Research Project Grants
Next closing dates:
Full Applications 17 October 2008; Outline Applications 21 November 2008;
[General Info] [How to Apply] [Outline Applications] [Full Applications]
GENERAL INFORMATION
Medical Research Scotland supports the highest quality medical research in Scotland. However, the Members of the Trust principally fund applications from graduates in Medicine, Dentistry and Science.
Proposals for Research Project Grants, from applicants at the start of a research career, should be innovative and suitable for pump-priming to enable the applicants 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.
You should also note that Research Project Grants are normally only awarded to graduates in Medicine, Dentistry or Science.
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 (normally late February and late August) within the Trust's financial year.
- The next closing date for Outline Applications is 21 November 2008, with the outcome notified as soon as possible (by mid-March) after the closing date.
- The next closing date for Full Applications (from those invited following an Outline Application) is 17 October 2008, with a decision on funding notified as soon as possible after the following grant-awarding meeting of Medical Research Scotland (end February 2009).
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 (June 2008) (size 176KB).
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.
HOW TO APPLY
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
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 only. It will, therefore, be necessary for MAC users to complete them on a PC.
- Intending and potential applicants should first Register as such. [This is a once-only registration process - it will not be necessary to re-register if they subsequently wish to apply for other Medical Research Scotland awards.] To register, intending applicants should visit the Medical Research Scotland extranet (www.medicalresearchscotland.net), click on the link to the Registration Form on the home page, complete the form and then log out of the site. This will result in the transmission of an automatically-generated email, which confirms the registration and incorporates details of their username and chosen password.
- Once the confirmation email has been received, applicants should then return to the site, where they will see a list of awards (and closing dates) for which application documents are available. If documents are available for the award of interest, they should then log in using their registered username and password.
- The site will then display a list showing the application form, appendix document(s) (as appropriate) and Guidance Notes relevant to the specific award type(s). Also available will be the latest version of the document, Standard Conditions Applying to the Award of Medical Research Scotland Funding. All applicants should download, save to their computer, read and understand all these documents before submitting an application.
- All the application documents are designed to be completed offline. They should, therefore, be downloaded and saved to the applicant's own computer. Once completed (offline), the documents should be saved (and printed) prior to online submission.
- When all the necessary documents have been completed and saved, applicants should return to the extranet, log in and, by following the onscreen instructions and navigation, submit their application documents. As part of the submission process, applicants will be asked to confirm that their application is complete. Confirmation will result in the documents being lodged in the database and an automatic email being sent to the applicant, confirming that the documents have been received. This email provides information about the application and an application Reference No. (including the letters "ORG"). This should be noted and used in subsequent correspondence.
- Applicants should then log out of the site.
- If no confirmation email arrives, then it is probable that the applicant has not confirmed that the application is complete. In which case, they should return to the site, log in and follow the onscreen instructions to enable them to complete the submission process and then log out again.
- If problems are encountered, then applicants should use the "Contact us" facility to send us an email, explaining the difficulty in as much detail as possible and we will respond promptly.
MAKING A FULL APPLICATION
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.
Again, a confirmation email will be sent automatically following the applicant's confirmation of completion of application documents upload. 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.
NOTES:
- Once completed, a printed copy of the application form, incorporating all the required original signatures, the appendices, a covering letter explaining how Referees' comments have been dealt with, should be sent by post to the Trust Secretaries immediately following online submission with the appropriate number of copies.
- 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.
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.