Opportunities Update

Funding: Postdoctoral Award (Cohort 2)December

16/12/2025 1:00 pm NIHR Early career; Post-doctoral; Ends in 4 days

The NIHR Postdoctoral Award is aimed at anyone with a PhD or a submitted PhD thesis under assessment who hasn’t yet been appointed to a professorial post. This award provides funding to help you develop your research career across a broad range of postdoctoral career stages.

The award will support you to undertake research in any scientific discipline or sector. You’ll need to demonstrate a contribution to improving health and care within the NIHR’s remit.

It also supports individuals who wish to develop their academic careers while continuing as practitioners, including health and care professionals and PhD holders in local authority settings.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the award, you must:

hold a relevant PhD or MD, or have submitted your thesis for examination at the time of application. You must have been awarded your PhD or MD by the time you attend the interview
- if you hold a Professional Doctorate, you must contact us before you start your application and we will help to confirm your eligibility.
propose to undertake the award at a Higher Education Institution (HEI), NHS body, Local Authority or other provider of health or social care services, either in England or a participating devolved nation
not already hold a chair position at the point of application
for clinical applicants, you must have completed relevant pre-registration training

Funding: Predoctoral Clinical Research Training Fellowship (research skills)January

14/01/2026 4:00 pm Medical Research Council (MRC) Early career; Post-doctoral; Open - 33 days to go

Apply for funding to reacquire research skills.

Your research can focus on any area of Medical Research Council (MRC)’s remit.

You must:

be a registered healthcare professional
be a PhD graduate working outside of research, usually five or more years
show plans to pursue a research career and be at an appropriate point in your clinical training to undertake the fellowship

We will fund your salary and project costs for three years. We will fund 80% of the full economic cost (FEC).

Eligibility

You can apply if you are a registered healthcare professional. This includes, but is not limited to:

- nurses
- midwives
- allied health professionals
- healthcare scientists
- pharmacists
- clinical psychologists
- doctors
- dentists
- general practitioners

Funding: Predoctoral Clinical Research Training FellowshipJanuary

14/01/2026 4:00 pm Medical Research Council (MRC) Pre-doctoral; Open - 33 days to go

Apply for funding to undertake a PhD.

Your research can focus on any area of Medical Research Council (MRC)’s remit to improve human health.

You must:

be a registered healthcare professional
be at an appropriate point in your training to undertake a PhD
show plans to pursue a research career

We will fund your salary and project costs for three years. We will fund 100% of the justified costs.

You may also choose to apply for joint funding from one of the collaborating organisations.

Eligibility

You can apply if you’re a registered healthcare professional. This includes, but is not limited to:

nurses
midwives
allied health professionals
healthcare scientists
pharmacists
clinical psychologists
doctors
dentists
general practitioners
veterinarians

Funding: Clinician Scientist FellowshipJanuary

14/01/2026 4:00 pm Medical Research Council (MRC) Early career; Open - 33 days to go

Apply for support to become an independent researcher in a medical research field.

Your research can focus on any area of Medical Research Council’s (MRC) remit to improve human health.

You must:

be a registered healthcare professional
have a PhD or equivalent
show evidence of career development
show clear plans for developing as a leader in your field

We will fund your salary and project costs for up to five years. We will fund 80% of the full economic cost (FEC).

You may apply for joint funding from one of the collaborating organisations.

Eligibility

You can apply if you are a registered healthcare professional. This includes, but is not limited to:

nurses
midwives
allied health professionals
healthcare scientists
pharmacists
clinical psychologists
doctors
dentists
general practitioners
veterinarians

To be eligible for the clinician scientist fellowship, you must:

have completed a PhD or equivalent
have the skills and experience that match those of the ‘transition to independence’ career stage in the MRC applicant skills and experience criteria, such as showing evidence of career development and productivity across past appointments
have your own research plans that do not significantly overlap with those of your current group leaders or proposed sponsors
have the support of an eligible research organisation
intend to be clinically active during or after the award

Funding: Addiction Healthcare Goals Doctoral Award (Cohort 2)January

15/01/2026 1:00 pm NIHR Pre-doctoral; Open - 34 days to go

This Doctoral Award, in partnership with the Addiction Healthcare Goals (AHG) is a 3-year funding opportunity designed to support the career development of all health and social care professionals through PhD research.

The Addiction Healthcare Goals (AHG) supports UK-wide research into drug and alcohol addiction, with a focus on developing innovative approaches to treatment, recovery, and harm prevention across diverse care settings. The awards we fund are aimed at those pursuing addiction focused research from organisations such as the NHS, academic, third sector, local authority, and the criminal justice system. Alignment with the JLA Priority Setting Partnership’s top 10 addiction research priorities is welcomed but not required. Applications related to nicotine or behaviour addictions are not in scope for these awards.

Funding covers:

the full salary of the award holder for the entire duration of the fellowship at the requested FTE
costs for the approved research project
associated conference fees
costs for a suitable training and development plan which will lead to further professional development.
working with people and communities costs

Eligibility

To apply, you must:

hold a 1st class or 2:1 bachelor’s degree or equivalent
- if you do not meet this requirement, you must normally have a masters degree
your proposed contracting organisation must be an English recognised Higher Education Institution (HEI), NHS body, local authority, social care organisation, or another provider of health or care services in England
- if you are applying to the Addictions Healthcare Goals Programme partnership award, you must have an equivalent UK-wide contracting organisation in the devolved nations
- if you plan to undertake clinical/practice time as part of your award, or your host organisation is not a HEI, a partner organisation must be listed in the application. For more information, read our choosing a contracting organisation page
you should have some prior research experience or research training
if you are already registered for a PhD, or MPhil with transfer to PhD, you must not have been registered for more than 12 months full-time (100% FTE) by the time the award starts
your proposed research must be within the NIHR remit

Funding: Doctoral Award (Cohort 2)January

15/01/2026 1:00 pm NIHR Pre-doctoral; Open - 34 days to go

The Doctoral Award is a 3-year funding opportunity designed to support the career development of all health and social care professionals through PhD research.

The Doctoral Award provides comprehensive funding to support you in undertaking a PhD by research.

Funding covers:

the full salary of the award holder for the entire duration of the fellowship at the requested FTE
costs for the approved research project
associated conference fees
costs for a suitable training and development plan which will lead to further professional development.
working with people and communities costs

Eligibility

To apply, you must:

hold a 1st class or 2:1 bachelor’s degree or equivalent
- if you do not meet this requirement, you must normally have a masters degree
your proposed contracting organisation must be an English recognised Higher Education Institution (HEI), NHS body, local authority, social care organisation, or another provider of health or care services in England
- if you are applying to the Addictions Healthcare Goals Programme partnership award, you must have an equivalent UK-wide contracting organisation in the devolved nations
- if you plan to undertake clinical/practice time as part of your award, or your host organisation is not a HEI, a partner organisation must be listed in the application. For more information, read our choosing a contracting organisation page
you should have some prior research experience or research training
if you are already registered for a PhD, or MPhil with transfer to PhD, you must not have been registered for more than 12 months full-time (100% FTE) by the time the award starts
your proposed research must be within the NIHR remit

Funding: Arts, Health and Wellbeing Lottery FundingJanuary

19/11/2025 12:00 am → 21/01/2026 1:00 pm Arts Council of Wales Post-doctoral; Underway

The aim of this programme is to support partnerships from across the arts, health, social care and third sectors to provide high-quality creative projects that deliver health and wellbeing benefits for the people of Wales.

The Arts Health and Wellbeing Fund is open to partnership bids from across the arts, health, social care, nature, environmental and third sectors. Between £500 to £50,000 is available for funding but over £50,000 is available in rare and exceptional cases. Projects that address one or more of the following health challenges and priorities are eligible to apply:

Nature – projects that aim to improve people’s health and wellbeing by increasing their connection with nature through the arts;
Mental health – including tackling loneliness, social isolation and social prescribing schemes that aim to build resilience and support better mental health;
Health inequalities – Arts projects designed to address health inequalities by bringing health and wellbeing benefits to people from more diverse and under-represented backgrounds;
Physical health and wellbeing – arts projects that support improved physical health or keep people physically active ;
Staff wellbeing – within the healthcare and/or arts workforce.

Eligibility

Applications should be developed by a partnership/consortium of organisations and artists and must include both a health and arts partner (as well as a nature partner if your project focuses on Arts, Health & Nature). One of the partners will need to assume the lead, submitting the application and acting as the accountable body.

Funding: Application Development Award for Health and Care ProfessionalsFebruary

04/02/2026 1:00 pm NIHR Early career; Open - 54 days to go

The NIHR are commissioning up to 10 Application Development Awards (ADAs) to carry out development work prior to research applications, with a requirement for applicant teams to involve a specific group of Health and Care Professionals (HCP).

This opportunity helps HCPs to develop as highly skilled researchers and research leaders, and to move towards a more multi-professional approach to addressing the health and care challenges of today and the future. These ADAs are intended to support future applications for funding from NIHR research programmes, however, they are not programme-specific in nature.

This is a 1-stage funding opportunity.

Eligibility

To be eligible for this funding opportunity as an early-mid career researcher HCP, you must be a registered professional within 1 of the following eligible HCP groups:

nurses (including nurses that work in social care)
midwives
pharmacists
healthcare scientists
allied health professions (as specified by NHS England)

In addition to this, you must have:

recently been, or are about to be awarded a PhD, or have equivalent demonstrable years of research knowledge and experience
not yet been the chief investigator for a substantial research award of £100,000+

Funding: ADR UK Research FellowshipsFebruary

26/02/2026 12:00 am Administrative Data Research UK Early career; Post-doctoral; Open - 76 days to go

Administrative Data Research (ADR) UK is inviting applicants who are eligible for Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funding to propose research projects that demonstrate the policy impact potential of ADR England flagship datasets. Awards will be 18 months in duration, and projects must start in September 2026.

The full economic cost of individual projects can be up to £200,000. The ESRC will fund up to 80% of the full economic cost whilst the remainder should be funded by your research organisation.

They are looking for applications that meet the following four ADR UK Research Fellowships objectives.

Useful Research: Demonstrate the potential of administrative data research for public policy impact within the timeframes.
Useful Data: Develop our flagship datasets as useful research resources for future users.
Useful Engagement: Foster opportunities to engage with government and the public to shape the project to deliver impact and to maintain public acceptance for the use of data for research purposes; and
Community Building: Actively participate in and personally contribute to new or existing communities of practice in support of your development as a research leader using administrative data.

Funding: Clinical Future Leaders Fellowship (Cohort 1)March

03/03/2026 1:00 pm NIHR Early career; Post-doctoral; Open - 81 days to go

The first NIHR Clinical FLF opportunity represents a coordinated cross funder initiative to strengthen support for clinical academic careers, in response to the findings of the reports commissioned by the Office for Strategic Co-ordination of Health Research. The 7-year award will provide you with protected research time and leadership development opportunities. It will enable you to transition from postdoctoral researcher to research leadership roles.

If you are a senior postdoctoral clinical academic, you can apply to undertake funded research and a bespoke training and leadership development programme.

The 7-year award will provide you with protected research time and leadership development opportunities. It will enable you to transition from postdoctoral researcher to research leadership roles.

We offer Clinical FLFs in partnership with contracting organisations. To apply, your contracting organisation must nominate you and commit to providing significant support. The support offered by your contracting organisation must include:

contributing to tapered salary costs throughout the fellowship
committing to the provision of an open-ended UK based independent research or innovation position, to be taken up during or upon the completion of the fellowship
- this must be in-line with organisational employment policies and practices

Eligibility

The call is open to health and care professionals, as defined by NIHR, doctors and dentists.

Funding: BMA Foundation GrantsMarch

01/01/2026 12:00 am → 06/03/2026 12:00 am BMA Foundation Early career; Post-doctoral; Starts in 20 days

The British Medical Association Foundation offers a series of grants to support doctors and scientists in advancing their research goals and pioneering breakthroughs in medical science. They aim to aim to accelerate scientific discoveries that will benefit patients and contribute to a healthier, more resilient society. They are focused on empowering and supporting early stage researchers who are doctors and scientists in achieving their research aims and driving innovation in medical research.

All the BMA Foundation grants have National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) partnership status.

Some relevant grants include:

Margaret Temple grant for research into schizophrenia (£65,000)
Vera Down grant for research into neurological disorders (£65,000)

For the full list of grants, please visit the website.

Funding: Sir Halley Stewart Trust Main GrantsMarch

10/03/2026 12:00 am Sir Halley Stewart Trust Early career; Post-doctoral; Open - 88 days to go

The Trust has three priority areas: Medical, Social and Religious, with education being a central theme that runs across all grants.
Our Trustees welcome projects that relate to more than one priority area. The Trust funds projects that focus on the prevention (rather than the alleviation) of human suffering. All Trust grants must fall under one or both of the following categories:

Innovative research projects: i.e. those which explore and test new ideas, methods, approaches, interventions and/or devices.
Pioneering / ground-breaking development projects: i.e. those which are original and represent the first of their kind and/or lay the foundations for further developments.

The Trustees are keen to support innovative and imaginative people — often promising young researchers — with whom they can keep in contact as their careers progress.

Between £5,001 and £60,000 in total, is available, although in rare and exceptional cases grants of up to £80,000 may be considered. These are spread across one, two or three years, with a £30,000 maximum per annum.

Funding: Health Technology Assessment – Using light therapy in care/nursing homesMarch

18/03/2026 1:00 pm NIHR Post-doctoral; Open - 96 days to go

Our Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme is looking to fund research about the use of light therapy in care/nursing homes. This is a 2-stage, commissioned funding opportunity. To apply for the first stage you should submit an outline application. If invited to the second stage, you will then need to complete a full application.

Research Question: Can the use of light therapy boxes in residential care and/or nursing homes improve the mood, sleep and mental health of residents?

This is a focused funding opportunity and our intention is to fund a single study.

Eligibility

The HTA Programme will support

randomised controlled trials (blinded and unblinded)
non-randomised trials, where appropriate
cohort studies (retrospective or prospective) with suitable methods to allow comparative effectiveness research
complex and innovative trials including adaptive designs and platform studies
modelling studies and health economic models
international studies

Funding: The CMHP-PRUK Research AwardMarch

24/11/2025 12:00 am → 25/03/2026 1:00 pm Pharmacy Research UK Any; Underway

Pharmacy Research UK (PRUK) and the College of Mental Health Pharmacy (CMHP) are working together to offer full or associate members of the CMHP the opportunity to receive a Research Award for projects which aim to benefit patients with mental illness, and which contribute to enhancing the quality of care with psychiatric medicines through improving pharmaceutical services or ensuring safe and effective use of medicines.

The CMHP and PRUK specifically wish to support projects in the following areas:

Cross sector communication and interface working,
Medicines safety/optimisation for those with mental illness by community, general practice or general hospital pharmacy teams,
Relapse prevention and keeping well (including maintaining adherence),
Mental health services in community and primary care, or equivalent areas, and/or
Managing public health issues in mental health (e.g. physical health).

This partnership offers up to £20,000 for CMHP members to pursue research in line with the areas highlighted above, with a focus on future patient benefit. This year, they are able to fund two proposals. The research must not exceed 20 months duration and successful award holders will be expected to present their research at a future CMHP conference. Applications with a focus on substance misuse may be accepted provided the project aims to benefit patients with co-morbid mental illness.

Eligibility

To be considered eligible for submission the project must:

Align to the CMHP-PRUK Research Award scope criteria described above
Have a lead applicant who is registered with a professional regulatory body for pharmacy in their home nation (e.g. the General Pharmaceutical Council), and who is also a full or associate member of CMHP at the time of applying and will remain member for the duration of the proposed research
Be completed between 12 to 20 months (unless under exceptional circumstances)
Be based in the UK. Organisations outside of the UK are welcome to collaborate on projects, however the lead institution must be UK-based and the project must have relevance for the UK, and
Request no more than £20,000. The judging panel may decide to award the total amount to one or two projects or to one or more smaller projects.

Funding: Men’s Mental HealthApril

21/04/2026 1:00 pm NIHR Early career; Post-doctoral; Open - 130 days to go

The NIHR Public Health Research (PHR) Programme is looking to fund research which evaluates the health and health inequality impacts of interventions aimed at promoting good mental health or preventing poor mental health among men. This is a 2-stage funding opportunity. To apply for the first stage you should submit an outline application. If invited to the second stage, you will then need to complete a full application

Research question: What are the health and health inequality impacts of interventions aimed at promoting good mental health or preventing poor mental health among men?

Eligibility

The PHR programme focuses on funding health-related research into services that:

are not provided or funded by the NHS
can be rolled out on a large scale
have potential to create sustainable, population-level changes

It is particularly interested in studies that focus on the wider determinants of health and will generally ask for health-related outcome measures.

It does not fund:

studies of specific disease or condition
treatments research where primary outcomes are social care outcomes – see our Research programme for Social Care
the development of new websites, apps, or software

Funding Call: Veterans’ healthApril

21/04/2026 1:00 pm NIHR Post-doctoral; Open - 130 days to go

The NIHR’s Public Health Research (PHR) Programme is looking to fund research which evaluates the effects of interventions on the mental, physical, or both aspects of Veterans’ health. This is a 2-stage funding opportunity. To apply for the first stage you should submit an outline application. If invited to the second stage, you will then need to complete a full application.

You must demonstrate a strong grasp of the existing evidence base, highlight critical research gaps, and articulate how your study will address these deficiencies. Additionally, where relevant, you should integrate diverse sources of existing evidence to ensure a comprehensive approach.

Research Question: What are the effects of interventions on the mental, physical, or both aspects of Veterans’ health?

Funding: Sir Halley Stewart Trust Small Grants
Sir Halley Stewart Trust Doctoral; Early career; Post-doctoral; Open-ended
The Trust has three priority areas: Medical, Social and Religious, with education being a central theme that runs across all grants. The Trust funds projects that focus on the prevention (rather than the alleviation) of human suffering

Up to £5,000 in total, is available; this should cover the entire project or be the major funding contribution. The total project should cost no more than £5,000. This grant is aimed at small scoping or pilot projects. A limited number of Small grants are awarded each year.

Small Grant applications are considered all year round and there are no application deadlines.

All Trust funded projects must have strong dissemination plans, to ensure a positive impact on the immediate beneficiaries, service-delivery partners, wider stakeholders and policy-makers. Appropriate evaluation plans must also be integral to project designs, as should demonstrable outcome measures and longer-term impact aims capable of monitoring and measurement.

Evidence of strong Equality, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EEDI), together with appropriate Safeguarding, are fundamental requirements for applications to be successful.

2025,2026,OPENENDED 2025-12-1209:52:35 2026-12-31 00:00:00

Funding call: Courses and conferences for early career researchers
NIHR MH-TRC Mission Doctoral; Early career; Pre-doctoral; Open-ended
The NIHR Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration Mission (MH-TRC Mission) Capacity Development workstream presents an exciting opportunity for early career researchers linked to the MH-TRC Mission. To support your training and development we are launching a rolling funding call for fees and travel expenses to enable attendance at relevant courses and conferences. Applications are also welcome from PhD candidates seeking co-funding for PhD tuition fees. You can apply for funding covering up to 50% of PhD tuition fees (up to £15,000) provided you have already secured the rest of the funding.

We ask you to complete an application form below with details of the funding you require and how the PhD/course/conference relates to the objectives of the MH-TRC Mission.

Successful applicants must use the best value for money method of travel. Accommodation and subsistence (meals, beverages and limited incidental costs) should be in line with value for money principles, and claimants should not benefit.

All applications will be reviewed and applicants notified of the outcome on a monthly basis. We intend to have this rolling funding call open until 31 October 2027.

Eligibility

Funding requests must be well aligned with Mission objectives.

Funding: MRC new investigator research grant: applicant-led
Medical Research Council (MRC) Early career; Open-ended
Apply for funding to take the next step towards becoming an independent researcher. Your research must be in the remit of the Medical Research Council (MRC).

You must have the skills and experience to ‘transition to independence’ and the support of an eligible host research organisation.

There is no limit to the funding you can apply for, but the typical full economic cost (FEC) of a project is under £1 million. MRC will usually fund 80% of the FEC. This funding usually lasts three years and covers up to 50% of your salary.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply as a new investigator you must:

have research organisation support
be able to show that your skills and experience match those in the ‘transition to independence’ stage of the MRC applicant skills and experience table
use this grant to support your long-term career goals and chosen career route
be able to demonstrate you are the sole intellectual leader of the application and the proposed work

If you meet the eligibility criteria, you can also apply if you:

are employed as a postdoctoral research assistant, although this grant cannot start until your current work finishes
hold a lecturer appointment, a junior fellowship or another research staff position
hold, or have held, an early career training fellowship such as an MRC skills development fellowship
are not currently based at the eligible research organisation that has agreed to host your new investigator award
are either a non-clinical or clinically active researcher
have any number of years of experience

You are limited to submitting a maximum of two applications as project lead across MRC’s applicant-led responsive funding opportunities (research, partnership and new investigator) in a rolling 12-month period

Funding: MRC partnership grant applicant-led
Medical Research Council (MRC) Early career; Post-doctoral; Open-ended

Opening date to be announced soon

Apply for funding to support partnerships to carry out novel collaborative activities between a team of researchers, with interdisciplinarity encouraged where appropriate. We are looking to fund applicant-led partnerships between a team of researchers carrying out novel collaborative activities or capabilities that add value to high-quality research activities. These can be already supported by existing funding or will underpin future funding within the remit of the Medical Research Council (MRC).

We fund partnerships working to transform our understanding of human health and disease, to accelerate diagnosis, advance treatment and prevent human illness.

The grant will allow you to establish novel high-value collaborative activities or capabilities and add value to high-quality research activities supported by existing funding, or underpin future funding in our remit build capacity in an area of unmet need.

Funding is available for between 18 months and five years.

Eligibility

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

show that you will direct the project and be actively engaged in the work, or contribute to the academic leadership of the partnership
demonstrate that you and your team have the right expertise and experience to deliver the aims of the partnership, using interdisciplinary approaches where appropriate

Partnership grants are not designed to primarily support research. If you would like to apply for funding for a research project, you should instead consider a research grant.

You are also not eligible to apply for this funding opportunity as a project lead if you are based at an international research organisation. This does not include project leads from MRC Unit The Gambia or MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Funding: UK Gut-Immune-Brain Axis Network Mobility Awards
UK Gut-Immune-Brain Axis Network (GIBA) Early career; Post-doctoral; Open-ended
Funds are available to encourage and support mobility between academic institutions and also with industry partners. The awards aim to promote the movement of researchers and technicians between different research settings to facilitate knowledge transfer between academics. Beneficiaries of the mobility awards can be at any career stage. The mobility award funds may be used to:

Initiate a new collaboration; Strengthen an existing collaboration; Learn a new technique; Make use of existing resources outside the host institute; Facilitate the integration of different GIBA-relevant techniques; Lead to a funding application; Explore new technology transfer projects

Mobility awards may be between £500 for short-term visits to facilitate in-person collaborative activities, and up to £5,000 for longer-term and/or bilateral visits. Maximum duration is 3 months.

This is a rolling call where applications will be reviewed bimonthly by the network leadership team. Successful applicants will be notified within a week of the review meeting.

2025,2026,OPENENDED 2025-12-1209:52:35 2027-12-31 17:00:00

All of the latest and upcoming funding and career development opportunities for mental health and addiction researchers.

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