MRC Centre of Research Excellence: round four: invited full application
Forecasted
MRC Centre of Research Excellence: round four: invited full application supports interdisciplinary teams tackling defined health challenges to transform disease prevention, detection, diagnosis or treatment.
Funder: UK Research and Innovation
Due Dates (Anticipated): September 2027 (Full application deadline)
Funding Amounts: Up to £21 million MRC contribution for seven years, with renewal for seven further years; £50 million total fund
Summary: Supports interdisciplinary centres tackling defined health challenges with transformative biomedical or health research goals achievable within 14 years.
Key Information: Full applications are by invitation only, following a successful round-four outline application.
Description
The Medical Research Council (MRC), within UK Research and Innovation, funds Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs) to address complex health challenges requiring coordinated, flexible, long-term investment. Centres should pursue a defined gap, unmet need or bottleneck—not an open-ended discovery programme—and transform approaches to disease prevention, early detection, diagnosis or treatment within 14 years. Research can span the MRC remit, from discovery and mechanisms to concepts and interventions.
Centres bring together diverse expertise, technological or methodological innovation and translational research. They are expected to provide collaborative training environments and demonstrate excellence in research culture, inclusive leadership, open research and public partnerships. Round four also includes a Ministry of Defence partnership supporting novel blood products, addressing development, manufacturing and translation barriers for emergency and non-emergency healthcare, including military settings.
