The MRC Programme grants provide larger, longer term (five years) and renewable programme funding. They aim to help the medical science community to ‘think bigger’. A programme is defined as a coordinated and coherent group of related projects, which may be to answer an inter-related set of questions across a broad scientific area. The expectation is that not all the questions will necessarily be answered within the tenure of the award. The programme may well be a continuation of current activity.

The programme grants are available to any UK-based researcher who can demonstrate that they will direct the proposed research and be actively engaged in carrying it through. The minimum academic qualification required is a graduate degree, although usually a PhD is required. For programme grants the principal investigator should have a substantial record of research.

Under the programme grant scheme you may request support for a period of five years, which can include: The salary of the principal investigator and co-investigators; Support for additional posts – research, technical or other consumables; Equipment; Travel costs; Data preservation, data sharing and dissemination costs. The closing date for the next round of proposals is 30 July 2009; full details can be found at the link below.

MRC website