Covid-19 Specific Funding:

Expression of interest: emergency route for time-critical Covid-19 research Deadline: Open
Apply for funding to support short-term time-sensitive collection of data or samples or rapid turn-around research or analysis to either: a) inform urgent policy or national decision making, b) secure data for future research use. This is a rarely awarded emergency route for exceptional circumstances.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome & Mastercard Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator  Deadline: Open
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard have committed up to $125 million in seed funding to speed-up the response to the Covid-19 epidemic by identifying, assessing, developing, and scaling-up treatments. The partners are committed to equitable access, including making products available and affordable in low-resource settings. The Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will play a catalytic role by accelerating and evaluating new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients with Covid-19 in the immediate term, and other viral pathogens in the longer-term. Currently there are no broad-spectrum antivirals or immunotherapies available for the fight against emerging pathogens, and none approved for use on Covid-19.

Covid-19 – Other International Funding (and more) read KTN round-up 
Covid-19 – Support for Businesses – for the latest information on UK Govt support available.

Other Featured Funding:

New Future Fund – Breakthrough. Deadline: Open
This UK-wide programme will deliver £375m of government funding via British Patient Capital, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank. Due to high research and development costs, breakthrough technology companies typically require more capital than other companies, to fuel the later stages of their growth. Because of their ability to grow rapidly and have a significant economic impact, the growth of these innovative companies is critical to the UK’s future prosperity and economic recovery.

SBRI: Digital Regulatory Navigation Platform (Health Products). Deadline: 20 September 2021

Organisations can apply for a share of £3 million, inclusive of VAT, to develop a digital regulatory navigation platform for health product innovators.

Audience of the Future – Design Foundations 2. Deadline: 29 September 2021
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £800,000 for early-stage, human-centred design projects in creative or immersive experiences. 

SBRI Healthcare – Competition 19 :Deadlines: 13 October 2021
Funded by NHS England and NHS Improvement in collaboration with the AHSN Network, SBRI Healthcare is delighted to announce a Phase 3 funding competition open to innovations in an advanced stage of development. The aim is to accelerate these innovations into relevant health or social settings, and to facilitate the generation of evidence in Real World settings required by commissioners and regulators to make purchasing or other recommendations/decisions. Key themes:

• Mental Health Inequalities in Children and Young People

• NHS Reset and Recovery and New Ways of Working

Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021-2022: Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society – Cluster 2. Deadline: 6 April 2022

Horizon Europe has a wide variety of open calls for culture, creativity and inclusive society, with closing dates in September 2021 or April 2022. Some of these also include AI, big data, digital tech, materials and health.

Other Funding Opportunities:

INNOVATE UK:

Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government. 

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP): 2021 to 2022, round 3. Deadline: 29 September 2021
Up to £6 million is available to fund innovation projects, which are a partnership between an academic institution/RTO/Catapult and a business or not-for-profit, employing 1-2 graduate associates.

Innovate UK Smart Grants: August 2021 Deadline: 6 October 2021
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million for game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy. 

Women in Innovation Awards 2021/22. Deadline: 13 October 2021 
Women with exciting, innovative ideas who will inspire others can apply for a £50,000 grant and bespoke business support.
For more information on all open IUK funding opportunities

Biotechnological and Bological Sciences Research Council:

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, is a non-departmental public body, and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience. It predominantly funds scientific research institutes and university research departments in the UK.

BBSRC standard research grant. Deadline: open

You can apply for research grants at any time in any area within the remit of BBSRC. BBSRC funds research in plants, microbes, animals (including humans), and the tools and technology underpinning biological research from the level of molecules and cells, to tissues, whole organisms, populations and landscapes.

Click here for BBSRC funding opportunities
You can apply for research grants at any time in any area within the remit of BBSRC. BBSRC funds research in plants, microbes, animals (including humans), and the tools and technology underpinning biological research from the level of molecules and cells, to tissues, whole organisms, populations and landscapes.

Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA)

DASA aims to find and fund exploitable innovation to support UK defence and security quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity.

Open Competition: Deadline: Open
The Open Call is one of the funding competition mechanisms DASA uses to find proposals that address challenges faced by government stakeholders. It gives bidders the opportunity to present their ideas to defence and security stakeholders at any time, without waiting for a relevant Themed Competition.
Click here for more information on DASA funding opportunities

The National Institute for Health Research

The nation’s largest funder of health and care research, providing the people, facilities and technology for research to thrive.

Medical Research Council (MRC)

The Medical Research Council (MRC) improves the health of people in the UK – and around the world – by supporting excellent science, and training the very best scientists.

MRC population and systems medicine programme grant Deadline: 22 September 2021
Funding is available from MRC’s Population and Systems Medicine Board to provide large, long-term and renewable programme funding for researchers working in the area of population and systems medicine.

MRC population and systems medicine research grant. Deadline: 22 September 2021
An MRC research grant is the main way for UK-based medical researchers to apply for researcher-led project funding. You should apply if your research is on population and systems medicine.

MRC neurosciences and mental health research grant Deadline: 29 September 2021
An MRC research grant is the main way for UK-based medical researchers to apply for researcher-led project funding. You should apply if your research is on neurosciences and mental health.

Click here for  MRC funding opportunities

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

ESRC Research Grant Deadline: Open call
If you have an excellent idea for a research project, the ESRC have their Research Grants open call. Awards ranging from £350,000 to £1 million (100 per cent full Economic Cost (fEC)) can be made to eligible institutions to enable individuals or research teams to undertake anything from a standard research project through to a large-scale survey and other infrastructure or methodological development.

Click here for ESRC funding opportunities

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC):

The EPSRC is the main funding body for engineering and physical research sciences. For EPSRC funding opportunities.

Healthcare technologies investigator-led grant Deadline: Open
Healthcare technologies investigator-led research grants are for researchers at UK higher education institutions, research council institutes, UKRI-approved independent research organisations and NHS bodies. Your application should be in line with the grand challenges of our healthcare technologies theme, e.g., developing future therapies with technologies that enhance efficacy, minimise costs and reduce risks to patients; frontiers of physical intervention, restoring physical function and optimising surgery and other physical interventions with high precision and minimal invasiveness; optimising treatment through effective diagnosis, patient-specific prediction and evidence-based intervention; or transforming community health and care by using real-time information to support patients managing their own health and wellbeing and to allow healthcare professionals to make timely interventions.

Click here for EPSRC funding opportunities
 
Trusts/Foundations/Charities:

The Health Foundation
Click here for more Health Foundation funding opportunities

The Wellcome Trust
Wellcome Discovery Awards Deadline: November 2021
This scheme provides funding for established researchers and teams/co-applicants (which can include commercial businesses) from any discipline who want to pursue bold and creative research ideas to deliver significant shifts in understanding that could improve human life, health and wellbeing.
Click here for more Wellcome Trust funding opportunities

The British Heart Foundation
BHF provide personal support for clinical and non-clinical cardiovascular researchers at all stages of their career. They also provide grants for short and long term research projects, essential infrastructure and strategic initiatives.

Association of Medical Research Charities
Over 30 years ago a small, diverse group of medical research charities form the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) to unite the sector and provide it with a leading voice. Since then their membership has grown to over 140 charities.  In 2018, these charities invested £1.3 billion in medical research. Click here to access their database

Other UK Government, Industry, Seed Funds and Loans: 

MedTech NAVIGATOR Innovation Grants Deadline: Open
The MedTech NAVIGATOR Innovation Grants are designed to facilitate such bespoke interactions between SMEs and eligible Knowledge Providers, such as an NHS Trust, or a University, during the product development process. Each Innovation Grant (up to £7,500) is worth 50% of the total project costs up to a maximum of £15,000.  Your business must pay the remaining 50% and any project costs over and above the £15,000 cap.

The British Business Bank Deadline: Open

BBB are a government-owned business development bank dedicated to making finance markets work better for smaller businesses. Whether you’re looking for finance to start a business, grow to the next level, or stay ahead of the competition, they say that they can deliver greater volume and choice of finance.

Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) funding. General ‘collection’ of news and funds

Information about SBRI for businesses and public sector organisations that might want to use the scheme. 

UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund Deadline: Open

The UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (formerly known as The Rainbow Seed Fund) is a £27.1m early-stage venture capital fund building and growing technology companies stemming from the UK’s research base.

Creative England Investments Deadline: Open

Creative England is supporting SMEs by providing competitive loans to digital businesses in order to make their growth plans a reality. The investments on offer are intended to fuel this fast-growing sector by financing business expansion and new products, leading to the creation of new high-quality jobs and Intellectual Property (IP). Loans from £50,000 – £250,000 are available with repayment terms ranging from 3-36 months. Interest rates range from 5– 10 per cent, depending on the risk profile of the applicant. This includes companies from within the digital healthcare sector.

HSBC Loan Fund Deadline: Open

HSBC UK has announced a £14 billion lending fund to support the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Fund includes a ring-fenced £1 billion to help UK companies grow their business overseas, as well as a broader package of support. The initiative is available to UK businesses with a turnover of up to £350 million. Applicants do not need to be an HSBC customer to apply.

International:

The EIC Accelerator: Open Competition (Grants only)
The EIC Accelerator supports individual Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), in particular Startups and spinout companies to develop and scaleup game-changing innovations. 

The Global Challenges Research Fund
The Newton Fund
European Funding
Grants available to UK through US Defense – medical research program Export Opportunities – To access the Department of International Trades Export Opportunities Pipeline

Funding Opportunities News:

KTN: Latest Health and Life Sciences Funding Round-Up
UKRI: Funding opportunities

Covid-19 Specific Funding:

New Future Fund To Support Innovative UK Businesses Deadline: Open
This is a Future Fund to support the UK’s innovative businesses currently affected by Covid-19. These businesses have been unable to access other government business support programmes, such as CBILS, because they are either pre-revenue or pre-profit and typically rely on equity investment.

Expression of interest: emergency route for time-critical Covid-19 research Deadline: Open
Apply for funding to support short-term time-sensitive collection of data or samples or rapid turn-around research or analysis to either: a) inform urgent policy or national decision making, b) secure data for future research use. This is a rarely awarded emergency route for exceptional circumstances.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome & Mastercard Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator  Deadline: Open
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard have committed up to $125 million in seed funding to speed-up the response to the Covid-19 epidemic by identifying, assessing, developing, and scaling-up treatments. The partners are committed to equitable access, including making products available and affordable in low-resource settings. The Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will play a catalytic role by accelerating and evaluating new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients with Covid-19 in the immediate term, and other viral pathogens in the longer-term. Currently there are no broad-spectrum antivirals or immunotherapies available for the fight against emerging pathogens, and none approved for use on Covid-19.

Covid-19 – Other International Funding (and more) read KTN round-up 
Covid-19 – Support for Businesses – for the latest information on UK Govt support available.

Other Featured Funding:

Young Innovators Awards 2021/22. Deadline: 28 July 2021
Young people (aged 18-30 on 28th July 2021) can apply for an award to make their business idea a reality, which includes a grant for £5,000, a living allowance, and tailored business support.

Innovate UK Smart Grants: May 2021 Deadline: 25 August 2021
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million for game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy.

Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award. Opens: 28 June. Deadline: 6 September 2021
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Award is run by the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) in partnership with NHSX and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The Award will support technologies across the spectrum of development: from initial feasibility to evaluation within the NHS. In this round they are interested in innovation projects in the categories of development and clinical evaluation, real-world testing and Initial health system adoption.

SBRI Healthcare – Competition 18: Stroke and Technology Competition. Opening soon (dates to be announced)
Applicants will be invited to tender for projects to develop technology enabled solutions addressing the below challenge: Stroke and Technology, including the following sub-categories: pre-hospital diagnosis, rehabilitation, life after stroke.

NIHR- Children and young peoples mental health  Deadline: 1pm on 14 September 2021
The NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) programme will soon invite proposals on the research and development of digital health technologies aimed at improving children and young people’s mental health (CYPMH) across England, with an emphasis on communities or regions with a high burden of common mental health conditions.

Other Funding Opportunities: 

INNOVATE UK:

Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government.

Biomedical catalyst 2021: early and late stage awards Deadline: 26 August 2021
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £18 million to develop innovative healthcare products, technologies, and processes. The aim of this early and late-stage competition is to enable businesses to create a data package that can support the further development of their products.

For more information on all open IUK funding opportunities

BIOTECHNOLOGICAL AND BOLOGICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL:

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, is a non-departmental public body, and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience. It predominantly funds scientific research institutes and university research departments in the UK.

Click here for BBSRC funding opportunities

DEFENCE AND SECURITY ACCELERATOR (DASA)

DASA aims to find and fund exploitable innovation to support UK defence and security quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity.

Open Competition: Deadline: Open
The Open Call is one of the funding competition mechanisms DASA uses to find proposals that address challenges faced by government stakeholders. It gives bidders the opportunity to present their ideas to defence and security stakeholders at any time, without waiting for a relevant Themed Competition.
Click here for more information on DASA funding opportunities

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH

The nation’s largest funder of health and care research, providing the people, facilities and technology for research to thrive.

NIHR i4i Connect – Competition 5 Deadline: Stage 1 – 14 September 2021
i4i Connect is aimed at small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) developing medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and Tier 3a digital health technologies with direct patient benefits, looking to ultimately integrate into the NHS. The funding stream aims to help SMEs reach the next stage in the development pathway to apply for further funding, in particular for an i4i Product Development Award. i4i Connect is researcher-led and does not specify topics for research.

Click here for NIHR funding opportunities

MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (MRC)

The Medical Research Council (MRC) improves the health of people in the UK – and around the world – by supporting excellent science, and training the very best scientists.

MRC molecular and cellular medicine programme grant. Deadline: 1 September 2021
Funding is available from MRC’s Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board to provide large, long-term and renewable programme funding for researchers working in the area of molecular and cellular medicine.

Pre-announcement: experimental medicine grants Deadline: 9 September 2021
Apply for funding to investigate the causes, progression and treatment of human disease. Your project must include an experimental intervention or challenge in humans, focus on addressing mechanistic questions and be academically led.

MRC population and systems medicine programme grant Deadline: 22 September 2021
Funding is available from MRC’s Population and Systems Medicine Board to provide large, long-term and renewable programme funding for researchers working in the area of population and systems medicine.

MRC population and systems medicine research grant. Deadline: 22 September 2021
An MRC research grant is the main way for UK-based medical researchers to apply for researcher-led project funding. You should apply if your research is on population and systems medicine.

MRC neurosciences and mental health research grant Deadline: 29 September 2021
An MRC research grant is the main way for UK-based medical researchers to apply for researcher-led project funding. You should apply if your research is on neurosciences and mental health.

MRC infections and immunity programme grant Deadline: 8 September 2021
Funding is available from MRC’s Infections and Immunity Board to provide large, long-term and renewable programme funding for researchers working in the area of infections and immunity.

Click here for  MRC funding opportunities

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (ESRC)

Research into inclusive ageing Deadline: June 2021
Apply for research into inclusive ageing. Your project must include a principal investigator based at an eligible research organisation. Your project must be interdisciplinary and focus on both: social and economic inequalities that affect people in later life and practical ways to improve inclusivity in later life.
Your project must address how earlier life experiences affect inequalities in later life.

ESRC Research Grant Deadline: Open call
If you have an excellent idea for a research project, the ESRC have their Research Grants open call. Awards ranging from £350,000 to £1 million (100 per cent full Economic Cost (fEC)) can be made to eligible institutions to enable individuals or research teams to undertake anything from a standard research project through to a large-scale survey and other infrastructure or methodological development.

Click here for ESRC funding opportunities

ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL (EPSRC):

The EPSRC is the main funding body for engineering and physical research sciences. For EPSRC funding opportunities.

Digital technologies for health and care Deadline: 21 July 2021
Develop research ideas for novel digital technologies to monitor, diagnose and treat the population remotely. You can be from any research area and must be eligible for EPSRC research grant funding. The first stage of the process is a ‘sandpit’ event. In this three-day online event you will work with other researchers to develop ideas for proposals.

Healthcare technologies investigator-led grant Deadline: Open
Healthcare technologies investigator-led research grants are for researchers at UK higher education institutions, research council institutes, UKRI-approved independent research organisations and NHS bodies. The funder strongly encourage collaboration with relevant healthcare professionals, other researchers, industry, the public sector and other relevant partners. Your application should be in line with the grand challenges of our healthcare technologies theme, e.g., developing future therapies with technologies that enhance efficacy, minimise costs and reduce risks to patients; frontiers of physical intervention, restoring physical function and optimising surgery and other physical interventions with high precision and minimal invasiveness; optimising treatment through effective diagnosis, patient-specific prediction and evidence-based intervention; or transforming community health and care by using real-time information to support patients managing their own health and wellbeing and to allow healthcare professionals to make timely interventions.

Click here for EPSRC funding opportunities

Trusts/Foundations/Charities:

The Health Foundation
Click here for more Health Foundation funding opportunities

The Wellcome Trust
Wellcome Discovery Awards Deadline: November 2021
This scheme provides funding for established researchers and teams/co-applicants (which can include commercial businesses) from any discipline who want to pursue bold and creative research ideas to deliver significant shifts in understanding that could improve human life, health and wellbeing.

Click here for more Wellcome Trust funding opportunities

Association of Medical Research Charities
Over 30 years ago a small, diverse group of medical research charities form the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) to unite the sector and provide it with a leading voice. Since then their membership has grown to over 140 charities. In 2018, these charities invested £1.3 billion in medical research. Click here to access their database

Other UK Government, Industry, Seed Funds and Loans: 

Zinc Venture Builder 2021 Deadline: 25 June 2021
The Zinc Venture Builder programme is a full time, 12 month programme that exists to build brand new companies that tackle the biggest social challenges in the developed world. The 2021 challenge is “to ensure that every child and young person can develop and maintain good mental and emotional health”.

Medicines and Diagnostics Manufacturing Transformation Fund Deadline: 30 June 2021
New £20 million fund to grow UK life sciences manufacturing opens for applications.

Merck 2021 Research Grants Deadline: 31 August 2021
The Merck research grants programme is open to scientists in all career stages who are affiliated with any research-based institution, university or company. Applicants submit their application for the focus topics containing non-confidential information only. You may apply for more than one grant or submit your application for more than one focus topic. If your application is successful, you are invited to submit a full proposal under confidentiality and join a deep-dive workshop with the other finalists. All applicants will be informed about the decision of the selection committee at the beginning of October.

MedTech NAVIGATOR Innovation Grants Deadline: Open
The MedTech NAVIGATOR Innovation Grants are designed to facilitate such bespoke interactions between SMEs and eligible Knowledge Providers, such as an NHS Trust, or a University, during the product development process. Each Innovation Grant (up to £7,500) is worth 50 per cent of the total project costs up to a maximum of £15,000.  Your business must pay the remaining 50 per cent and any project costs over and above the £15,000 cap.

THE BRITISH BUSINESS BANK Deadline: Open

BBB are a government-owned business development bank dedicated to making finance markets work better for smaller businesses. Whether you’re looking for finance to start a business, grow to the next level, or stay ahead of the competition, they say that they can deliver greater volume and choice of finance.

Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) funding. General ‘collection’ of news and funds

Information about SBRI for businesses and public sector organisations that might want to use the scheme. 

UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund Deadline: Open

The UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (formerly known as The Rainbow Seed Fund) is a £27.1m early-stage venture capital fund building and growing technology companies stemming from the UK’s research base.

Creative England Investments Deadline: Open

Creative England is supporting SMEs by providing competitive loans to digital businesses in order to make their growth plans a reality. The investments on offer are intended to fuel this fast-growing sector by financing business expansion and new products, leading to the creation of new high-quality jobs and Intellectual Property (IP). Loans from £50,000 – £250,000 are available with repayment terms ranging from three – 36 months. Interest rates range from 5 – 10 per cent, depending on the risk profile of the applicant. This includes companies from within the digital healthcare sector.

HSBC Loan Fund Deadline: Open

HSBC UK has announced a £14 billion lending fund to support the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Fund includes a ring-fenced £1 billion to help UK companies grow their business overseas, as well as a broader package of support. The initiative is available to UK businesses with a turnover of up to £350 million. Applicants do not need to be an HSBC customer to apply.  

International: 

The Global Challenges Research Fund
The Newton Fund
European Funding
Grants available to UK through US Defense – medical research program Export Opportunities – To access the Department of International Trades Export Opportunities Pipeline

Funding Opportunities News: 

Horizon Europe update: It has been agreed in principle that UK organisations can apply
KTN: Latest Health and Life Sciences Funding Round-Up
UKRI: Funding opportunities

Covid-19 Specific Funding:

New Future Fund To Support Innovative UK Businesses Deadline: Open
This is a Future Fund to support the UK’s innovative businesses currently affected by Covid-19. These businesses have been unable to access other government business support programmes, such as CBILS, because they are either pre-revenue or pre-profit and typically rely on equity investment.

Expression of interest: emergency route for time-critical Covid-19 research Deadline: Open
Apply for funding to support short-term time-sensitive collection of data or samples or rapid turn-around research or analysis to either: a) inform urgent policy or national decision making, b) secure data for future research use. This is a rarely awarded emergency route for exceptional circumstances.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome & Mastercard Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator  Deadline: Open
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard have committed up to $125 million in seed funding to speed-up the response to the Covid-19 epidemic by identifying, assessing, developing, and scaling-up treatments. The partners are committed to equitable access, including making products available and affordable in low-resource settings. The Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will play a catalytic role by accelerating and evaluating new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients with Covid-19 in the immediate term, and other viral pathogens in the longer-term. Currently there are no broad-spectrum antivirals or immunotherapies available for the fight against emerging pathogens, and none approved for use on Covid-19.

Covid-19 – Other International Funding (and more) read KTN round-up 
Covid-19 – Support for Businesses – for the latest information on UK Govt support available.

Other Featured Funding:

Zinc Venture Builder 2021 Deadline: 25 June 2021
The Zinc Venture Builder programme is a full time, 12 month programme that exists to build brand new companies that tackle the biggest social challenges in the developed world. The 2021 challenge is “to ensure that every child and young person can develop and maintain good mental and emotional health”.

Medicines and Diagnostics Manufacturing Transformation Fund Deadline: 30 June 2021
New £20 million fund to grow UK life sciences manufacturing opens for applications.

Biomedical catalyst 2021: early and late stage awards Deadline: 26 August 2021
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £18 million to develop innovative healthcare products, technologies, and processes. The aim of this early and late-stage competition is to enable businesses to create a data package that can support the further development of their products.

Digital technologies for health and care Deadline: 21 July 2021
Develop research ideas for novel digital technologies to monitor, diagnose and treat the population remotely. You can be from any research area and must be eligible for EPSRC research grant funding. The first stage of the process is a ‘sandpit’ event. In this three-day online event you will work with other researchers to develop ideas for proposals.

MedTech NAVIGATOR Innovation Grants Deadline: rolling grant
The MedTech NAVIGATOR Innovation Grants are designed to facilitate such bespoke interactions between SMEs and eligible Knowledge Providers, such as an NHS Trust, or a University, during the product development process. Each Innovation Grant (up to £7,500) is worth 50% of the total project costs up to a maximum of £15,000.  Your business must pay the remaining 50% and any project costs over and above the £15,000 cap.

Merck 2021 Research Grants Deadline: 31 August 2021
The Merck research grants programme is open to scientists in all career stages who are affiliated with any research-based institution, university or company. Applicants submit their application for the focus topics containing non-confidential information only. You may apply for more than one grant or submit your application for more than one focus topic. If your application is successful, you are invited to submit a full proposal under confidentiality and join a deep-dive workshop with the other finalists. All applicants will be informed about the decision of the selection committee at the beginning of October.

Wellcome Discovery Awards Deadline: November 2021
This scheme provides funding for established researchers and teams/co-applicants (which can include commercial businesses) from any discipline who want to pursue bold and creative research ideas to deliver significant shifts in understanding that could improve human life, health and wellbeing.

Other Funding Opportunities: 

Innovate UK:

Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government.

For more information on all open IUK funding opportunities

Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council: 

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, is a non-departmental public body, and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience. It predominantly funds scientific research institutes and university research departments in the UK.

Click here for BBSRC funding opportunities

Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA):

DASA aims to find and fund exploitable innovation to support UK defence and security quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity.

Open Competition: Deadline: Open
The Open Call is one of the funding competition mechanisms DASA uses to find proposals that address challenges faced by government stakeholders. It gives bidders the opportunity to present their ideas to defence and security stakeholders at any time, without waiting for a relevant Themed Competition.
Click here for more information on DASA funding opportunities

The National Institute for Health Research

The nation’s largest funder of health and care research, providing the people, facilities and technology for research to thrive.

NIHR i4i Product Development Award – Competition 22 Deadline: Stage 1 – 9 June 2021
i4i Product Development Awards (PDA) support translational research and development of medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and high-impact patient-focused digital health technologies for ultimate NHS use. The research proposals may address any disease or health area, provided there is a clear unmet clinical need. There is no upper funding limit for Product Development Awards, but costs must be fully justified.

NIHR i4i Challenge Award – Competition 12 Deadline: Stage 1 – 10 June 2021
i4i Challenge Awards support market-ready innovations by addressing the translational gap between the clinical evaluation of technologies and their adoption, by funding the assessment of MedTech innovations in real-world healthcare settings. The expected output is a disruptive medical device or in vitro diagnostic test that can offer improved outcomes for NHS patients. There is no upper funding limit for the Challenge Awards, but costs must be fully justified.

NIHR i4i Connect – Competition 5 Deadline: Stage 1 – 14 September 2021
i4i Connect is aimed at small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) developing medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and Tier 3a digital health technologies with direct patient benefits, looking to ultimately integrate into the NHS. The funding stream aims to help SMEs reach the next stage in the development pathway to apply for further funding, in particular for an i4i Product Development Award. i4i Connect is researcher-led and does not specify topics for research.

Click here for NIHR funding opportunities

Medical Research Council (MRC)

The Medical Research Council (MRC) improves the health of people in the UK – and around the world – by supporting excellent science, and training the very best scientists.

MRC molecular and cellular medicine programme grant. Deadline: 1 September 2021
Funding is available from MRC’s Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board to provide large, long-term and renewable programme funding for researchers working in the area of molecular and cellular medicine.

Pre-announcement: experimental medicine grants Deadline: 9 September 2021
Apply for funding to investigate the causes, progression and treatment of human disease. Your project must include an experimental intervention or challenge in humans, focus on addressing mechanistic questions and be academically led.

MRC population and systems medicine programme grant Deadline: 22 September 2021
Funding is available from MRC’s Population and Systems Medicine Board to provide large, long-term and renewable programme funding for researchers working in the area of population and systems medicine.

MRC population and systems medicine research grant. Deadline: 22 September 2021
An MRC research grant is the main way for UK-based medical researchers to apply for researcher-led project funding. You should apply if your research is on population and systems medicine.

MRC neurosciences and mental health research grant Deadline: 29 September 2021
An MRC research grant is the main way for UK-based medical researchers to apply for researcher-led project funding. You should apply if your research is on neurosciences and mental health.

MRC infections and immunity programme grant Deadline: 8 September 2021
Funding is available from MRC’s Infections and Immunity Board to provide large, long-term and renewable programme funding for researchers working in the area of infections and immunity.

Click here for  MRC funding opportunities

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Research into inclusive ageing Deadline: June 2021
Apply for research into inclusive ageing. Your project must include a principal investigator based at an eligible research organisation. Your project must be interdisciplinary and focus on both: social and economic inequalities that affect people in later life and practical ways to improve inclusivity in later life.
Your project must address how earlier life experiences affect inequalities in later life.

ESRC Research Grant Deadline: Open call
If you have an excellent idea for a research project, the ESRC have their Research Grants open call. Awards ranging from £350,000 to £1 million (100 per cent full Economic Cost (fEC)) can be made to eligible institutions to enable individuals or research teams to undertake anything from a standard research project through to a large-scale survey and other infrastructure or methodological development.

Click here for ESRC funding opportunities

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC):

The EPSRC is the main funding body for engineering and physical research sciences. For EPSRC funding opportunities.

Healthcare technologies investigator-led grant Deadline: Open
Healthcare technologies investigator-led research grants are for researchers at UK higher education institutions, research council institutes, UKRI-approved independent research organisations and NHS bodies. The funder strongly encourage collaboration with relevant healthcare professionals, other researchers, industry, the public sector and other relevant partners. Your application should be in line with the grand challenges of our healthcare technologies theme, e.g., developing future therapies with technologies that enhance efficacy, minimise costs and reduce risks to patients; frontiers of physical intervention, restoring physical function and optimising surgery and other physical interventions with high precision and minimal invasiveness; optimising treatment through effective diagnosis, patient-specific prediction and evidence-based intervention; or transforming community health and care by using real-time information to support patients managing their own health and wellbeing and to allow healthcare professionals to make timely interventions.

Click here for EPSRC funding opportunities

TRUSTS/FOUNDATIONS/CHARITIES:

The Health Foundation

Click here for more Health Foundation funding opportunities

Association of Medical Research Charities
Over 30 years ago a small, diverse group of medical research charities form the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) to unite the sector and provide it with a leading voice. Since then their membership has grown to over 140 charities.  In 2018, these charities invested £1.3 billion in medical research. Click here to access their database

Other UK Government, Seed Funds and Loans: 

The British Business Bank Deadline: Open

BBB are a government-owned business development bank dedicated to making finance markets work better for smaller businesses. Whether you’re looking for finance to start a business, grow to the next level, or stay ahead of the competition, they say that they can deliver greater volume and choice of finance.

Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) funding. General ‘collection’ of news and funds

Information about SBRI for businesses and public sector organisations that might want to use the scheme. 

UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund Deadline: Open

The UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (formerly known as The Rainbow Seed Fund) is a £27.1m early-stage venture capital fund building and growing technology companies stemming from the UK’s research base.

Creative England Investments Deadline: Open

Creative England is supporting SMEs by providing competitive loans to digital businesses in order to make their growth plans a reality. The investments on offer are intended to fuel this fast-growing sector by financing business expansion and new products, leading to the creation of new high-quality jobs and Intellectual Property (IP). Loans from £50,000 – £250,000 are available with repayment terms ranging from 3-36 months. Interest rates range from 5% – 10%, depending on the risk profile of the applicant. This includes companies from within the digital healthcare sector.

HSBC Loan Fund Deadline: Open

HSBC UK has announced a £14 billion lending fund to support the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Fund includes a ring-fenced £1 billion to help UK companies grow their business overseas, as well as a broader package of support. The initiative is available to UK businesses with a turnover of up to £350 million. Applicants do not need to be an HSBC customer to apply.  

International: 

The Global Challenges Research Fund
The Newton Fund
European Funding
Grants available to UK through US Defense – medical research programExport Opportunities – To access the Department of International Trades Export Opportunities Pipeline

Funding Opportunities News: 

Horizon Europe update: It has been agreed in principle that UK organisations can apply
KTN: Latest Health and Life Sciences Funding Round-Up
UKRI: Funding opportunities

Covid-19 Specific Funding:

New Future Fund To Support Innovative UK Businesses.  Deadline: Open
This is a Future Fund to support the UK’s innovative businesses currently affected by Covid-19. These businesses have been unable to access other government business support programmes, such as CBILS, because they are either pre-revenue or pre-profit and typically rely on equity investment.

Expression of interest: emergency route for time-critical Covid-19 research. Deadline: Open
Apply for funding to support short-term time-sensitive collection of data or samples or rapid turn-around research or analysis to either: a) inform urgent policy or national decision making, b) secure data for future research use. This is a rarely awarded emergency route for exceptional circumstances.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome & Mastercard Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator.  Deadline: Open
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard have committed up to $125 million in seed funding to speed-up the response to the Covid-19 epidemic by identifying, assessing, developing, and scaling-up treatments. The partners are committed to equitable access, including making products available and affordable in low-resource settings. The Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will play a catalytic role by accelerating and evaluating new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients with Covid-19 in the immediate term, and other viral pathogens in the longer-term. Currently there are no broad-spectrum antivirals or immunotherapies available for the fight against emerging pathogens, and none approved for use on Covid-19.

Covid-19 – Other International Funding (and more) read KTN round-up 
Covid-19 – Support for Businesses – for the latest information on UK Govt support available.

Other featured funding: 

SBRI Healthcare Cancer Programme: Competition 1. Deadline: 21 April 2021
Working together with NHS England and NHS Improvement, SBRI Healthcare Cancer Programme is delighted to announce a £15 million funding competition for innovation to go to the open market in the field of cancer. The competition invites applications for funding to implement solutions in late-stage development into the following front-line clinical cancer care settings: 1) Early detection and diagnosis of cancer or 2) Diagnostic efficiency of cancer services.

NIHR i4i Product Development Award – Competition 22. Deadline Stage 1 – 9 June 2021
i4i Product Development Awards (PDA) support translational research and development of medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and high-impact patient-focused digital health technologies for ultimate NHS use. The research proposals may address any disease or health area, provided there is a clear unmet clinical need. There is no upper funding limit for Product Development Awards, but costs must be fully justified.

NIHR i4i Challenge Award – Competition 12. Deadline Stage 1 – 10 June 2021
i4i Challenge Awards support market-ready innovations by addressing the translational gap between the clinical evaluation of technologies and their adoption, by funding the assessment of MedTech innovations in real-world healthcare settings. The expected output is a disruptive medical device or in vitro diagnostic test that can offer improved outcomes for NHS patients. There is no upper funding limit for the Challenge Awards, but costs must be fully justified.

Other funding opportunities: 

Innovate UK:

Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government.

Expression of interest: transforming UK food systems for health and environment. Deadline: 22 April 2021
Apply for funding to support interdisciplinary research aiming to transform the UK food system for healthy people and a healthy environment. Your project can be led by an eligible UK-based researcher in any discipline and must collaborate with at least one stakeholder organisation.

Innovate UK Smart Grants: Jan 2021 Deadline: 26 May 2021
Opportunity for UK registered organisations to apply for a share of up to £25 million from Innovate UK to deliver game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy.
For more information on all open IUK funding opportunities

Biotechnological and Biological Science Research Council: 

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, is a non-departmental public body, and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience. It predominantly funds scientific research institutes and university research departments in the UK.

Click here for BBSRC funding opportunities

Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA)

DASA aims to find and fund exploitable innovation to support UK defence and security quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity.

Open Competition: Deadline: Open
The Open Call is one of the funding competition mechanisms DASA uses to find proposals that address challenges faced by government stakeholders. It gives bidders the opportunity to present their ideas to defence and security stakeholders at any time, without waiting for a relevant Themed Competition.
Click here for more information on DASA funding opportunities

The National Institute for Health Research

The nation’s largest funder of health and care research, providing the people, facilities and technology for research to thrive.

Artificial Intelligence and Racial and Ethnic Inequalities in Health and Care. Deadline: 21 April 2021
This call, funded by the Health Foundation and NHSX, supports research to advance AI and data-driven technologies in health in ways that better meet the needs of minority ethnic populations. The call, which is part of the NHSX’s NHS AI Lab AI Ethics Initiative, will fund two categories of research: Understanding and enabling the opportunities to use AI to address inequalities.

The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme. Deadline: 5 May 2021
This call is part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Proposals should normally evaluate the clinical and cost effectiveness of a health technology. For diagnostic technologies, researchers may suggest equivalent evaluations.

Click here for NIHR funding opportunities.

Medical Research Council (MRC)

The Medical Research Council (MRC) improves the health of people in the UK – and around the world – by supporting excellent science, and training the very best scientists.

Applied global health research: improve health in LMICs. Deadline: 14 April 2021
Apply for funding for applied global health research that will benefit the health of people living in low and middle income countries (LMICs). There is no limit to the amount of funding you can apply for. You can apply if you are: an LMIC-based principal investigator or a UK-based principal investigator working in partnership with LMIC investigators.

Pre-announcement: experimental medicine grants.  Deadline 9 Sep 2021
Apply for funding to investigate the causes, progression and treatment of human disease. Your project must include an experimental intervention or challenge in humans, focus on addressing mechanistic questions and be academically led.
Click here for  MRC funding opportunities

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

ESRC Research Grant. Deadline: Open call
If you have an excellent idea for a research project, the ESRC have their Research Grants open call. Awards ranging from £350,000 to £1 million (100 per cent full Economic Cost (fEC)) can be made to eligible institutions to enable individuals or research teams to undertake anything from a standard research project through to a large-scale survey and other infrastructure or methodological development.

Click here for ESRC funding opportunities.

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC):

The EPSRC is the main funding body for engineering and physical research sciences. For EPSRC funding opportunities.

Healthcare technologies investigator-led grant. Deadline: Open
Healthcare technologies investigator-led research grants are for researchers at UK higher education institutions, research council institutes, UKRI-approved independent research organisations and NHS bodies. The funder strongly encourage collaboration with relevant healthcare professionals, other researchers, industry, the public sector and other relevant partners. Your application should be in line with the grand challenges of our healthcare technologies theme, e.g., developing future therapies with technologies that enhance efficacy, minimise costs and reduce risks to patients; frontiers of physical intervention, restoring physical function and optimising surgery and other physical interventions with high precision and minimal invasiveness; optimising treatment through effective diagnosis, patient-specific prediction and evidence-based intervention; or transforming community health and care by using real-time information to support patients managing their own health and wellbeing and to allow healthcare professionals to make timely interventions.

Click here for EPSRC funding opportunities. 

Trusts/Foundations/Charities: 

The Health Foundation

Click here for more Health Foundation funding opportunities.

Association of Medical Research Charities
Over 30 years ago a small, diverse group of medical research charities form the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) to unite the sector and provide it with a leading voice. Since then their membership has grown to over 140 charities. In 2018, these charities invested £1.3 billion in medical research. Click here to access their database

Other UK Government, Seed Funds and Loans: 

The British Business Bank: Deadline: Open

BBB are a government-owned business development bank dedicated to making finance markets work better for smaller businesses. Whether you’re looking for finance to start a business, grow to the next level, or stay ahead of the competition, they say that they can deliver greater volume and choice of finance.

Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) funding. General ‘collection’ of news and funds.

Information about SBRI for businesses and public sector organisations that might want to use the scheme. 

UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund. Deadline: Open

The UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (formerly known as The Rainbow Seed Fund) is a £27.1m early-stage venture capital fund building and growing technology companies stemming from the UK’s research base.

Creative England Investments. Deadline: Open

Creative England is supporting SMEs by providing competitive loans to digital businesses in order to make their growth plans a reality. The investments on offer are intended to fuel this fast-growing sector by financing business expansion and new products, leading to the creation of new high-quality jobs and Intellectual Property (IP). Loans from £50,000 – £250,000 are available with repayment terms ranging from 3-36 months. Interest rates range from 5 – 10 per cent, depending on the risk profile of the applicant. This includes companies from within the digital healthcare sector.

HSBC Loan Fund. Deadline: Open

HSBC UK has announced a £14 billion lending fund to support the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Fund includes a ring-fenced £1 billion to help UK companies grow their business overseas, as well as a broader package of support. The initiative is available to UK businesses with a turnover of up to £350 million. Applicants do not need to be an HSBC customer to apply.  

International: 

The Global Challenges Research Fund
The Newton Fund
European Funding
Grants available to UK through US Defense – medical research programExport Opportunities – To access the Department of International Trades Export Opportunities Pipeline

Funding opportunities news: 

KTN: Latest Health and Life Sciences Funding Round-Up 
UKRI: Funding opportunities

New Future Fund To Support Innovative UK Businesses.  Deadline: Open
This is a Future Fund to support the UK’s innovative businesses currently affected by Covid-19. These businesses have been unable to access other government business support programmes, such as CBILS, because they are either pre-revenue or pre-profit and typically rely on equity investment.

Expression of interest: emergency route for time-critical Covid-19 research. Deadline: Open
Apply for funding to support short-term time-sensitive collection of data or samples or rapid turn-around research or analysis to either: a) inform urgent policy or national decision making, b) secure data for future research use. This is a rarely awarded emergency route for exceptional circumstances.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome & Mastercard Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator.  Deadline: Open
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard have committed up to $125 million in seed funding to speed-up the response to the Covid-19 epidemic by identifying, assessing, developing, and scaling-up treatments. The partners are committed to equitable access, including making products available and affordable in low-resource settings. The Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will play a catalytic role by accelerating and evaluating new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients with Covid-19 in the immediate term, and other viral pathogens in the longer-term. Currently there are no broad-spectrum antivirals or immunotherapies available for the fight against emerging pathogens, and none approved for use on Covid-19.

Covid-19 – Other International Funding (and more) read KTN round-up 
Covid-19 – Support for Businesses – for the latest information on UK Govt support available.

Other Featured Funding:

Artificial Intelligence and Racial and Ethnic Inequalities in Health and Care. Deadline: 21 April 2021
This call, funded by the Health Foundation and NHSX, supports research to advance AI and data-driven technologies in health in ways that better meet the needs of minority ethnic populations. The call, which is part of the NHSX’s NHS AI Lab AI Ethics Initiative, will fund two categories of research: Understanding and enabling the opportunities to use AI to address inequalities.

Expression of interest: transforming UK food systems for health and environment. Deadline: 22 April 2021
Apply for funding to support interdisciplinary research aiming to transform the UK food system for healthy people and a healthy environment. Your project can be led by an eligible UK-based researcher in any discipline and must collaborate with at least one stakeholder organisation.

The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme. Deadline: 5 May 2021
This call is part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Proposals should normally evaluate the clinical and cost effectiveness of a health technology. For diagnostic technologies, researchers may suggest equivalent evaluations.

Pre-announcement: experimental medicine grants.  Deadline 9 Sep 2021
Apply for funding to investigate the causes, progression and treatment of human disease. Your project must include an experimental intervention or challenge in humans, focus on addressing mechanistic questions and be academically led.

Other Funding Opportunities: 

INNOVATE UK:

Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government.

SBRI improving hip fracture outcomes using data, phase one Deadline: 31 March 2021
Organisations can apply for a share of £160,000 inclusive of VAT to develop a solution which will improve quality of care and outcomes for hip fracture patients.

Applied global health research: improve health in LMICs. Deadline: 14 April 2021
Apply for funding for applied global health research that will benefit the health of people living in low and middle income countries (LMICs). There is no limit to the amount of funding you can apply for. You can apply if you are: an LMIC-based principal investigator or a UK-based principal investigator working in partnership with LMIC investigators.

Innovate UK Smart Grants: Jan 2021 Deadline: 26 May 2021
Opportunity for UK registered organisations to apply for a share of up to £25 million from Innovate UK to deliver game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy.
For more information on all open IUK funding opportunities

BIOTECHNOLOGICAL AND BOLOGICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL:

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, is a non-departmental public body, and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience. It predominantly funds scientific research institutes and university research departments in the UK.

Interventions to reduce antibiotic resistance or transmission Deadline: 16 March 2021
Apply for funding to develop or test interventions to reduce the transmission of antibiotic resistance. UK-based researchers must apply as part of a transnational consortium. Your project must focus on at least two One Health areas: human health, animal health and/or environmental health.

Click here for BBSRC funding opportunities

DEFENCE AND SECURITY ACCELERATOR (DASA)

DASA aims to find and fund exploitable innovation to support UK defence and security quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity.

Open Competition: Deadline: Open
The Open Call is one of the funding competition mechanisms DASA uses to find proposals that address challenges faced by government stakeholders. It gives bidders the opportunity to present their ideas to defence and security stakeholders at any time, without waiting for a relevant Themed Competition.
Click here for more information on DASA funding opportunities

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH

The nation’s largest funder of health and care research, providing the people, facilities and technology for research to thrive.

Research for Patient Benefit – Competition 44. Deadline: 10 March 2021
Proposals are invited for research that involves people with cystic fibrosis, including the evaluation of interventions that could improve the treatment and management of cystic fibrosis and its co-morbidities and complications. The call aims to support robustly designed studies with the potential to make a step-change in improving health outcomes for patients, the public and social care services. We are particularly interested in studies focused around the burden of care and treatment and how they could be simplified, the diagnosis and management of non-tuberculous mycobacteria, the potential benefits of exercise and possible alternative options to physiotherapy. This theme will continue to apply until further notice.

Click here for NIHR funding opportunities.

MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (MRC)

The Medical Research Council (MRC) improves the health of people in the UK – and around the world – by supporting excellent science, and training the very best scientists.

Click here for  MRC funding opportunities

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (ESRC)

ESRC Research Grant. Deadline: Open call
If you have an excellent idea for a research project, the ESRC have their Research Grants open call. Awards ranging from £350,000 to £1 million (100 per cent full Economic Cost (fEC)) can be made to eligible institutions to enable individuals or research teams to undertake anything from a standard research project through to a large-scale survey and other infrastructure or methodological development.

Click here for ESRC funding opportunities.

ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL (EPSRC):

The EPSRC is the main funding body for engineering and physical research sciences. For EPSRC funding opportunities.

Healthcare technologies investigator-led grant. Deadline: Open
Healthcare technologies investigator-led research grants are for researchers at UK higher education institutions, research council institutes, UKRI-approved independent research organisations and NHS bodies. The funder strongly encourage collaboration with relevant healthcare professionals, other researchers, industry, the public sector and other relevant partners. Your application should be in line with the grand challenges of our healthcare technologies theme, e.g., developing future therapies with technologies that enhance efficacy, minimise costs and reduce risks to patients; frontiers of physical intervention, restoring physical function and optimising surgery and other physical interventions with high precision and minimal invasiveness; optimising treatment through effective diagnosis, patient-specific prediction and evidence-based intervention; or transforming community health and care by using real-time information to support patients managing their own health and wellbeing and to allow healthcare professionals to make timely interventions.

Click here for EPSRC funding opportunities. 

Trusts/Foundations/Charities: 

The Health Foundation

Click here for more Health Foundation funding opportunities.

Association of Medical Research Charities
Over 30 years ago a small, diverse group of medical research charities form the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) to unite the sector and provide it with a leading voice. Since then their membership has grown to over 140 charities.  In 2018, these charities invested £1.3 billion in medical research. Click here to access their database

Other UK Government, Seed Funds and Loans: 

THE BRITISH BUSINESS BANK: Deadline: Open

BBB are a government-owned business development bank dedicated to making finance markets work better for smaller businesses. Whether you’re looking for finance to start a business, grow to the next level, or stay ahead of the competition, they say that they can deliver greater volume and choice of finance.

Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) funding. General ‘collection’ of news and funds.

Information about SBRI for businesses and public sector organisations that might want to use the scheme. 

UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund. Deadline: Open

The UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (formerly known as The Rainbow Seed Fund) is a £27.1m early-stage venture capital fund building and growing technology companies stemming from the UK’s research base.

Creative England Investments. Deadline: Open

Creative England is supporting SMEs by providing competitive loans to digital businesses in order to make their growth plans a reality. The investments on offer are intended to fuel this fast-growing sector by financing business expansion and new products, leading to the creation of new high-quality jobs and Intellectual Property (IP). Loans from £50,000 – £250,000 are available with repayment terms ranging from three to 36 months. Interest rates range from 5 – 10 per cent, depending on the risk profile of the applicant. This includes companies from within the digital healthcare sector.

HSBC Loan Fund. Deadline: Open

HSBC UK has announced a £14 billion lending fund to support the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Fund includes a ring-fenced £1 billion to help UK companies grow their business overseas, as well as a broader package of support. The initiative is available to UK businesses with a turnover of up to £350 million. Applicants do not need to be an HSBC customer to apply.

International: 

The Global Challenges Research Fund
The Newton Fund
European Funding
Grants available to UK through US Defense – medical research programExport Opportunities – To access the Department of International Trades Export Opportunities Pipeline

Funding Opportunities News: 

KTN: Latest Health and Life Sciences Funding Round-Up 
UKRI: Funding opportunities