Regional accounts for clinical researchers

Opportunity status: Open Funders: Funding type: Grant Total fund: £6,000,000 Award range: £800,000 - £1,400,000 Publication date: 14 October 2025 Opening date: 14 October 2025 9:00am UK time Closing date: 18 December 2025 4:00pm UK time Apply for funding as a regional consortia of eligible research organisations, working in partnership, spanning medical schools, institutions and NHS trusts. Regional accounts for clinical researchers (RACR), are intended to provide your regional consortia with the flexibility to identify and address gaps in support for clinical researchers, providing funding to address critical career pinch points to enable an individual’s longer-term success. Your application can range from £800,000 to £1.4 million for 48 months and we will fund 100% of the justified costs. You must complete the mandatory expression of interest stage to inform our planning, prior to submitting your full application. See ‘How to apply’ for more information. Who can apply You can only apply for this funding opportunity if you have completed the mandatory expression of interest. See ‘How to apply’ for more information. To apply, you must be based at an eligible organisation. . Applications must be led by a single applicant on behalf of a consortium of eligible UK ROs and NHS organisations (including NHS trusts, boards or equivalents: referred to as NHS trusts for ease throughout the rest of this text) working in partnership. There is no limit on the number of consortium partners in a RACR application, but any RO or NHS trust cannot be involved in multiple RACR applications. Consortia should self-define appropriate partnerships with clear justification and strong rationale. They are encouraged to consider regional groupings and are expected to draw upon local synergies and development within the region to enable and or expand local opportunities. Who is eligible to benefit from RACRs RACR awards are intended to provide flexible support for those combining academic research with UK clinical training or clinical duties at the following critical career points: clinical researchers at the post-PhD transition clinicians returning to research after training or an extended break RACR consortia will have the flexibility to identify and fund clinical researchers who are eligible to benefit from RACRs through conducting research within MRC remit. Who is not eligible to benefit from RACRs Individuals not eligible to benefit from RACR support are: students (including undergraduate, masters or PhD) researchers who are not registered or active healthcare professionals current holders of postdoctoral level fellowships International researchers You are not eligible for this funding opportunity if you are based at an international research organisation. Equality, diversity and inclusion for all funding applicants. Applications will be assessed on their plans to support a diverse range of researchers and 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 for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process. What we're looking for Aim Regional Accounts for Clinical Researchers (RACR) is a pilot initiative designed to address gaps in support for clinical researchers at critical career pinch points. Through multi-institutional consortia with NHS trusts, the ambition of these awards is to create more local opportunities for clinical researchers, with the aim of providing flexibility, encouraging early mobility, and reducing clinical pressures to enable an individual’s long-term success as a clinical researcher. Scope RACR was designed in response to the  report recommendations to address identified gaps in support for clinical researchers at the following critical career pinch points: enabling research activity while completing clinical training after completion of a PhD enabling clinicians to re-enter research We will provide funding to regional consortia across the UK to operate in flexible and responsive ways, supporting the needs of clinical researchers locally. Key features of RACRs are as follows: enable clinicians at key career pinch points to engage with research that directly aligns with MRC core remit of research into human health and disease, from fundamental discovery science through to the development and testing of new diagnostics, therapeutic interventions and preventive measures a strong regional partnership or clear plans to develop one, involving relevant institutions and NHS trusts including, where appropriate, collaborations between newer and long-established medical schools targeted plans to address the identified career pinch points of post-PhD transition, research re-entry, or both complementarity with existing local and regional initiatives, with clear strategies to enhance, expand and, where necessary, develop new offers across the regional partnership robust management and governance plans, incorporating best practice in equality, diversity and inclusion, to ensure transparent allocation and distribution of funds across partnering organisations to multiple individuals strong support for individual clinical researchers, with clear plans to nurture individuals and enable their future career progression across academic and NHS settings a commitment to sharing best practice, both within the partnership and the wider community Applications for an RACR must be led by a single eligible research organisation, but should be collaborative in nature and co-created within the consortium, spanning relevant academic institutions, medical schools and NHS trusts. Wider partnerships with local charities, industry, SMEs and digital technology companies are encouraged to support mobility opportunities for clinical researchers. MRC is not defining partnerships or local clusters. For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the Additional information section. Duration The duration of this award is four years. Your award must start by 1 July 2026. Funding available The FEC of your project can range from £800,000 to £1.4 million. We will fund 100% of the justified costs and all costs should be entered as exceptions. You will be expected to submit annual reports and undergo light-touch annual monitoring and a mid-term review to receive successive funding instalments, which could include a funding uplift or reduction. What we will fund It is anticipated that four to six RACR awards will be made as part of this pilot phase. We expect groupings containing limited numbers of partners to request funds at the lower end of the award range, with larger scale, broad consortia able to bid for funds at the higher end. Proposals and funding requested should be proportionate to the size and number of consortia partners. Each RACR award will last up to four years and funds will be used by the consortia to support individual clinical researchers. The majority of support for individuals is expected to be short term (six to12 months) and small scale (up to £50,000 to £150,000) to position them for subsequent opportunities. Funding can be used to enable a wide range of activities that support the scheme aims. For example, funds can be used to cover a salary contribution (20-50%) to support protected research time as well as modest direct costs of specific research activities that cannot be met via the partnerships.  Mobility activities within the partnership and training courses may be appropriate with strong justification. It is expected that consortia draw on existing mechanisms for administrative processes, with no or minimal additional administrative costs requested. Where additional administrative costs are essential, these must be included in the overall cost requested value and must not exceed £20,000 FEC. Justification of these costs must be included in the justification of resources and will be considered as part of the assessment. What we will not fund We will not fund: costs for PhD studentships or anyone who is not eligible to benefit from RACRs publication costs costs for senior staff included under any role Project partner A project partner is a collaborating organisation in the UK, who will have an integral role in enabling the proposed research. You may include project partners that will support your consortium, 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 relationship falls within the .