
We've made a move to the friendlier social media platform - Bluesky. Already it seems a great place for mental health research discussion & engagement, and there's been a big influx of new joiners recently. Come follow us at @mhrincubator.bsky.social!
February
10 February
Wellcome Trust Mental Health Award: Advancing target validation for novel mental health drug discovery
Applications open w/c 10 February
Opportunity: Funding – This call will provide funding for validation activities for novel targets with a clear therapeutic concept and strong biological rationale related to early intervention in anxiety, depression and/or psychosis. Funded proposals will generate data supporting the target’s therapeutic potential in the development of new and improved pharmacological treatments. Up to £700,000 per project is available, with funding lasting for 2 years.
Organiser: Wellcome Trust
Eligibility: Applications allowed from anywhere in the world, apart from mainland China. Commercial organisations are not eligible to apply as administering organisations for this call.
Deadline: Friday 15 April
12 February
Living well with severe mental ill-health: learning from implementing physical health support in different regional contexts
Opportunity: Webinar
Who's it for? Anyone interested in the topic of supporting individuals with severe mental ill-health.
Organiser: Three NIHR Schools, hosting a talk by Professor Emily Oliver, Dr Ilaria Pina, Dr Philippa Shaw, Dr Zuneera Khurshid and Dan Steward
Date and time: Wednesday 12 February, 2-3pm
18 February
Mentoring Programme
Opportunity: This year-long mentoring programme partners final-year PhD and postdoctoral Academy Members with relevant mentors to provide career support, opportunities to expand your network and the chance to reflect on your own personal research goals.
Organiser: NIHR
Eligibility: This programme is open to all final-year PhD and postdoctoral NIHR Academy Members or individuals based in NIHR Infrastructure (e.g. an NIHR biomedical research centre) or in an NIHR School and that have a minimum of 6 months remaining of their funding or NIHR personal award from the close of applications to this programme. Applicants must be undertaking research in England.
Deadline: Tuesday 18 February, 4pm
19 February
Encouraging the next generation of CAMHS researchers: an event dedicated to ECRs
Opportunity: Webinar
Who's it for? The webinar is tailored specifically for those in the early stages of their career. This session is perfect for medical students, psychology and nursing students seeking their first research experience, and undergraduates transitioning to Masters or PhD programs.
Organiser: The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health
Date and time: Wednesday 19 February, 1-2.30pm
20 February
Beyond Tokenism: Meaningful Participation in Healthcare Innovation
Opportunity: Webinar
Who's it for? Anyone interested in furthering participation in research.
Organiser: Three NIHR Schools, hosting a talk by Dr David Hunt
Date and time: Thursday 20 February, 11-12pm
25 February
Webinar: Wellcome Trust Mental Health Award: Advancing target validation for novel mental health drug discovery
Opportunity: Zoom Webinar centered around the funding call for the Wellcome Trust's Mental Health Award: Advancing target validation for novel mental health drug discovery.
Who's it for? Anyone interested in applying for this funding award.
Organiser: Wellcome Trust
Date and time: Tuesday 25 February, 1pm
26 February
Mental Health Implementation Network (MHIN) Webinar: Alcohol Assertive Outreach Treatment
Opportunity: Join the NIHR's Mental Health Implementation Network (MHIN)-led webinar to discuss a model of care originally developed for people with severe mental illness, which has been used effectively to support patients with alcohol dependence and high levels of alcohol-related hospital attendance.
Who's it for? Clinicians, team managers, researchers, public health commissioners and policy makers interested in interventions for substance misuse.
Organiser: NIHR
Date and time: Wednesday 26 February, 2-5pm
28 February
NIHR Three Schools Prevention Programme Pre-Application Support Fund
Opportunity: Funding – This scheme supports individuals to prepare strong applications for an NIHR Career Development funding award. The funds can be used to buy out time from current responsibilities to allow a researcher to work on their application, for training and development programmes and in other ways to help strengthen the researcher's application.
Organiser: NIHR Three Research Schools
Eligibility: The call is aimed at researchers and policy and practice partners with a clear link to the NIHR Three Schools and the work of the Prevention Research Programme.
Deadline: Friday 28 February, 4pm
March
5 March
Mental Health Research Groups
Applications open on Wednesday 5th March
Opportunity: Research Funding – This scheme supports proposals for up to £11m, for a period of up to 5 years, to partner institutions with low or no mental health research capacity (and close to areas of high mental health need) with HEIs with more experience and expertise in mental health research. It is expected that this funding will enable delivery of a five-year research and capacity building programme focused on local applied mental health research needs.
Organiser: NIHR
Eligibility: HEIs based in England with limited existing applied mental health research capacity who are keen to establish or expand into applied mental health research within a local target area.
Deadline: Wednesday 28 May, 1pm
12 March
Listen Up! Rethinking Mental Health & Hearing in the North
Opportunity: Webinar or In-person event (The Frederick Douglass Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne)
Who's it for? Anyone with an interest in the connections between hearing and mental health.
Organiser: NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria (NENC) and the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
Date and time: Wednesday 12 March, 1-4.30pm
Register here for the Webinar | Register here for the in-person event (with catering)
13 March
Griffith Edwards Academic Fellowship
Opportunity: A three-year fellowship scheme that seeks to provide opportunities (either clinical or non-clinical) to pursue post-doctoral career development in addiction science in a UK university or UK university-affiliated NHS clinical setting.
Organiser: Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA)
Eligibility:
- Applicants must be current members or associates of the SSA.
- Applicants must be resident in the UK.
- Applicants must be employed and supervised within a UK university for the fellowship component of their appointment;
Deadline: Thursday 13 March
Opportunity: The SSA are funding up to two PhD studentships in Addiction Sciences. PhD studentship funding is generally provided to full-time students for up to three years and six months, but the SSA also accepts applications from part-time and partially-funded students. This funding includes course fees, a stipend and up to £3,000 for research costs.
Organiser: Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA)
Eligibility:
- You must be a member or associate of the SSA
- You must be a UK resident for the duration of your studies
- The institution providing the study must be a UK university
- You should already have a first or upper-second (2:1) class degree in a relevant subject.
Deadline: Thursday 13 March
18 March
Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme
Opportunity: Research Funding – This researcher-led workstream welcomes topics or research questions identified by researchers within the programme’s remit. The aim is to fund research that will lead to improvements in health and care services that will be of greatest benefit to the NHS and to patients, and/or to Social Care and clients.
Organiser: NIHR
Eligibility: Researchers in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Deadline: Tuesday 18 March, 1pm
20 March
Examining Access to Mental Health Services for Social Work-Experienced Young People
Opportunity: Webinar
Who's it for? Anyone with an interest in Children and Young People's mental health.
Organiser: Three NIHR Schools, hosting a talk by Taliah Drayak, Julia Mannes and Professor Robbie Duschinsky
Date and time: Thursday 20 March, 12-1pm
Predoctoral Award
Opportunity: The Predoctoral Award is designed to advance your health and social care research career at masters level. It supports early career researchers to undertake a masters degree, or a bespoke training and development plan comprising masters-level training, and provides protected time to develop a competitive PhD award application.
Organiser: NIHR
Eligibility: The Predoctoral Award is available to 4 audiences:
- Registered health and care professionals (HCPs) working in NHS settings, excluding doctors and dentists
- anyone working in a local authority, or an associated setting
- fully qualified general practitioners, general dental practitioners, community dentists and registered HCPs working in primary care settings
- applicants proposing to undertake training to develop as a methodologist in one of the applicable methodological areas
Deadline: Thursday 20 March, 1pm
27 March
Pre-Application Support Fund
Opportunity: Research Funding – The Pre-Application Support Fund offers extra support for researchers to prepare a competitive application for an NIHR career development award. It provides funding to support those who might not otherwise be able to apply, in order to create more opportunities for groups and professions currently under-represented within the NIHR.
Organiser: NIHR
Eligibility: Applicants must have a proposed English contracting organisation, and partner organisation if applicable, that is an HEI, NHS body, or other provider of health or care services.
Deadline: Thursday 27 March, 1pm
April
2 April
Opportunity: Research Funding - Research question:
(a) Is it feasible to conduct a study to examine the effectiveness of higher-calorie refeeding compared with lower-calorie refeeding in malnourished adults with anorexia nervosa?
(b) If feasibility is established, what is the clinical and cost-effectiveness of higher-calorie refeeding compared with lower-calorie refeeding in malnourished adults with anorexia nervosa?
Who's it for? Researchers interested in adult eating disorders.
Organiser: NIHR
Deadline: Wednesday 2 April, 1pm
Opportunity: Research Funding - Research question: Is it feasible to assess whether interventions involving a combination of mentoring and skills training improve outcomes for children or young people in care, do they improve mental health/mental resilience, prevent adolescent risk behaviors and improve inter-personal relationships when compared to current standard of care?
Who's it for? Researchers interested in Children and Young People's mental health.
Organiser: NIHR
Deadline: Wednesday 2 April, 1pm
25 April
Opportunity: Research Funding - Research question: Which interventions are effective in reducing the rate of suicide and suicide attempts?
Who's it for? Researchers with an interest in suicide prevention, ideally at a population level rather than an individual level.
Organiser: NIHR
Eligibility: Interventions aimed at non-suicidal self-harm, or interventions for people accessing NHS mental health services, are not in remit for this funding opportunity.
Deadline: Friday 25 April, 1pm
30 April
Opportunity: The MRC’s new investigator grants support individuals who have not previously led a research team or been awarded a substantial grant as fellow or project lead. Through this scheme the MRC is looking to fund research in areas including, but not limited to: mental health; addictions and substance misuse; and behavioural and learning disorders including autism.
Who's it for? This scheme is open to either non-clinical or clinically active researchers looking to transition to independence and lead their first research team.
Organiser: Medical Research Council
Eligibility: Applicants must not already have applications underway for the MRC's other fellowship schemes.
Deadline: Wednesday 30 April, 4pm
May
23 May
Opportunity: Research Funding - This funding scheme calls for proposals investigating the effects of digital technology use on brain development, social development and mental health in children and young people (CYP). They welcome applications for Huo early-career fellowships, junior faculty research grants and special projects and are keen to support multi-disciplinary work. Applications should attempt to understand mechanisms, causal pathways and directions.
Who's it for? Researchers with an interest in suicide prevention, ideally at a population level rather than an individual level.
Organiser: Huo Family Foundation (HFF)
Eligibility: Awarded grants can be held at colleges, universities and research institutes in the UK and in the US only. The organisation should have charitable status or a non-profit status
Deadline: Friday 23 May, 11.59pm
Open-ended opportunities
Associate Principal Investigator (PI) Scheme
Opportunity: Training opportunity - the Associate Principal Investigator Scheme aims to develop health and care professionals to become the Principal Investigators (PIs) of the future.
Who's it for: Healthcare professionals just starting their research career, particularly those who would not usually have the opportunity to take part in clinical research in their day-to-day role.
Organiser: NIHR
Eligibility: The scheme is open to any health and care professional willing to make a significant contribution to the conduct and delivery of a study at a local level over a period of six months.
NIHR Reviewer Development Scheme
Opportunity: An opportunity to hone your skills in peer reviewing and to review current research. Participants will receive constructive feedback on their reviews as well as receiving insights into how other reviewers have approached pieces.
Who's it for: Early Career Researchers or professionals who are new to reviewing and interested in developing their skills further.
Organiser: NIHR
Eligibility: You must be close to completing your PhD or within 10 years of completing your PhD, and have not yet held a grant as Lead Applicant (excluding fellowships) of over £100,000. The Scheme is also open to all UK Speciality Registrars, Advanced Clinical Practitioners and Nurses and Midwives on Band 6 or above.