Funding Amount and Duration
- Typical Funding: While there's no upper limit to the funding you can apply for, applicants typically apply for £1 million or more.
- Duration: Programmes usually last five years, but you can contact MRC for advice if you want to propose a shorter or longer duration.
- Funding Rate: MRC will usually fund up to 80% of your project's full economic cost (FEC). Your organization is responsible for securing the remaining balance (e.g., 20%) from other resources.
- Exceptions: Certain eligible costs are funded at 100% FEC, including:
- Costs for work undertaken at international organizations by international project co-leads (100% of eligible direct costs).
- Costs for public partnerships/public contributors.
- DNA sequencing (if carried out by an institution ineligible for UKRI funding).
- Scheme-specific exceptional costs (e.g., for specific contract research organization activities exceeding £50,000 in Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme).
- Externally contracted social surveys.
Eligible Costs
Funding can be requested for a wide range of costs, provided they are justified, appropriate, and represent optimal use of resources. These include:
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Staff Costs: A contribution to the salary of the Project Lead and Co-leads, and support for other research and technical staff (e.g., Research and Innovation Associates, Specialists, Technicians, Professional Enabling Staff).
* For staff employed 100% on the project, visa fees and immigration health surcharge costs are eligible.
* Salary costs for visiting senior collaborative researchers (up to one year) are eligible.
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Research Consumables: Materials and supplies directly used in the research.
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Equipment: Purchase of new equipment (including computers and software). Items costing
over £25,000 should be listed under the equipment category; those under £25,000 are typically under 'directly incurred: other'. Costs for equipment repairs, major spares, external maintenance, and relocation are also eligible. Equipment for instrument development can be funded at 100% FEC.
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Travel and Subsistence: For project staff, including for collaborative working visits, learning special techniques, and conference attendance (e.g., one UK/European conference annually, one major international conference every two years). Costs for additional caring responsibilities related to project travel are also eligible.
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Data Costs: Data preservation, data sharing, and dissemination costs. This includes resources for managing, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data.
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Estates and Indirect Costs: These are calculated by your research organization using the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) methodology and are generally covered at 80% FEC. For international project co-leads from OECD DAC list countries (excluding India and China), overheads may be contributed at 20% of their directly incurred costs to develop research capacity.
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NHS Research Costs: When directly associated with NHS studies.
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Public Partnerships: Costs for public contributors, including time commitment, travel, and expenses. These are usually funded at 100% direct costs under 'Exceptions'.
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International Collaborator Costs: Eligible costs for international project co-leads' work, including any locally employed staff at the international organization, travel, and other direct costs. The total for co-leads from high-income countries (not on OECD DAC List) including India and China must
not exceed 30% of the total resources requested. There is no cap for co-leads from other DAC list countries.
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Subcontractor Costs: For specific pieces of work delivered by a third-party organization, funded at 80% FEC.
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Consultancy Fees: For specific contributions beyond the project team, funded at 80% FEC.
Ineligible Costs
Certain costs are explicitly
not permitted and will be removed if included in your application:
* Research involving
randomised trials of clinical treatments.
* Costs for
PhD studentships (as these are funded through block grants to institutions).
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Publication costs (e.g., article processing charges, book chapter charges) as these are covered by separate block grants to UK HEIs.
* Funding to be used as a 'bridge' between grants.
* General printing or postage costs not specific to the project.
* Basic computing equipment for directly allocated staff, unless specifically justified.
* General miscellaneous expenditure or contingency costs.
* Carbon offsetting costs from project-related travel.
* Patent costs and other intellectual property (IP) costs (universities receive separate funding for these).
* Costs not sufficiently justified.