as per the assessment criteria.

See below for details of adjustments they can provide for disabled applicants.

Changes to the scheme
In May 2025 the Royal Society announced up to £30m in funding over the next two years to attract global talent to the UK. As part of this announcement, an allocation of £10m will be used to attract early career researchers from overseas, including through the University Research Fellowships and Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships. We anticipate making additional awards through the scheme standard rounds. If you wish to apply, please submit your application to the current rounds as advertised on our website.

Host Organisation Support – More detailed guidance provided to host organisations regarding expectations of their support for the applicant. From this round onwards, the Head of Department statement of support will be visible to applicants.

We recommend reading the information in full and contacting your host organisation Research Office in the first instance with any questions.

What does the scheme offer?
Applicants can apply for up to a maximum of £1.87 million over eight years.

Funds can cover:

• Contribution to the award holder’s salary
• Indirect and estate costs
• Equipment costs and research expenses including consumables, travel, etc.
• Contribution towards research assistance salary and associated indirect and estate costs
• Support for a new four-year PhD studentship(s)
• Relocation and visa costs for the applicants and their dependants (partner and children).
• The total grant cap may be exceeded in order to cover relocation/visa costs if this is well justified in the application.
• Full funding details can be found in the scheme notes and in the Royal Society Funding Guidance.

We provide flexibility to accommodate personal circumstances including part-time working, sabbaticals and secondments. There is provision for maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoptive or extended sick leave, as well as financial support for childcare costs that arise from attending conferences and research visits.

Royal Society Research Fellows also have the opportunity to access a range of career development and engagement opportunities including training on leadership, science communication and public engagement, and activities coordinated by our science policy and schools engagement teams. For further detail on these additional benefits, read our opportunities page.

Royal Society awards have made a significant impact on many researchers’ careers. Case studies from grant-holders can be found elsewhere on this page, or read an in-depth report on the careers of our alumni on our Career Pathway Tracker page.

Visit this link for more information.

STFC Doctoral Focal Award in Data-Intensive Science

Deadline: 16th September 2026

Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)’s has announced a call to establish a Doctoral Focal Award in data-intensive sciences, worth up to £2.1m (100% fEC). The Doctoral focal award will be funded for up to 7 years with the first cohort expected in October 2027. Students will be expected to undertake an original research project, which brings together data skills and expertise from STFC's remit (astronomy, accelerator physics, solar and planetary science, particle physics, particle astrophysics and cosmology or nuclear physics) and apply them to a different sector, industrial context or both.

Who can apply
This funding opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility, Check if your organisation is eligible.

Who is eligible to apply
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new UKRI Funding Service.

For full details, visit Eligibility as an individual.

STFC facilities cannot host a centre in their own right but can support and collaborate as partners where appropriate.

We expect doctoral focal awards to have active support and engagement with industrial and project partners. While they do not have to be financially supporting awards, we do expect industrial representation to be listed on the management board and continued engagement throughout the awards.

Industrial partners cannot apply to host a centre and must partner with an eligible UK research organisation.

Visit the website for more information

Precision Prevention: Biological Mechanisms of Response Variation

Deadline: 17th September 2026

Apply for funding to investigate why biomedical prevention interventions work differently across people. Projects must generate mechanistic evidence in humans by testing biomedical experimental interventions or challenges in pre-disease or early disease states, providing insight into how to improve the targeting and effectiveness of precision prevention strategies.

Your project must:

• include an experimental intervention or challenge in humans
• focus on a mechanistic hypothesis

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £5 million over a duration of up to five years. MRC will fund 80% of your project’s full economic cost.

Who can apply
This funding opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible.

To be eligible to apply for this funding opportunity you must:

• be employed by an eligible research organisation
• show that you will direct the project and be actively engaged in the work

For applicants who do not have a contract of employment for the duration of the proposed project, by submitting an application the research organisation is confirming, if it is successful:

• contracts will be extended beyond the end date of the project
• all necessary support for the project and the applicants will be provided, including mentorship and career development for early career researchers

Visit the website for more information

Pre-announcement: NIHR Research Professorships Cohort 17

Internal deadline: 22nd September 2026

It is expected that NIHR will issue a call for the Research Professorships Round 17 (RP) in September. This scheme is aimed at health, public health, and adult social care researchers, as well as methodologists with an outstanding record in clinical and applied health or care research.

The primary priority of the award is to promote the effective translation of research into practice to improve health and care outcomes.

Candidate Profile

• Career Trajectory: Candidates must demonstrate a steep career trajectory over the last 5–10 years.
• Seniority: Applicants should have spent no more than 5 years at their current level of seniority at the time of application.
• Leadership Status: Candidates should not already be established leaders in their field but must demonstrate the potential to become leaders by the end of the award period.

Research Scope

• Fields: Nominations are welcomed from those working in experimental medicine, public health, health services research, social care research, or methodological research.
• Translation: A demonstrable record in translating research into improved health or social care is essential.
• Partnership Requirement: Nominations are only eligible where the Higher Education Institution (HEI) is working in partnership with the NHS, or organisations/commissioners/providers of public health and/or care services based in England.

Key Institutional Expectations

Salary Recycling

The basic salary of the Research Professor is funded by the NIHR. Host institutions are required to recycle the salary costs released from the Professor’s previous role. The institution must reinvest these funds into building research capacity (e.g., hiring new research staff or supporting early-career researchers). This reinvestment plan is a mandatory part of the application assessment.

Institutional Support and Future Employment

Institutions must demonstrate a sustained commitment to the nominee, including:

• Providing appropriate administrative and research support.
• Guaranteeing necessary infrastructure and facilities.
• Supporting the nominee’s participation in the NIHR Leadership Programme.
• Long-term Integration: A commitment to the individual beyond the lifetime of the award is required, including a clear long-term employment plan and integration into the institution’s strategic research direction.

University Internal Selection

NIHR restricts the number of nominations an HEI can put forward. This limit applies regardless of whether the University is the lead employing organisation or the partner organisation.

For the Research Professorship, the University may put forward a maximum of 3 nominations, subject to the following diversity requirements:

• If 1 nomination is made: Applicants can be male or female.
• If 2 nominations are made: At least one applicant must be female.
• If 3 nominations are made: At least one applicant must be female AND at least one applicant must be from an ethnic minority group.

Based on NIHR data, specific groups remain underrepresented at senior levels. In the 2022/23 NIHR funding cycle, while 44% of total applicants were from ethnic minority backgrounds, this figure often decreases for high-seniority professorship awards. These diversity requirements are designed to directly address these disparities.

Process

This call will be managed according to the University’s restricted calls procedure.

Schools have been asked to provide a ranked list of recommended individuals. Departments should await communication from their respective School offices regarding the internal selection timetable. Please note that applicants who have not been through the School ranking stage will not be accepted for the final University submission.

Internal deadline for Schools to submit ranked candidates: 22nd September 2026

Anticipated funder deadline: Early December 2026

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

EPSRC Strategic Infrastructure Call

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 usually 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. Due to increasing interest in this call at Cambridge, it is now being 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. 

This circulation follows on from that sent in March 2026, as not all of the six institutional slots for the 2026-27 annual cycle have yet been filled.  Please note that, while we are running a second round of the internal selection process over the summer, the funding call is currently closed as EPSRC make some updates to their process and assessment practices, and it is expected to re-open in September.

To take part in the second round of internal selection for the 2026-27 cycle, please complete our online form (NB: if asked to log-in, please use your University account details; note that a Form cannot be saved and returned to) by 30 September 2026.

EPSRC Strategic Infrastructure 2026-27 – Fill in form

Applicants who have already received an outcome of the internal selection process from earlier in the year do not need to apply again and should continue to work on their proposal and/or engage in discussions with EPSRC and internally, as required. 

For more information please visit the webpage.

Doctoral Focal Award: UKRI Venture Doctorates

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) are leading the delivery of the opportunity. However, this opportunity is open to proposals across the breadth of UKRI’s remit, including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and arts (SHAPE) disciplines.

By the end of the award, funded programmes must demonstrate delivery of the following three outcomes.

• Enhanced entrepreneurial and commercial confidence in cohorts of doctoral students
• Increased high-value commercial outputs anchored in the UK
• Enhanced connectivity between academic research and the market

In the time since the below pre-announcement email was circulated in May, a series of discussions have taken place - led by the Schools of Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences and Technology - bringing together interested parties from across the University and engaging potential partners. There have, up to now, been four Industrial Strategy Sectors discussed as possible focus areas: Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy Industries, Digital and Technologies and Life Sciences.  Further colleagues from any School are welcome to join these discussions by getting in touch with Sally Birse seab2@cam.ac.uk, Xavier Montiel Xavier.Montiel@admin.cam.ac.uk or Abi Herrmann Abi.Herrmann@admin.cam.ac.uk

Alternatively, if you would like to express interest in leading a potential bid that would be distinct to the cross-School discussions referred to above, please reply to this email with the following details by 13th August 2026

• Proposed Project Lead’s name
• Proposed Project Lead’s Department
• Proposed key partners (internal and external)
• Which of the eight high-growth sectors in the UK government’s Industrial Strategy the DFA would support

The UKRI timeline for the outline stage of this call is copied below and the registration for the upcoming webinars is via the UKRI Engagement Hub. Please note that

10 August 2026 9:00am: Opening date

20 August 2026: Webinar

26 August 2026: Webinar

10 September 2026: Webinar

21 September 2026 4:00pm: Expression of interest

22 October 2026 4:00pm: Outline applications closing date

If you have any questions regarding this approach, please contact Researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk.

Visit their website for more information!

Bioscience Impact and Knowledge Exchange (BIKE)

The internal Bioscience Impact and Knowledge Exchange (BIKE) Fund is now OPEN.

Up to £20,000 is available per application for projects of up to 6 months duration. This fund is for individuals employed by the University of Cambridge as researchers (post-PhD). The deadline for applications is 23rd October 2026 at 16:00.

This funding call is new and broader in remit than the previous calls. All impact project types are welcomed with underpinning research in bioscience and human health impact projects seeking to influence policy; please check the full remit and scope of the call here.

This fund is for research impact projects and is available to help strengthen partnerships and accelerate the translation of research outputs into impacts. Proposed projects may pursue commercialisation, changes to policy/practice (beyond academia), impact on health/wellbeing/production etc. Potential impacts may occur on a local, regional, national or international scale.

• Deadline for applications: 23 October 2026 at 16:00.
• Awards: up to £20,000 per application
• Project start date: 4 January 2027 – 22 January 2027
• Project duration: up to 6 months

If you are interested in this call, we strongly encourage contacting Dr Carmen Fernandez-Posada, Dr Emma Brock or Dr Sophie Buller, in the University’s Engagement Knowledge Exchange and Impact (EKEI) Team: iaa@admin.cam.ac.uk for support with your application.

Please visit this page for more information!

Restricted call: MRC Obesity Research Institute

Deadline: 19th November 2026

The MRC has recently issued a pre-announcement of a funding call to establish an Obesity Research Institute focused on mechanistic research on the causes and consequences of obesity.

The MRC is seeking director-led applications to investigate mechanistic biomedical drivers of obesity and related cardiometabolic disease and deliver transformative impact in obesity research. The director, supported by a leadership team, will lead the design and delivery of a collaborative institute. Applications should focus on the key barriers to unlock understanding of the causes and consequences of obesity to enable targeted prevention and treatment. The funding available is up to £60 million, and for seven years duration, with the potential to renew.

As detailed in the pre-announcement text, UK-ORI will undertake research into the biological origins, prevention, treatment, and health consequences of obesity, with a strong focus on elucidating underlying mechanistic pathways. Its scientific scope will integrate fundamental biomedical science, medicine, and technological innovation to enable the development of effective, targeted interventions and improved health outcomes.

Full details of the bid will be released at the end of July and the deadline for applications will be 19 November 2026.

University Internal selection:  

Institutions can only submit one application to this call as lead organisation, and it has been agreed with the PVC Research that the internal selection process be coordinated by the School of Clinical Medicine.

(Participation in applications led by other institutions, as co-lead or collaborator, is allowed and therefore not subject to internal selection).

As an important initial step, the School needs to appoint a Director to lead a bid and engage partner Institutions. The SCM has received some expressions of interest already. To ensure that any suitably qualified PI with a track record of success in obesity research and relevant leadership experience has an opportunity to put themselves forward for consideration, the School requests that they get in touch by Thursday 16th July, by emailing Prof Susan Ozanne (seo10@cam.ac.uk) and Professor Patrick Maxwell (regius@medschl.cam.ac.uk). Please also suggest colleagues who you think would be suited to the role and share any other thoughts you feel appropriate.

Once a Director is identified, further communication will follow with regards to building the leadership team and coordinating input to the bid.

More information on the website.

Cancer Research Horizons Therapeutic Catalyst Award