UKRI: Ageing research development awards

Overview

Who can apply

Lead applicants must:

• be a researcher based in the UK and employed by an eligible research organisation or be based in an overseas MRC unit
• usually have at least a postgraduate degree, although we expect most applicants to have a PhD or equivalent
• meet the standard eligibility criteria, as per the guidance for applicants
• show that they will direct the project and be responsible for its delivery, and direct research to address the remit of the opportunity

Check if you are eligible for research and innovation funding.

They encourage the inclusion of relevant investigators across the entire breadth of UKRI’s remit. While administered by MRC, applications to this opportunity are welcomed from across the UKRI research community.

Proposals that seek to address a biomedical question are therefore welcomed, but this is not a pre-requisite for funding.

Recognising the cross-disciplinary nature of the challenge, interdisciplinary teams must be formed to maximise impact.

Applications linked to existing BBSRC and MRC ageing across the lifecourse interdisciplinary research networks are welcomed, but this is not a requirement for funding.

Investigators

1 principal investigator must act as the project lead. 1 or more co-investigators should be included to facilitate interdisciplinary research.

You may be the principal investigator of no more than 1 application to this funding opportunity. There is no limit to the number of applications on which you can be a co-investigator or collaborator, provided you have the capacity to meet these commitments.

It will be permissible to include researchers who would not normally be eligible to receive funding as a research co-investigator on the proposal, in line with standard MRC guidance for this investigator status.

International investigators

International co-investigators are permissible where established expertise is not available within the UK. The inclusion of international co-investigators and associated costs must be fully justified and must be discussed with UKRI staff in advance (see ‘Contact details’ section).

Requests for costs for international co-investigators must adhere to existing MRC overseas costs guidance.

All investigator costs should be appropriately balanced against the remaining budget to support research development activity.

Private sector partners

UKRI welcomes applications that include 1 or more relevant private sector project partners (for example, industrial or commercial partners), where their inclusion is fully justified and essential for project delivery and exploitation.

No funding can be directly awarded to private sector stakeholders or investigators.

Applications with private sector project partners must adhere to existing MRC Industry Collaboration Framework guidelines. The inclusion of non-academic and non-private sector stakeholders is welcomed (where appropriate) and such stakeholders should be declared as project partners, with an accompanying letter of support.

Collaborators who are not seeking to obtain financial remuneration but who are providing essential resource or expertise to an application can be included. Collaborators should provide a letter of support that fully describes their contribution to the project.

What are they looking for

Ageing Research Development Awards will develop tractable areas of interdisciplinary research to secure better health and wellbeing for individuals as they age. Research Development Awards will develop areas of ageing research across the breadth of UKRI’s remit, enabling the development of interventions to reduce time spent in poor health in later life.

Successful projects will sit at the interface of council remits, drawing on interdisciplinary teams to develop proof of concept.

Award requirements

Development awards must:

• link understanding of ageing pathways with wider determinants of health (for example: environmental, economic, social, or cultural)
• clearly define the challenge that they aim to address, focusing on novel avenues of investigation
• take an interdisciplinary approach towards addressing the challenge, supported by an interdisciplinary team
• clearly describe the intended target demographic for potential interventions, explaining how the research would improve health equity across communities
• consider public and patient engagement where appropriate
• strengthen evidence to de-risk further development and implementation of potential interventions. This could include:
  • further developing the basic principles underpinning an approach
  • strengthening pilot data
  • establishing proof-of-concept
  • testing the feasibility and acceptability of a potential intervention
• have a clear line of sight towards benefiting the health and wellbeing of older people, or as individuals age. Results arising from the awards do not have to be immediately translatable, but applications must clearly define how results would be taken forward for exploitation

UKRI broadly defines an intervention as any approach, tool, technology, or treatment that has the potential to positively impact the lives of ageing individuals or positively alter ageing trajectories throughout life. This definition does not extend to clinical trials or population health-level interventions, which will not be supported through this opportunity.

Example research areas

UKRI encourages the research community to be ambitious and to submit their best ideas for consideration. While UKRI will not pre-prescribe any priority areas of focus, awards must be interdisciplinary and could align with 1 or more of the following example areas:

• enhancing mechanistic understanding of intrinsic and extrinsic ageing pathways
• understanding the impact of the external environment on health and wellbeing as individuals age
• use of cultural, creative, and natural environment assets to support health and wellbeing as individuals age
• use of national scientific infrastructures to support improved understanding of ageing
• improving risk prediction and intervention approaches to inform behavioural solutions
• target identification, biomarkers, sensing technologies or novel computational methods to support better health and wellbeing in later life
• co-design of health and care interventions for communities
• systems approaches to developing cost-effective tools and interventions

Funding available

You can apply for up to £400,000 in funding and UKRI will typically fund 80% of the full economic cost of the award. All costs must be fully described and justified in the justification of resources attachment.

Eligible costs

Eligible costs are outlined:

• investigator salary contributions
• research personnel costs
• direct research costs
• equipment costs
• estates and indirect costs

Applicants are strongly encouraged to consider whether it would be appropriate to leverage existing national ageing research resources (for example, longitudinal population study data, biobanks and other repositories) for secondary data analysis, as opposed to new data collection.