Research Facilitation Fund 2026

Research Facilitation Fund 2026

Opening November 2025

Deadline: 16:00 Wednesday 11 February 2026

Costs: £50,000 – £250,000

Duration: Up to 60 months

Funding decision: August 2026

Focus

Versus Arthritis has provided ‘infrastructure’ funding in a variety of ways, from the centre of excellence and experiment treatment centre funding models to clinical studies groups and smaller scale initiatives supporting training summer schools, networking, collaboration management and scientific meetings.  The value of such ‘soft infrastructure’ support (beyond buildings, facilities, equipment, data platforms and portals) has been convincingly emphasised to the charity by the research community.

We recognise the value of Versus Arthritis being a facilitator of arthritis research as well as a direct funder of the hypothesis-led science.

We appreciate how support for activities and resources that are hard for investigators to obtain improves the pace of the wider research agenda. Our Research Facilitation Fund is offering such support across the research spectrum.

This investment provides support for a variety of activities across the research pipeline environment including for example key personnel across technical and administrative support roles, research cohorts and biobanks. Over two years, we will invest approximately £1.5 million pounds over three rounds of funding. The second round of funding was dedicated to support of patient and public involvement activity. This is the third round of funding for this investment.

Applications are invited between £50,000-£250,000 in value, for up to 60 months duration.  

What are we looking for?

· This funding is about facilitating research and gaining access to hard to obtain resources with intent to leverage the speed of research delivery and allocation of funding to arthritis research.

· Investments will only be made where realistic impacts are sought towards bringing through ground-breaking scientific discoveries to people with arthritis at pace and with precision.

· Detailed guidance on what we are looking for can be found in the call document (DOC 195KB) under the Scope and Requirements section.

· Patient and Public Involvement network support is excluded from this round as there was a dedicated call in 2025.

· If you would like to check eligibility to the call please contact the Versus Arthritis team through awards@versusarthritis.org.

Who can apply?

· The lead applicant must be based at an eligible UK institution.

· One applicant must have a tenured position within the lead institute.

What can you apply for?

· Costs for salaries, expenses and small items of essential equipment can be requested.

· Awards of up to 60 months duration, between £50,000 - £250,000 in value are available.

· We plan to invest up to £0.5 million across 2-10 awards.

· For further details on what you can apply for, please see the associated guidance document (PDF 312KB).

How to apply

· Applicants are invited to submit applications through Grant Tracker, where the form is available.

· There is a one-stage application process.

· Applicants must carefully read the call document (DOC 195KB) the application form and  guidance document (PDF 312KB) before starting an application.

· Please ensure that the most appropriate language is being used in each section of the form and that the correct sections are completed.

· The deadline for the receipt of applications is 16:00 Wednesday 11 February 2026. Please allow time for management of appropriate reviewers and signatories to access the Grant Tracker system and provide their approvals. Submissions after 16:00 will not be accepted.

· If you have any questions about the call, please email:  awards@versusarthritis.org