MRC Funding for Early Stage Development of New Healthcare Interventions

Funding to generate critical preliminary data to build confidence in the development strategy for a new medicine, repurposed medicine, medical device, diagnostic test, or other medical intervention development. This fund will provide small scale funding to generate critical data needed prior to seeking more substantive funding.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is providing this opportunity through the Developmental Pathway Gap Fund (DPGF). The Gap fund sits beyond the smaller and shorter Impact Accelerator funding and before the substantive and longer Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme.

The fund is designed to build confidence in the development strategy for a new medicine, repurposed medicine, medical device, diagnostic test, or other medical intervention development. It will provide small scale funding to generate critical data needed prior to seeking more substantive funding.

Applicants can apply for academically-led translational projects that aim to undertake a focused package of work that will bridge the gap between inception of a new idea and substantive funding through schemes such as the MRC Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme to:

• Help prevent disease.
• Help improve speed and accuracy of diagnosis of disease.
• Develop new treatments of disease.
• Help to improve outcome monitoring of patients receiving treatment.
• Help to improve the management of diseases and conditions.

All human diseases and medical interventions are eligible for support, both in the context of UK healthcare and addressing global health issues.

The idea for a new product that can improve human health should have already been conceived and supported by other funding. This should be utilised to produce the critical preliminary data needed to support the onward development of the product. A non-exhaustive list of examples of the types of projects that could be supported include:

• Elements of therapeutic discovery, quantification, and validation.
• Development of an initial prototype.
• Early prototype testing.
• Initial biomarker validation.
• Vector identification or optimisation.
• Hit expansion medicinal chemistry.

Projects should last between six and 24 months.