Meningitis Support | Case Study

University of Nottingham

The University of Nottingham was one of our most significant and enduring research partners across the lifetime of the programme. In total, we awarded just over £1.01 million across 23 grants, reflecting both the scale of our commitment and the breadth of research activity we supported there. Our funding relationship with Nottingham was characterised by long‑term engagement, a strong emphasis on early‑stage science, and sustained support for research training and capacity building.

A defining feature of our work with Nottingham was the volume of investment directed towards disease modelling. Much of this funding took the form of PhD studentships and clinical research fellowships, particularly in areas where progress depended on deep biological and clinical understanding rather than translation. We supported a substantial body of work on brain tumours, especially in children, funding multiple fellowships and doctoral projects over several years. These projects focused on tumour biology, neurological development, and advanced imaging methods, and were deliberately exploratory in nature.

Neurological research more broadly was a recurring theme within our Nottingham portfolio. We repeatedly funded MRI‑based projects, including multi‑year PhDs focused on Tourette’s syndrome and neuroimaging. By supporting successive years of individual doctoral programmes, we aimed to provide stability and allow researchers to pursue ambitious, technically demanding research without the disruption of fragmented funding.

Cancer research at Nottingham extended well beyond brain tumours. We funded discovery‑phase work on breast cancer detection, healthcare‑associated infections relevant to cancer care, and exploratory therapeutic research examining novel molecular pathways such as Rab GTPases and exosomal cargoes. Much of this research sat firmly in the discovery phase, and we accepted that its primary value would lay in generating understanding, methods and skilled researchers rather than immediate clinical applications.

Prevention and diagnosis featured to a lesser extent but formed an important part of the overall portfolio. Funding for breast cancer detection projects aligned with our interest in improving early diagnosis, while doctoral training linked to infection control and diagnostics supported broader improvements in healthcare practice. These grants reflected our view that prevention and diagnosis research is critical, even where progress is incremental and less visible in the short term.

Across all areas, a consistent characteristic of our Nottingham funding was its emphasis on research capacity building. Many grants supported PhD students, clinical lecturers, and early‑career researchers at formative stages. While not every project resulted in high‑profile publications or easily traceable patient impact, they contributed to training, academic progression, and the sustained strength of research environments within the university.

Over time, our funding decisions reflected confidence in Nottingham’s ability to manage complex, high‑risk research responsibly. We were prepared to support projects with uncertain trajectories and long development timelines, understanding this as an inherent feature of discovery science rather than a weakness.

Our partnership with the University of Nottingham exemplified our overall approach to medical research funding: patient, people‑focused and grounded in the belief that strong institutions and skilled researchers are themselves enduring outcomes. The scale and continuity of investment reflected our willingness to commit for the long term, even as individual projects followed varied and sometimes uncertain paths.