Medical Research Council (MRC)

Please see our new Research Councils: major changes and budget announcements page for the latest updates about changes to grant programmes, grant administration, financial management of awards, and the impact of moves to the Shared Services Centre.

News: MRC New Investigator Research Grant (NIRG)

The MRC NIRG is a prestigious personal award aimed at developing  promising researchers careers towards becoming independent researchers and group leaders and provide funding for three years or more as long as the Full Economic Costing financial ceiling of £600k is not exceeded. An NIRG can be applied for under any of the MRC Research Board’s Submission deadlines which occur 3 times per  year.

However due to the prestigious nature of the award the MRC require the Head of Dept Support statement/letter to be countersigned by the Pro-VC for research, this should be arranged via Research Services and to allow time for this the application should be submitted to Research Services 10 days before the submission deadline. Please take this into account when preparing these applications for submission to RS and the MRC.

The next MRC Research Board submission deadlines are between the 29th August to the 25th September 2012.

Background Information on the MRC

Areas supported Graduate, Postgraduate, Research, Knowledge Transfer, International
Types of funding Research across the biomedical spectrum, from fundamental lab-based science to clinical trials, and in all major disease areas
Funding Guide See Applicant Handbook
MRC funding opportunities On the MRC website
On ResearchProfessional.com. You will need to log in or click on Campus Access to view these
MRC Research Income at Oxford 2010/11: Oxford received £41.2M (second largest research funder of the University)
Applications and Award Activity at Oxford 2010/11: 158 applications submitted to the value of £131.8M. 45 new MRC awards accepted worth £31.1M, including financial amendments to existing awards (University financial year Aug-Jul)
Success Rates 2010/11 - by volume of applications
National average: 18%. Oxford: 23%. (MRC financial year Apr-Mar)
See the MRC's Success Rates webpage
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Preparing your application

  • It is essential that you refer to the Applicant Handbook and any specific guidance issued with the funding call or opportunity. Contact the Council directly for further guidance.

  • If you are thinking of putting together a grant application, please get in touch with your Departmental Administrator, Research Officer or Research Facilitator as soon as possible (and at the very latest four weeks before the deadline), so that they can provide advice and assistance with the preparation of your proposal. The sooner you get in touch, the more they will be able to help.

Further information

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Using the Je-S system for grant applications

Je-S is the Research Councils' web-based Joint Electronic Submission system for grant applications and award administration. All applications must be prepared and submitted via Je-S.

If you are new to Je-S, you will need to create a user account - please refer to Step 1 in our Application Process section. Your co-investigators will also need an account. Please note that you can also grant access to co-investigators or other colleagues so that they can view and edit the application directly in the system.

Please refer to the links below for more information about using Je-S at the application stage.

Further information:

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Preparing a Case for Support

  • This is the part of the application where you will describe your proposed project and why you should be funded to carry it out.
  • Ensure that your case is well-structured and addresses the issues or questions raised in the call.
  • Familiarise yourself with the assessment criteria that will be used - and the weighting given to each.
  • When writing your proposal be aware of who will ultimately be reading and assessing it. This will not just be subject experts but also generalists sitting on review panels, as well as (in some cases) research users.
  • Use the advice and expertise of colleagues, especially those who have had successful proposals - it can be helpful to ask colleagues who are both expert and non-expert in your field to read and comment on your application.
  • As with all aspects of your application, don't overlook 'minor details'. The wrong font size or exceeding page limits will result in your application being returned by the funder - and sometimes not considered at all.
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Ethics

  • The Je-S forms ask whether there are any ethical implications arising from the proposed research. This might include research involving human participants.

Further information

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Pathways to Impact

 

 

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Costing and Budgeting

  • Your Departmental Administrator, Research Officer or Research Facilitator will assist you to identify the costs of your project and also prepare a Resolve costing. Please contact them as soon as you are thinking about applying and at the very latest four weeks before the deadline. The Resolve costing will provide the financial information that you must include in the Je-S forms and, since this is the form that indicates Departmental approval of the costs of a project, it has to be provided to Research Services before the application can be approved and submitted by the University to the funder.

  • Applications should be costed on a full economic cost (FEC) basis. The Council will contribute 80% of these costs with the exception of equipment costs where different funding rules apply depending on the value of each individual item of equipment. For further information please see Research Councils and Equipment Funding. Please note that the MRC do not fund studentships on research projects.

Further Information for researchers

Further information for Departmental administrators:

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Equipment

The Research Councils have changed the rules on funding equipment. For further information and on costing guidance please see Research Councils and Equipment Funding.

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Justification of Resources

  • Justification of resources is not required in the case for support and should instead be included in the relevant section of your Electronic Application and Assessment submission.
  • Note that this is not justifying the costs (money) sought, rather the resources required to undertake the project, such as equipment or number of staff but also the level (seniority) of proposed staff and the proportion of their time they will dedicate to the project.
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I'm ready to submit my applications - what should I do now?

  • Firstly check that your application is complete and includes all the information and attachments required by the MRC (this includes letters of support, CVs, lists of publications etc).
  • Research Services reviews applications on behalf of the University and will liaise with you and/or your Departmental Administrator over any queries or changes that might be needed to the application.
  • Research Services submits the approved application to the MRC.

Further Information

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The application has been submitted - what next?

  • All proposals are reviewed by specialist referees (UK and international) where appropriate.
  • Any proposals which are identified as being unlikely to be funded are rejected at this stage.
  • Applicants whose proposals are short-listed can comment on their reviewers' feedback and these comments will be forwarded to the board/panel before the meeting.
  • All short-listed applicants receive feedback on the reasons for the board/panel decision, through an emailed assessment template.
  • Do let your Departmental Administrator know the outcome of your proposal. Where it is to be funded they will liaise with you and Research Services regarding the acceptance of the award. Sometimes the MRC may require the level of resources requested in the proposal to be adjusted and there is a 10-day window to provide revised figures.

Further Information

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Managing your award

  • Please refer to the MRC Applicant Handboook and the Research Council Terms and Conditions for FEC Grants.
  • See Managing awards for the process at Oxford for accepting and managing awards.
  • See our Offer Acceptances and Start Certificates page for information about how this process works on Je-S.
  • See our Grant Maintenance page for information about how to request changes to your award on Je-S (e.g. request an extension, change of grant title, change of grant holder).
  • All Directly Incurred staff working on Research Council projects must complete timesheets unless they are 100% charged to one project. See Other key funder requirements for further information, including a sample timesheet.
  • See our Academic Reporting and Expenditure Statements page for information about these requirements and the penalties for late submission of reports.
  • All claims, invoices and financial statements to funders must go out from Research Accounts, never directly from Departments.
  • Information about outputs, outcomes and impact of MRC-funded research is no longer requested in the final report; this is now collected through the MRC e-Val system (see below). Final grant reports are now only a statement of final expenditure and some contractual compliance details. 
  • Publications arising from research funded by the MRC should include an acknowledgement of MRC support as set out in the MRC Terms and Conditions.
  • Publications arising from MRC funded research must be deposited in UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) in accordance with MRC guidance on open access to published research.

Further information


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MRC e-VAL

MRC e-Val (formerly Outputs Data Gathering Tool) is an online form that gathers data about the outputs and outcomes of MRC-funded research.

The MRC wishes to assess, learn from, and communicate the impact of MRC funding and will share the information it collects with Universities. This initiative is important to the MRC as it examines progress with its strategic plan and prepares for the next governmental spending review. A key aim is to make a better case for public funding of health and medical research.

Further Information

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Using the Je-S system (for grant applications with a deadline of April 2011 onwards)

  • Applications must be prepared and submitted via the Research Councils' Je-S system for applications with a deadline of April 2011 onwards. Je-S is a web-based system which allows applicants to create and edit grant applications using a series of web forms. You can also grant access to co-investigators or other colleagues so that they can view and edit the application directly in the system.
  • Existing accounts on EAA will not be transferred over to Je-S. You will need to create a Je-S account in order to create and submit an application (we advise that you do this as soon as possible). Your Co-Investigators will also need an account early on. Please see our Je-S information page for information on how to create an account.
  • PI's have until 31 March 2011 to retrieve any historical applications held on EAA for future use.
  • From April to July 2011 EAA will still be used for peer review.

Further Information


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Documents

Related links

Joint Electronic Submission system (Je-S)

Find out more