Research Project Grants
Next closing dates:
A review of submission dates in 2010 is currently under way and it is intended that the exact dates will be announced soon. In the meantime, intending applicants should work towards closing dates as follows:
- Those whose Outline Applications were submitted in November and are currently under review: 26 February 2010
- Those intending to make an Outline Application should work towards a closing date of: 23 April 2010
[General Info] [How to Apply] [Outline Applications] [Full Applications]
GENERAL INFORMATION
Medical Research Scotland is committed to supporting research of the highest quality, the outcome of which will make a contribution to improving the health of the nation. Its support is not restricted to any one disease or condition, so applications are welcome from early career researchers in any of the clinical, biomedical, physical or engineering sciences related to medicine, including from those in the nursing, midwifery & allied health professions.
Proposals for Research Project Grants, from applicants at the start of a research career, should be innovative and suitable for pump-priming to enable them to proceed subsequently to mainstream funding. Only in exceptional circumstances will applications be considered from researchers older than 35 years. Such exceptions might include a necessary career break or prolonged study for research degrees.
Applications for Research Project Grants should not exceed £150,000 over 3 years. It should be noted that, as a member of the AMRC, Medical Research Scotland follows its position statement on full economic costing (fEC) and will only pay for the directly-incurred and identifiable costs of research.
All applications for Research Project Grants must be submitted online through the secure extranet and will normally be considered by the Members on two occasions within the Trust's financial year (April-March).
All intending applicants to Medical Research Scotland should first download and read a copy of the latest version of the Standard Conditions Applying to the Award of Medical Research Scotland Research Funding (January 2009) (size 171KB).
Application forms and guidance notes are made available on the secure extranet (www.medicalresearchscotland.net) as far ahead of the relevant closing dates as possible. Intending applicants who wish first to review samples in advance may do so by following this link and downloading the appropriate documents. Please note, these are samples for review only: it will not be possible to complete or submit them. When making an application, applicants should always ensure that they download, complete and submit the latest version of the necessary appropriate documents from the extranet.
APPLYING FOR A RESEARCH PROJECT GRANT
Medical Research Scotland operates a two-stage process for considering applications for its Research Project Grants. Applicants have first to submit an Outline Application. Up to a maximum of 30 of those received by the published closing date will be peer-reviewed by national and international experts in the field and a peer review committee of the Trust itself. On the basis of these reviews, the committee will decide which applicants will be invited to submit Full Applications, which will also be subjected to comprehensive peer review. Before final funding decisions are reached, the Full Applications are considered in detail by all the Members of Medical Research Scotland, who take into account the views of all the external referees.
Making an Outline Application online
Please note that the forms used for Medical Research Scotland's online application procedures are designed to be used on PCs and completed in MS Word (2003/XP) only [use of open access software will result in corruption of the file]. It will, therefore, be necessary for MAC users to complete them on a PC.
- Intending and potential applicants should first Register on the secure extranet www.medicalresearchscotland.net. On the login page, click on the 'Registration' link at the top of the page, which will bring up a form for completion. Once completed, make a note of your chosen password and select the 'submit' button. Your registration will be acknowledged onscreen and you will also be sent an automatically-generated email, confirming your registration and inviting you to re-visit the extranet and log in.
- If there are open calls for applications, you will see a list of awards (and closing dates) for which application documents are available. If documents are available for the award or application stage of interest, you should log in and access the documents. [If there are no open calls, this will be clearly stated and you should return from time to time until such time as documents are available.]
- Thereafter, onscreen instructions and navigation will enable you to see a list of the download of all necessary documents (the application form, appendices forms, guidance notes and the Standard Conditions for Award of Medical Research Scotland Funding. You should download, save to your computer/local server, read and understand all these documents before submitting an application.
- The application forms must be be completed offline, they cannot be completed or submitted while open in your browser. Once completed (offline), the documents should be saved (and printed) prior to submission.
- When all the necessary documents have been completed and saved on your computer, you should return to the extranet, log in and,by following the onscreen instructions and navigation, submit your application. In order to complete the submission, you will be asked to confirm that your application is complete. Confirmation by the applicant will result in the documents being lodged in the database, you will see a confirmation message onscreen and an automatically-generated confirmation email will be sent to you, confirming that the documents have been received. This message also provides a note of your application Reference No. (including the letters "ORG_G"). This should be noted and used in all subsequent correspondence.
- You should then log out of the site.
- If no confirmation email arrives, then it is probable that you did not confirm that your application was complete. In which case, you should return to the site, log in and follow the onscreen instructions to enable youto complete the submission process and then log out again.
- If you experience problems uploading your application documents, the most likely causes will be either that you have not saved them to the appropriate format (no later than MS Word 2003/XP) or they remain open on your computer. In such instances, you will receive an onscreen message indicating the likely cause and offering a possible solution. If that does not resolve the issue, please use the "Contact us" facility to send us an email, explaining the difficulty in as much detail as possible and we will respond promptly.
- Please note that it is not possible for applicants to overwrite already-submitted documents in the database. So, if you realise that you have made a mistake while uploading your application, DO NOT start again to make another application. Instead, please use the "Contact Us" facility to send us an email, attaching the correct documents and explaining your mistake. The Webmaster will then make the necessary adjustments on your behalf and will email you to let you know that the substitutions have been done.
- Once online submission is complete, a printed copy of the application form (which must incorporate all the original signatures required) and appendices which include all other essential documents, should be sent by post to the Trust Secretaries immediately thereafter.
Making a Full Application online
If you have been invited to submit a Full Application, you should follow the above procedure, taking care to download and save the documents relevant to a Full Research Grant Application.
As with your Outline application, once you have uploaded all the documents and confirmed that your application is complete, you will see a confirmation message onscreen and an automatically-generated confirmation email will be sent to you. This will incorporate a new reference number, including the letters "FRG_L". This should be noted and will replace the earlier (ORG) reference number for use in all subsequent correspondence.
Once online submission is complete, a printed copy of the application form (which must incorporate all the original signatures required) and appendices which include all other essential documents, should be sent by post to the Trust Secretaries immediately thereafter.
ADDITIONAL NOTE:
Applicants from universities using the TRAC costing methodology should also complete and submit a form which provides information on fEC and is being collected by all AMRC member charities. This form [Appendix 5] should be downloaded from here and saved for completion and later submission by post with the printed copy of the application documents submitted online. It cannot be submitted via the secure site.
Please Note: If you experience difficulty downloading the documents above please 'right-click' on the text link and select "Save Target As..." (Internet Explorer) or "Save Link As..." (Netscape) and save the document to your local drive.