Medical and Life Sciences Translational Fund: Application Call

MLSTF funds proof-of-concept projects at the earliest stages of translation, supporting preliminary work or feasibility studies to establish the viability of an approach. In 2025, the project-managed MLSTF fund will be £1.0m to ‘pump-prime’ the translation of novel therapeutics, devices, diagnostics and other therapeutic interventions (including ‘repurposing of existing therapies’) towards clinical testing. Funding available from MLSTF will be up to £85k per project and projects should be in the region of 6-12 months in duration. Applications must be made in IRAMS (deadline 24th February 2025).  

This MLSTF round will continue a dedicated route termed "Emerging Translational Innovators (ETI)" which provides an opportunity for early career researchers to leverage this fund as a stepping stone towards independently pursuing their translational research endeavours. 
 
Co-funding with Cancer Research Horizons Innovation Fund (CRHIF) 
The TRO is pleased to announce the continuation of the CRHIF innovation stream this year. Cancer Research Horizons is CRUK’s Drug Discovery, Development and Commercialisation Company. This funding will specifically support the translation of CRUK-funded research projects ONLY. A key requirement for this funding strand is that the funding would need to be used to deliver key go/no-go experiments garnering data for a key inflection point to enable the next step in translational development/commercialisation. It is expected that the investigator would be willing to work with Cancer Research Horizons to develop the strategy of the novel technology.   

To facilitate the co-development of projects with an appropriate CRUK researcher, Oxford-based investigators should submit the relevant non-confidential Expression of Interest (EOI) online form for CRHIF by 5 pm on 16th January 2025. This EOI should provide a summary of the proposed project and anticipated outcomes, alongside a justification for support explaining how your proposal is aligned to the co-funding streams priority areas identified above. They will select proposals of interest and support the development of proposals. Funding provided will be in line with MLSTF, up to £85k per project with awards being made for direct costs only. It is anticipated thatCRUK will each be co-funding one project through this scheme in 2025.  
 
For further information about the remit, application and award process for funding streams under the umbrella of MLSTF, please contact the TRO (translationalresearchoffice@medsci.ox.ac.uk).