Funding and opportunities

Resources

• Explain This. A series of short, accessible microlearning resources to help people working in healthcare improvement understand key concepts and approaches. Access the resources here.
• How to develop a PPI group. PPI in Action webinar series, led by Christina King and Sarah Murray – both Chairs of PPI research groups. Available on YouTube.
• New e-learning on research now available. Research skills are increasingly recognised as core professional capabilities, not just optional extras. Sign up for 2 e-learning modules to build your skills and knowledge about research. The ‘What is Health Research?’ modules, available on the NHS Learning Hub, include a foundation level course for anyone new to research and an intermediate level for those wanting to develop their understanding further. They can be completed at your own pace, anytime, anywhere.
  

Inclusive research opportunities and resources

• Film Screening: London locations. Turning Points: Black and Working-Class Journeys into Health Research. Join us in person for the screening of this fascinating film and discussion panel celebrating the incredible paths of Black and working-class people diving into health research. Discover stories, challenges, and triumphs that highlight how diverse backgrounds shape the future of health science. It’s a chance to connect, learn, and celebrate turning points that inspire change. And to find out how you could join this journey. Screenings on 14 July, 15 July, 22 July at locations across London. Find out more information and reserve a spot here.  
• News: NIHR funds new race and ethnicity inclusion collaboration. The NIHR has announced £250k in funding for a new race and ethnicity inclusion project. This new initiative is ‘Equity by Evidence: Race and Ethnicity Inclusion in Research’, which brings together NHS Race and Health Observatory (the Observatory) and The George Institute for Global Health (TGI) at Imperial College London.  Together, the partners will work with the sector to develop a set of standards. These will ensure consideration of research participants’ race and ethnicity across health and care research. Find out more about the race and ethnicity inclusion collaboration and details of the NIHR inclusion strategy 2022-2027 can be found.  
• PRO EDI—A Tool to Help Systematic Reviewers Make Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Assessments. Systematic reviews are often not clear about who is represented within a body of evidence. PRO EDI was developed to help systematic review authors extract and report equity-related participant data to support greater transparency and more informed judgments about applicability. PRO EDI has two main components: a participant characteristics table and guidance on how to use the extracted characteristics data within reviews. PRO EDI recommends that six participant characteristics should be extracted for all included studies in a review: age, sex, gender, ethnicity, race and ancestry, socioeconomic status, and location. Other characteristics (e.g., disability) may be important for some reviews. PRO EDI is relevant for all systematic reviews, not just those with an equity focus. The tool has been piloted in several reviews and is publicly available via Trial Forge. See the complete article and links.
  
• Nuffield Foundation Racial Diversity UK Fund. Research funding to understand the barriers and pathways to a racially just and inclusive society. Outline application deadline in October 2026.

Project/programme grants and funding

Four Nations access to NIHR funding

Since 2023, health and social care researchers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have had increased access to health and social care research funding from the NIHR. Five NIHR research programmes became accessible in autumn 2023:

• Evidence Synthesis
• Invention for Innovation (i4i)
• Research for Social Care (RfSC)
• Programme Grants for Applied Research programme (PGfAR)
• Programme Development Grants

NHS Research Scotland

As well as access to the NIHR schemes above, The Chief Scientist Office has one current funding stream open to directly support research in Scotland. Researcher Initiated Grant Schemes – limit £300k. Next open for applications on 1 September 2026, with outline applications by 16 December 2026.

Ymchwil Iechyd a Gofal Cymru – Health and Care Research Wales

View a full list of current opportunities.

HSC R&D Division Northern Ireland

PPI in Research Support Small Grant Scheme: grants to facilitate the involvement of patients, carers, and public in the research process as partners rather than participants, and to encourage innovative practice in the delivery of PPI through the development of new ways of working with patients, carers and the public. Open call. Further details on the HSC R&D website

Applying for Funding – advice and support for Northern Ireland applicants. For those in NI considering applications to NIHR grant schemes, researchers can discuss applications with members of HSC R&D Division. Further information and contacts on the HSC R&D website.

National Institute of Health Research (NIHR)

All funding opportunities from NIHR can be found online.

NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs)

ARCs deliver applied health and care research that addresses the needs of local populations and health and care systems – while also being scalable across the country. They are local partnerships involving NHS providers, universities, charities, local authorities, Health Innovation Networks and others. They develop new treatments and technologies, supporting Government health plans (10 Year Health Plan, Life Sciences Sector Plan, Health and Growth Missions) by addressing critical UK health and social care challenges. For example, a Pan-London ARC is in the process of being commissioned and the NIHR is dedicating £5 million over five years to establish an ARC Network, which will provide national strategic and operational coordination for the designated ARCs.

Open calls include themed calls for funding opportunities that focus on priority research areas. Various funding opportunities available – current themes include Dementia, MND, Brain Tumour, Work Health (working age adults living with chronic health conditions). See the above NIHR website link for details.

Public Health Research: Loneliness in the community. Research that evaluates the health and health inequality impacts of community initiatives that aim to address loneliness at a population level. Outline application closing date 16 August 13:00.

Public Health Research: School readiness and the home learning environment. Research into the effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness, of interventions seeking to improve the home learning environment and school readiness for children in the UK. Outline application closing date 18 August 13:00.

Medical Research Council (MRC)

All funding opportunities from MRC can be found online. Open calls include:

• MRC Proof of Concept: stage one. Funding to develop and test novel therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics and other interventions. Closing date 18 November 2026.
• Researching ME/CFS priority area. No closing date.  

Please see MRC funding for personal fellowships below, as the MRC offers a number of opportunities for individual fellowships and funding.

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

All funding opportunities from ESRC can be found online. ESRC’s funding remit includes economic, social, behavioural and human data science.

Open calls for topics in ESRC’s remit include:

• ESRC responsive mode: research grants round two. No closing date.
• ESRC responsive mode: new investigator grants round two. No closing date.
• ESRC responsive mode: secondary data analysis round two. No closing date.

Wellcome  

All funding opportunities from Wellcome can be found online.

Leverhulme Trust 

All funding opportunities from Leverhulme Trust can be found online.

Nuffield Foundation 

All funding opportunities from Nuffield Foundation can be found online.  Open calls include:

• Racial Diversity UK Fund. Closes October 2026.

Other funders and charities

• Parkinson’s UK Excellence Network Grants, small grants for 2026. The grant scheme returned on 13 April. Services can apply for up to £12,000 for projects within the following themed categories:
  • no diagnosis without support (including mental health)
  • improving research participation
  • connected care closer to the community.

  Key dates: 10 September 2026 – 17:00 deadline to submit expressions of interest. 15 October 2026 – 17:00 final deadline for applications.

• BBC Children in Need Grants. Apply for funding in one of the following priority areas: preventing mental health issues, alleviating the impact of poverty and deprivation, reducing social inequity for marginalised children and young people, addressing the impact of family related challenges. Priorities for funding differ by geographical region in the UK. Full details on the BBC Children in Need website.

Fellowships and clinical academic opportunities

National Institute of Health Research (NIHR)

Find all NIHR fellowships under the Research career development funding programmes.

Wellcome

• Early-Career Awards  provides funding for early-career researchers from any discipline who are ready to develop their research identity. By the end of the award, they will be ready to lead their own independent research programme. Closing date 21 July 2026.

MRC

• Daphne Jackson fellowship. For researchers returning after a career break. No closing date.

Stroke Association

All funding opportunities from the Stroke Association can be found on their website.
A new round of fellowships are being launched in 2026. These include:

• Postgraduate Fellowships (PhD Studentships) – opening July 2026

PhDs

Other PhD opportunities

We now share funded project-based PhD opportunities, sourced from findaphd.com 

Note, that there may be opportunities to apply for funding with institutions to pursue other PhD topics and we encourage you to contact relevant universities to explore this. 

Latest opportunities: 

• How do children learn to read and spell irregular words? Australian Catholic University, North Sydney. No Deadline.
• Four Year MRC-ITND PhD fellowships in Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), Kings College, London. Deadline 15 July.
• NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South West Doctoral Award: Supporting inclusive research collaboration and design through creative methods. University of Plymouth. Deadline 21 July.
• Wearable AI for Total Communication Support. King’s College London. Deadline July 24.
• Understanding delegation, capability and emerging roles among AHP support workers in community and Intermediate Care. University of Exeter. Deadline 28 July.
• CARE-AD: Assessing CArer beliefs, Awareness and REsponsiveness in Advanced Dementia. University of Exeter. Deadline 28 July.
• Chew on this! Understanding food structure transformation during oral processing and its impact on digestion. The Quadram Institute (Quadram Institute Bioscience, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals, University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School and the Faculty of Science). Deadline 30 July.
• Tongue Twisters: using the creative possibilities of nonsense language to improve care for people with dementia. Leeds Beckett University. Deadline August 31.