Apply to the MRC Impact Acceleration Award (Research Funding) for single-step support in developing a new or repurposed medicine, medical device, diagnostic, or other medical product.
Projects must target a high-risk development step backed by prior funding, generating critical data to de-risk onward progression or determine failure.
The Impact Acceleration Award strategically bridges the smaller Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) and the larger Proof of Concept funding opportunity.
You must be based at a Medical Research Council (MRC) eligible research organisation.
This funding opportunity was formerly known as ‘Gap Fund: single-step support for medical product development’.
This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible.
Who is eligible to apply
To be eligible to apply for this funding opportunity you must:
- show that you will direct the project and be actively engaged in the work
- be looking 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
For applicants who do not have a contract of employment for the duration of the proposed project, by submitting an application the research organisation is confirming, if it is successful:
- contracts will be extended beyond the end date of the project
- all necessary support for the project and the applicants will be provided, including mentorship and career development for early career researchers
Demand management
You can only submit one application as project lead to this funding opportunity.
Resubmissions
We will not accept uninvited resubmission of applications that were submitted after 1 April 2026 to MRC, the rest of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) or any other funder. An uninvited resubmission is an application that was previously unsuccessful and has been submitted again without being invited by MRC. This includes applications that are unchanged, minimally revised, or substantially the same as the original submission. Uninvited resubmissions will be rejected.
You should contact us if you are unsure whether your application is a resubmission. Find contacts in the ‘contact details’ section
Who is not eligible to apply
You are not eligible to apply for this funding opportunity as a project lead if you are based at an international research organisation. This does not include the MRC Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) or MRC/UVRI (Uganda Virus Research Institute) and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit.
If you are employed by these organisations you cannot apply as project lead or project co-lead, but can participate as project partners on an application led by an eligible UK organisation:
- businesses
- charity and third sector organisations
However, charities and third sector organisations that are approved UKRI Independent Research Organisations are eligible to apply as project lead or project co-lead.
International researchers
As MRC is a lead funder for this funding opportunity, international researchers can apply as ‘project co-lead (international)’. You should include all other international collaborators (or UK partners not based at approved organisations) as project partners.
Project co-leads (international) make a major intellectual contribution to the design or conduct of the project. Their contribution and added value to the research collaboration should be clearly explained and justified in the application, see ‘Applicant and team capability to deliver’.
Read the UKRI project co-lead (international) eligibility for more details. Please contact us if you are uncertain about eligibility.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.
We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:
- career breaks
- support for people with caring responsibilities
- flexible working
- alternative working patterns
UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.
Scope
You can apply for academically led translational projects that aim to undertake a single-step package of development work that will bridge the gap between the inception of a new idea and substantive funding through schemes such as the MRC Proof of concept funding opportunity (formerly Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme, DPFS).
The Impact Acceleration Award supports our strategic priorities including:
- precision prevention to reduce disease risk in targeted populations
- early and accurate diagnosis to improve speed and accuracy of disease detection
- advanced treatments offering novel therapeutic approaches
- improve outcome monitoring of patients receiving treatment
- better management of diseases and conditions through innovative technologies
All human diseases and medical interventions are eligible for support, both in the context of UK healthcare and addressing global health issues.
You should note the Impact Acceleration Award will only support single-step projects, focusing on one goal rather than multiple steps. We recommend requesting only the funding needed for this specific goal, unless applying for the maximum amount is scientifically justified.
Your project should have already explored a new concept and generated some data in support of the approach. Your application should clearly articulate:
- the core concept of the project
- the critical one-step gap that needs to be addressed
- an explanation of how the proposed plan will address this critical gap
- the challenges and issues involved in onward development
This fund will provide small scale funding to generate critical data needed prior to seeking more substantive funding. A non-exhaustive list of examples of the types of projects that could be supported include:
- high-risk elements of therapeutic discovery, quantification and validation
- high-risk stages of prototype development
- early prototype testing
- initial biomarker validation
- vector identification or optimisation
- hit expansion medicinal chemistry
In exceptional circumstances, you can submit follow on applications where you can justify the need for continued support. However, in most cases a positive outcome of the proposed work should be sufficient to allow submission of a longer and larger application, potentially to the MRC Proof of Concept funding opportunity.
For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the ‘Additional information’ section.
Applications from research organisations who are not recipients of an Impact Acceleration Account may use this funding opportunity to apply for more preliminary studies. The scale and scope of the request should reflect a project more in line with earlier stages of development.
You should highlight within the application that you are applying for an IAA-like project and that your research organisation does not provide this opportunity.
Activities we support
You can apply for funding for work on novel:
- new small molecule medicines
- vaccines for infectious or non-infectious disease
- biologics (antibodies, peptides, proteins)
- advanced therapeutics (for example, gene therapy, cell therapy, RNA therapy, nucleic acid therapy and T-cell therapy)
- complex medicines for example PROTACS, molecular glues and antibody-drug conjugates
- regenerative medicine approaches
- repurposing clinical studies or using existing therapies for new indications
- medical devices
- digital healthcare and app development
- diagnostics (including biomarker validation but excluding biomarker identification)
- medical imaging technology
- surgical techniques or tools
- behavioural and psychological interventions
- radiotherapy and radiation protocols
We note that many applications in each of these categories may include artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies. A significant use of AI in an Impact Acceleration Award application refers to the integration of AI as a core enabling technology that fundamentally shapes the application’s functionality, development, and value proposition. This means that AI is not merely an add-on feature but a major technique that drives the application’s capabilities, automation, decision-making, or user experience.
This application form includes a question section dedicated to such applications and more guidance on this can be found below depending on the type of AI application you plan to submit.
Training a model based on existing data
The application should convey a clear and well-supported justification for the sufficiency of the available data in achieving the stated objectives. It should also confidently articulate how the work extends beyond discovery science, framing it as translational research that addresses a high-risk, early-stage development challenge. The application should demonstrate both the feasibility and the significance of the proposed research.
Clinical validation of a model
The application should outline specific plans and success metrics for validating the model in a clinical context. It should clearly detail the methodology, as well as the required expertise and clinical partners (if applicable). The application should demonstrate both the feasibility and the significance of the proposed approach in a clinical setting.
Repurposing existing models into new interventions
The application should demonstrate a clear path from repurposing to patient benefit, focusing on the single high-risk step being addressed and its success criteria.
Collecting new data and building a new model
The application should clearly define the data to be collected and explain why and how this data will be sufficient to achieve the stated goals. It should explicitly detail the methodology needed for the new model, along with the required expertise, providing strong justification for both. The application should also clearly justify why the work is not discovery science, but rather translational research that addresses a high-risk, early-stage development challenge.
Be aware of the following common mistakes and omissions:
- insufficient detail on data collection or use: applications often include good descriptions of methodology without a clear explanation of data origin, quantity, or quality. Ensure you address all these aspects in your application
- insufficient detail on proposed methodology: if data availability is well-articulated, ensure your methodology and expertise are equally well-articulated
- lack of metrics and success criteria: clearly define measurable success criteria and explain how you will evaluate your progress
- multiple work packages: avoid structuring your project like a short grant application. Do not include multiple steps or packages, focus on one high-risk step
Activities we do not support
This funding opportunity will not support:
- fundamental or investigative research that is not linked to a product development plan (supported by the MRC science areas)
- clinical studies where the main aim is to investigate disease mechanism (supported by the MRC Experimental Medicine Panel)
- generation of preliminary concept data (supported by Impact Acceleration Accounts, IAAs)
- pre-clinical safety and toxicology studies (supported by MRC Proof of Concept)
- early-phase clinical trials (supported by MRC Proof of Concept); note that clinical feasibility studies within the cost limits of the Impact Acceleration Award may be considered for Gap funding. (Contact the Impact Acceleration Award mailbox prior to submission)
- late-phase clinical trials (supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation and NIHR Health Technology Assessment programmes)
- interventions aiming to improve NHS service delivery (supported by NIHR)
- late-phase global health trials (supported by the NIHR)
- same or similar applications that have previously been rejected by other MRC funding panels in the last 12 months
- applications that involve multiple work packages.
Duration
The duration of this award is between six and 18 months. Justification of the timescale and resources needed in the context of the proposed work needs to be provided and duration of request should reflect this.
Projects should start one to six months after the funding decision date.
Funding available
The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be between £50,000 and £300,000.
We will provide funding at 80% of the FEC and 100% of permitted exceptions. If this limit is exceeded, your application will be rejected by the MRC during the initial checks stage.
Find out more about full economic costing.
We recommend requesting only the funding needed for this specific goal, unless applying for the maximum amount is scientifically justified.
What we will fund
You can request funding for costs such as:
- a contribution to the salary of the project lead and co-leads
- support for other posts such as research and technical staff
- research consumables
- equipment
- travel costs (conference attendance costs are not acceptable for this award)
- data preservation, data sharing and dissemination costs
- estates and indirect costs
- public partnerships and related activities, including payments to public contributors
You can also request costs for work to be undertaken at international organisations by international project co-leads. We will fund 100% of the eligible international costs.
The total of such costs requested for international applicants from high-income countries (HICs) (those not on the OECD DAC List of ODA Recipients), India and China must not exceed 30% of the total resources requested.
There is no cap on costs requested for international applicants from DAC list countries.
For more information on international costs and what we will and will not fund see costs we fund and the Collaborate with Researchers in Norway guidance.
What we will not fund
We will not fund:
- costs for PhD studentships
- publication costs
- funding to use as a ‘bridge’ between grants
- costs associated with applying for intellectual property (IP) protection, for example, patent filing
- conference costs
Project partner
A project partner is a collaborating organisation in the UK or overseas, including partners based in the EU, who will have an integral role in the proposed research. You may include project partners that will support your research project through cash or in-kind contributions, such as:
- staff time
- access to equipment
- sites or facilities
- the provision of data
- software or materials
- recruitment of people as research participants
- providing samples, such as human tissue, for the project
Each project partner must provide a statement of support. If your application involves industry partners, they must provide additional information if the team project partner falls within the industry collaboration framework.
Find out more about subcontractors and dual roles.
Who cannot be included as a project partner
Any individual included in your application with a core team role cannot also be a project partner.
Any organisation that employs a member of the application core team cannot be a project partner organisation. This includes other departments within the same organisation.
If you are collaborating with someone in your organisation, consider including them in the core team as project co-lead, or specialist. They cannot be a project partner.
Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)
UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.
As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.
See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.
Visit funding web page
(https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/ukri-translation-mrc-impact-acceleration-awards/)
