Research grants scheme

Quality-related (QR) money received from Research England is used to support research across the University.

From this, the Institute for Health and Care Improvement is investing £15,000 into research projects in the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

The Research Pump-Priming Grant Scheme will support preliminary studies and systematic reviews that will form the basis of a more substantial external grant application for health and care research. Proposals should demonstrate how the research may lead to benefits in health and wellbeing or services related to health and social care.

The grant scheme is currently closed and will be re-opening for new applications in July 2025.

How are applications assessed?

Funding will be awarded on a competitive basis. A fund disbursement group of at least 5 people and chaired by Professor Garry Tew will review applications on 5 criteria:

1. Importance: to what extent do the research aims or questions address an important problem or evidence gap?
2. Study design: the suitability and standard of methodology to address the project aims.
3. Expected outcomes: what the project could generate in terms of new knowledge, outputs, impact, and future research projects.
4. Resources requested: are the funds requested justified?
5. Feasibility: can the project be done, considering the study design, experience of the team, and resources requested?

Recently funded projects

Patient-based Disease Modelling using Pancreatic Cancer Organoids

Led by Dr Katharine Herbert and Professor Thomas A Hughes

Pancreatic cancer is a complex disease that has the worst prognosis of all the main cancer types in the UK, with only 8% of patients currently surviving 5 years after diagnosis. This is in part due to late-stage presentation, but also because the cancers are resistant to standard chemotherapy treatments. These factors mean that research into improved detection and treatment of pancreatic cancers is of particular importance.

Our project will build a clinically-relevant research resource that will form the basis of future investigations into novel and effective pancreatic cancer treatment. Donated tissue from pancreatic cancer patients will be collected immediately after surgery, and treated to generate organoids – complex cellular models grown inside a laboratory that accurately represent the patient’s disease characteristics. These organoids will be preserved as a living biobank that will display a broad range of pancreatic cancer characteristics, and can be used for investigating how to detect the cancer cells, and methods of improving the efficacy of chemotherapy.

Cellular models commonly used in translational research are unable to recapitulate the complexity of interactions between tumours and their microenvironment. These interactions have a profound influence on treatment response, the development of resistance over time, and ultimately, survival of patients. Hence there is an urgent need to establish and use improved models of primary cancer in laboratory investigations.

Our pancreatic cancer biobank will enable us to recruit a team of talented researchers dedicated to uncovering exploitable vulnerabilities within the entire tumour microenvironment, to understand how tumours adapt to overcome first line treatment, and translate these findings into the clinic.

Exploring the impact of gender and disability on disordered eating: giving voice to a marginalised and ignored experience

Led by Dr Ruth Knight

Eating disorders have serious and wide-ranging effects on the people who experience them. They can be very difficult to recover from and often individuals experience ineffective treatment that contributes to relapse. Much of the research around disordered eating focuses on a narrow population, specifically young, white, cisgender, non-disabled, heterosexual, neurotypical girls.

Eating disorder experiences in those outside this group are not represented in the research, and diagnosis and support can be especially difficult to access for them. In this project, we will specifically consider how the intersections of gender, sexuality, (dis)ability, and neurotype influence disordered eating experiences. We will use different methods to gather both qualitative and quantitative information about peoples’ experiences as well as how they feel and think about them.

We will work closely with community members to coproduce an approach that feels right for both the research and the people we’ll be collaborating with. Many members of the research team have lived experience of these issues, and will use this to help guide the trajectory of the work. At the end of the project we’ll be sharing our findings in academic papers and community-focussed events and publications.