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MEDICAL RESEARCH

Funding PALLIATIVE CARE

The Foundation is committed to supporting medical research which is highly likely to benefit patients.

What we fund


The Foundation prioritises its support for projects that have reached the pre-clinical phase of research (translational research) such as the following:


  • Late-stage, pre-clinical research projects that aim to find new ways of diagnosing, preventing, or treating disease.
  • Development and/or testing of potential new drugs.
  • Drug repurposing clinical studies – using existing therapies developed for one condition and seek new applications in other diseases.
  • Development and/or testing of new therapeutic or diagnostic devices.


Projects at this stage of research are costly, and our means do not enable us to be sole funders, therefore we are happy to contribute to large projects in collaboration with other philanthropic and non-philanthropic funders.



A much smaller proportion of our funding is directed at:


  • Early-stage, basic science research projects such as those focused on disease modelling, target identification, and target validation.



If in doubt about the suitability of your project, please contact us at grants@jamestudor.org.uk or on 0117 9596496.




What we don’t fund


  • Grants directly to universities, the NHS, or other research institutions.
  • Grants directly to researchers or clinicians.
  • Support for students (PhD studentships, bursaries of any type, including travel bursaries, conference attendance fees, prizes, etc.).


If you are a researcher based at a UK university or other research institution, you will already know about alternative sources of funding, but we hope that the following suggestions may be of help:


  • Approach your university’s Alumni office: this department almost always includes a fundraising team which approaches individual donors and charitable trusts and foundations. This team typically raises philanthropic funds in support of many areas of your university, and they may be able to fundraise for your project. Every university approaching fundraising differently, so get in touch with your team to find out if they may be able to help.


  • Approach your university’s research funding office: here, too, every university calls this department something different, but it’s the team that provides support to academics in identifying sources of funding that are relevant to their field. This will typically include statutory funders such as MRC, and NIHR, and large UK charities, such as charities that are members of the Association of Medical Research Charities. The research funding team will help you to manage the whole process, from application to grant management. 




Who can apply


Because our means are limited, we are keen to ensure that our contribution supports the best possible science. In addition, our Board of Trustees does not include scientific experts. For this reason, the Foundation has decided to focus its medical research funding to organisations that are members of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC). We welcome the added value that working with these organisations provides through peer review and transparent, independent scientific assessment of the research projects they themselves select to fund.


If you are a university, a non-AMRC registered medical research charity, or another type of medical research institution, and would still like to apply, you will need to demonstrate that your organisation operates in the same way as AMRC member charities do (i.e., you conduct external peer review, you have an independent advisory body, you publish your research strategy and your research policies, including your policy on the use of animals in research, and your conflict of interest in research policy). We will also ask you to submit a minimum of three independent peer reviews and the report from your independent scientific advisory committee together with your application.


Before you apply

Please read our general Guidance for Applicants, our Funding FAQs and complete our Eligibility Checker. If you are eligible to apply, our application portal will signpost you to the Stage 1 application form. If your Stage 1 application is successful, we will invite you to submit a Stage 2 application. To prepare for your application, we advise you to read our Stage 1 and our Stage 2 application guidance documents which contain the full list of questions and clarification on the kind of information we need about your organisation and your project. 


Application deadlines

Medical research funding requests have a two-stage application process. Stage 1 applications can be submitted anytime, and we aim to process these within two weeks of receipt. If we invite you to submit a Stage 2 application, you will need to submit it by a relevant deadline, so please bear this timeframe in mind.


We encourage you to consult the guidance for a Stage 2 application as soon as possible so that, if invited to do so, you can submit your Stage 2 application by the grant round deadline. 


Please note that we do not accept applications via email. All applications need to be submitted via our online application portal. Stage 2 medical research applications are submitted on invitation only.


We hope that this information is helpful, but if you are unsure about anything, please contact us at grants@jamestudor.org.uk or on 0117 959 6496. We are here to help with any queries you may have. 


Previous Grants

Since 2005, we have awarded over £4.18 million through this funding programme. Here are some examples of recent grants made in this category:

Sight Research UK

Sight Research UK is dedicated to funding vital research into sight-threatening disease, with the aim of benefiting people with eye conditions as quickly as possible. They support research that is on the cusp of finding new treatments or diagnostic tools for eye diseases affecting children or adults – and they support sight-saving research projects in universities across the UK. Since their inception in 1986 they have funded over 130 projects. The James Tudor Foundation has been supporting their work since 2005 and has provided funding towards several different projects. Most recently, The Foundation provided funding towards research into new treatments for inherited retinal dystrophies, which are the most common cause of certifiable blindness in working age adults. The results of this project were very encouraging, identifying one particularly promising drug that will form the focus of further research, in the hope that this discovery can progress to early-stage clinical trial.

Tommy's

Tommy's is a charity working to make the UK the safest place in the world to give birth. It funds vital research into miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth, providing expert advice for parents before, during and after pregnancy and fosters a connected, caring community, advocating for every parent in every pregnancy journey. Tommy’s has been prominent in highlighting issues including recurrent miscarriage and inequalities in pregnancy care and outcomes. The James Tudor Foundation has enjoyed a long relationship with Tommy's and has provided funding towards a variety of research projects, including the development and roll out of the fetal Fibronectin test now used across the NHS to predict if a woman is at risk of early labour. Current funding is contributing towards research into pre-pregnancy endometrial tests that hope to provide a greater understanding of recurrent miscarriage and identify risk factors before a woman becomes pregnant. 

Read about our funding programmes here:

  • Funding RELIEF OF SICKNESS
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