Discover our upcoming research funding calls

We are investing £15.5 million across all four of our research strategy priority areas over the next financial year.

This includes investing in the first of our multidisciplinary research consortia.

We are looking forward to sharing more about this new initiative at a webinar on Thursday 23 May, 12pm-1pm.

Join us for our webinar on the day via the Microsoft Teams app or web browser using the link below. 

What are Research Consortia?

By creating a community of shared expertise and knowledge, consortia aim to deliver a cohesive series of work.

With £3 million invested in each, the ambition of these consortia should be beyond single streams of expertise. 

They should include partners beyond researchers, and should bring together different areas of thought to drive innovation and impact across the UK.

This funding hopes to promote connections and bring a broad spectrum of people together, which could extend to:

• policy individuals
• local authorities
• commissioners
• GPs
• other health practitioners.

How a consortium hopes to deliver its plans can be flexible. But the impact a consortium hopes to make should be clearly defined.

We will be investing in six consortia (two each year) over the next three years.

The first two consortia will be in the areas of epidemiology and inflammatory arthritis.

What can you expect from the webinar?

Join us on 23 May to hear from Professor Lucy Donaldson, Director of Research and Health Intelligence, and Dr Sarah Rudkin, Head of Research Strategy and Growth.

The session will be hosted via Microsoft Teams.

They will share more details about:

• the research areas which these consortia will focus on
• the application process
• timelines for applications.

There will be time for a Q&A, where you're encouraged to ask the questions that are important to you.

We welcome you to submit any questions you may have in advance to researchliaison@versusarthritis.org.

If you can't make it to the webinar but are interested in learning more contact us at researchliaison@versusarthritis.org

What other funding do we offer?

Alongside our research consortia investments, we also have a range of other funding opportunities that are open now or will be open for applications soon.

Career Development Fellowships 2025

Our next call for Career Development Fellowships is open now for which Allied Health Professionals are strongly encouraged to apply.

• In total we will invest around £3 million in our Career Development Fellowships.
• We’re offering up to £750,000 to support excellent mid-career researchers in the field of arthritis and related musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions for five years.

This call is now open with a deadline of 3 July 2024.

Early Detection and Targeted Treatments 2025

As we continue to deliver against our research strategy, we are seeking applications for research projects addressing our Early Detection and Targeted Treatments priority areas.

• We will invest around £4 million in projects which aim to improve the diagnosis and treatment of arthritis.
• We’re offering between £100K and £1.2m for ambitious, cutting-edge projects funded for up to five years.
• We encourage applications from new investigators.

The application form for this call will be open in late May/early June 2024.

Living Well 2025

We are seeking applications for research projects addressing our Living Well priority area.

We want to support research on the most effective ways to create meaningful and sustainable improvements in health services to improve the lives of people living with arthritis.

• We are planning to invest around £2 million in projects which address unmet needs for people with arthritis.
• This funding call is looking for projects with wide reaching, lasting impact. Therefore, we are looking for diverse teams representing a variety of career experience that could lead to the implementation and scaling up of the project.
• The application form for this call will be open in late May/early June 2024

Oliver Bird Fund: Round Three

There is another call for applications addressing our Living Well priority area in collaboration with the Nuffield Foundation.

The Nuffield Foundation is an independent charitable trust with a mission to advance educational opportunity and social well-being in the UK.

For the third time, we're investing funding alongside the Nuffield Foundations’ Oliver Bird legacy funding in social and economic well-being research for people with musculoskeletal conditions.

• Together we will invest around £6 million in projects with an emphasis on addressing inequalities through non-medical interventions.
• We’re seeking ambitious applications for awards up to £750,000 and up to four years, with a possibility of larger awards with prior discussion in advance of submission.
• We strongly encourage applicants from minoritised communities, those with disabilities, and other groups underrepresented within social research.
• We are open to applications led by researchers at any career stage, including early career where the cost of mentoring and support can be included in the budget.
• We welcome applicants, researchers and advisory group members from wider fields to encourage interdisciplinary approaches, and encourage applications from teams across all four UK nations.

This funding round is now open with a deadline of 16 September 2024.

Infrastructure funding

We've listened to researchers and understand how we can contribute to driving a faster pace of research delivery.

So, later this year we'll be offering dedicated funding for hard-to-access infrastructure support and smaller facilitatory investments.

We will be sharing more details on this funding in the webinar.

We look forward to seeing you on the 23rd May. If you have any questions, then please get in touch with us at researchliaison@versusarthritis.org.