Eligible individuals from MRC units and partnership institutes (Francis Crick Institute, Health Data Research UK, UK Dementia Research Institute) may apply for MRC grants as either a lead or co-applicant. These grants are intended to support research that is clearly additional to existing core support.
Grants to units and partnership institutes are awarded at the standard FEC rate for the call (normally 80% FEC) and all usual MRC funding rules, exclusions and expectations apply. Only funding related to new activity that does not duplicate existing core support can be requested. New grants should not be disruptive to the delivery of established core activity.
Unit and partnership institutes applicants must contact the relevant MRC programme manager for advice before applying and address the specific requirements below in grant proposals:
- letters of support – a core funding statement must be included as a letter of support attachment. The statement needs to clearly explain the relationship between the proposed work and core support. It must be signed by the unit director or equivalent
- other support – list core support and external funding awarded/applied for related to the grant in this section of the proposal form
- directly allocated costs – investigators or staff receiving their full salary from core support cannot include salary costs on MRC grant proposals. Use the proposal form to indicate the time these individuals will work on the grant, but enter salary costs as zero
- indirect and estates costs – calculate these using only the FTE eligible to request salary from the grant
- justification of resources – give particular attention to justifying any salaries requested and the method used to calculate indirect and estates costs. Aim to provide assurance no duplicative funding is being requested. For comparative purposes state the value of core supported salary contributions.
Unit core support is provided by MRC, partnership institute core support is provided by MRC and other funders.