Apply for MRC Centre of Research Excellence (MRC CoRE) funding to tackle complex and interdisciplinary health challenges.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for Medical Research Council (MRC) funding.
MRC CoREs will be funded for up to 14 years. Your award will initially last for
seven years, with a further seven years based on successful review.
The full economic cost (FEC) of your MRC CoRE can be up to £26.25 million for the first seven years. MRC will fund 80% of the FEC. The maximum MRC contribution will be £21 million.
This is an annual funding opportunity. We expect to fund one or two MRC CoREs every year.
MRC CoRE funding aims to tackle complex and interdisciplinary health challenges. MRC CoREs will support bold and ambitious research focused on a defined challenge. Tackling such challenges will be transformative to biomedical research, health research or both within 14 years, and will enhance approaches to the prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, improving health and wellbeing for all.
MRC CoREs will be beacons of excellence in research culture, equality, diversity and inclusion, leadership models and innovation.
An MRC CoRE should be distinct in the context of other national and international activities and its research positioned in the context of ongoing investments across MRC and the broader landscape, synergising with or capitalising upon existing knowledge and investments where relevant. These major investments should be outward facing, harnessing the best talent in the UK to deliver upon their proposed vision and providing a stimulating environment to train the next generation of researchers and technologists.
Applications can be from a single research organisation or in partnership across multiple organisations. Applications may include project partners.
We expect to fund one or two MRC CoREs every year.
For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the ‘Additional information’ section.
Scope
What types of challenges should MRC CoREs tackle?
MRC CoRE challenges are expected to:
- be bold, ambitious, and innovative, and address a gap or opportunity which is not being adequately addressed elsewhere
- address substantial unmet needs in understanding or modifying human health and disease
- be specific, with major strategic objectives achievable within the 14-year timeframe which, if achieved, will transform the research field or area of health research
- align to the MRC mission
- require coordinated and flexible, major long-term funding
MRC CoRE challenges will be achieved through:
- fostering innovation and engagement to establish the capability and capacity to place the UK at the international forefront of impactful health research
- an outward facing position, harnessing and networking the best expertise in the UK
- bringing together creative and diverse approaches for cross-sectoral and multi or interdisciplinary, and novel ways of working
- distinct and disruptive research that drives breakthrough advances and addresses specific bottlenecks through knowledge generation, technological or methodological innovation, with clear translational relevance
- pursuing a compelling vision around specific questions of importance or critical knowledge gaps, not through open-ended research programmes
- developing a stimulating and supportive research environment
What areas of research should the challenge address?
For round three we welcome outline applications to address challenges across any part of MRC remit, including discovery, understanding mechanism, and development of concepts or interventions for prevention or treatment.
It is not our expectation that a single MRC CoRE will address the challenge of the field as a whole within 14 years. Your challenge should be built around a defined gap or opportunity, a major barrier or bottleneck that needs to be surmounted, or the breakthrough advance that is pivotal for our understanding and ability to prevent, diagnose and treat disease.
Your outline application must explain how the proposed MRC CoRE will be positioned in the context of ongoing investments and activities across MRC and the broader UK and international landscape, synergising with or capitalising upon existing knowledge and investments where relevant.
You should consider what you would need to put in place to promote or achieve equity of access to resulting knowledge, technologies, interventions, and therapies.
MRC CoRE research environment
MRC CoREs provide an opportunity for a different approach to research, creating collaborative and stimulating multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary research environments. MRC CoREs are expected to adopt and maintain the highest standards in the way research is conducted and openly communicated; to support creative leadership approaches and a team science ethos, develop and nurture career paths and a training environment which supports a positive research culture.
Host research organisations
Applications can be from a single eligible organisation or a partnership of organisations.
When there are two or more eligible organisations involved, for administrative purposes it is necessary to identify a single project lead who must be affiliated with the lead research organisation.
Support from research organisations
Considerable, sustained and clearly defined support from the research organisation is essential to a successful application and will be an equal part of the assessment of applications for MRC CoREs. We expect research organisations to provide:
- laboratory space
- access to facilities and equipment
- access to necessary digital support infrastructure
- support to manage estates
- human resources services
- finance services
- underpinning of key staff positions
- access to additional sources of funding and support available to other researchers across the research organisations
Number of applications
An organisation may lead one outline application in round three. Applications from existing MRC units may be submitted in addition to other applications from the organisation and do not count towards the one application as lead organisation limit.
Organisations may freely participate as a partner in applications led from other organisations.
Duration
We will support MRC CoREs for up to 14 years. The duration of this award is for seven years, with a review point in year six to approve release of the second period of funding.
You should enter the duration of the project as 168 months (14 years). This reflects the maximum duration of an MRC CoRE.
The MRC CoRE start date can be from 1 April 2026 to 30 September 2026.
Funding available
You will be asked to indicate outline costs for the first funding period of seven years.
The FEC of your project for the first seven years can be up to £26,250,000.
We will fund 80% of the FEC. Any identified exceptions will be funded at 100%. The maximum MRC contribution, including any identified exceptions funded at 100%, is £21,000,000.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) indexation will be applied at the time of award. We will not supplement awards for inflation after they have started.
We will provide all the awarded funding to the lead organisation, to manage and distribute accordingly. Awards spanning multiple organisations will require a clear plan addressing award governance and management to ensure funds can be used flexibly to support changes in research delivery and opportunity across the course of the award.
We will support a limited number of interlinked research activities or themes, with funding focused on key strategic objectives, achievable during the 14-year lifespan. The MRC CoRE award should provide a platform to win additional grant support from all available funders. A minimum expectation is for doubling of the MRC CoRE associated budget through external funding by the mid-term point (year seven).
What we will fund
You can request funding for costs such as:
- directly allocated contributions to salaries of the leadership team and other established researchers, usually between 15% and 30% of their time, in line with their research contribution
- directly incurred salaries of research staff, technicians, and professional enabling staff, where there is a clear justification for their critical role in delivering the MRC CoRE
- recruitment of new researchers critical to addressing the research challenge, for example those switching disciplines or sectors, or from overseas, where 100% salary may be requested for up to three years, before other grant support is established
- research consumables
- if required, up to £500,000 start-up costs for routine equipment (items over £10,000 that constitute normal elements of a well-founded laboratory). All items will have to be fully justified at the full application stage and may not include generic departmental equipment
- by exception and with the permission of MRC head office, mid-range or large equipment critical to establish platforms or facilities. However, it is anticipated for most mid-range equipment MRC CoREs will apply to the MRC annual mid-range equipment opportunity in competition with the wider community. Mid-range or large equipment is a single item costing over £138,000 (£115,000 excluding VAT). Research organisations are expected to contribute to such equipment in most cases, and to justify their level of contribution.
- travel costs
- data preservation, data sharing and dissemination costs
- costs for innovative training and capacity building required to address the research challenge, when not available elsewhere
- studentships support (an exception funded at 100%), including iCASE studentships, may typically be requested for up to two studentships each year across the duration of the award. Numbers should not exceed the supervisory capacity of the MRC CoRE. See UKRI stipend and fees.
- technology and data platforms to provide accessible facilities and capability essential to the mission and to promote open science, when not available elsewhere
- experimental medicine studies
- initiatives to underpin or strengthen positive research culture
- public partnerships and related activities, including public engagement and involvement, and payments to public contributors
- initiatives to improve environmental sustainability
- estates and indirect costs
- directly incurred costs for international co-leads (an exception funded at 100%) may be requested, although we expect most costs to be incurred by UK organisations
The leadership team will have flexibility over use of most of the funding within the total awarded, especially considering the award duration. There will be constraints on the use of capital equipment funding.
We do not expect exact costs to be known at the time of outline application and specified. Flexible funds can be requested and used to develop activities and support new opportunities but must be appropriately justified with clear plans for financial management.
What we will not fund
We will not fund:
- open access costs: these must be covered by the UKRI open access grant
- training and capacity building that can be accessed through existing funding routes, such as existing doctoral training programmes, MRC or UKRI fellowships
- mid-range equipment other than agreed and assessed as necessary as part of the start-up requirements. All other mid-range equipment must be requested through the annual MRC equipment funding opportunity or other funding routes
- routine equipment (that constitutes normal elements of a well-founded laboratory) over and above the start-up fund of up to £500,000. MRC has other arrangements to modestly support ongoing routine equipment needs of its major investments
- additional or duplicative equipment that is already part of the existing research environment of the applicants
- generic computing platforms for data analysis or data storage, which should be part of wider research organisation data management activities
- buildings and other types of infrastructures
- clinical trials or longitudinal population studies, which have specific governance requirements and for which alternative funding routes are available. MRC CoREs may utilise existing cohorts or clinical trials funded through other routes
Team project partner
You may include team project partners that will support your MRC CoRE through cash or in-kind contributions, such as:
- staff time
- access to equipment
- sites or facilities
- the provision of data
- software or materials
- recruitment of people as research participants
- providing samples, such as human tissue, for the project
Who cannot be included as a team project partner
Any individual included in your application core team cannot also be a project partner.
Any organisation that employs a member of the application core team cannot be a project partner organisation, this includes other departments within the same organisation.
If you are collaborating with someone in your organisation or an organisation of a core team member, consider including them in the core team as project co-lead, or specialist. They cannot be a project partner.
Supporting skills and talent
We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.
Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)
UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.
As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.
See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.
Intention to submit
An organisation may lead one outline application in round three. If you are submitting to this funding opportunity, as your organisation’s single lead application, you are encouraged to inform us of your intention to submit by email to core@mrc.ukri.org by 4:00pm UK time on 9 December 2024.
Please provide in a maximum of 400 words:
- names and affiliations of the members of the leadership team
- a list of project partners
- a brief description of the research challenge you will address
Important note, this step is voluntary and does not form part of the assessment process. If you do not inform us of your intention to submit you can still apply to the funding opportunity. MRC will not undertake eligibility checks at this point and will not provide feedback. You should not await a response, but simply continue with the development of the outline application to be submitted by the closing date. MRC will use the information provided to help prepare for the assessment process.
Applications from existing MRC units, although not included in the one lead application per research organisation limit, are also encouraged to inform us of their intention to submit.
