BMA Giving
The grant application process will open from 13 January to 5 March 2026.
BMA Giving is committed to supporting doctors and the communities they serve by funding projects that make meaningful impact. We provide grants to UK-registered charitable organisations delivering healthcare initiatives aligned with the BMA mission, vision and values.
These include projects with a humanitarian or health information focus in low and middle-income countries.
Our partnerships promote the expertise of BMA members and empower charities to develop vital projects that support those who need it most. Applications for projects where doctors play a key role are also welcomed.
BMA Giving is run by a committee of our members who meet on an annual basis. It is chaired by Professor Martin McKee.
When applying for one of our grants, we want to know how you think working with the BMA, a membership organisation of over 196,000 doctors and medical students, is relevant to your mission and could benefit your work.
Watch two examples of how BMA Giving grants have had an impact.
2026 Application process
Applications for the 2026 BMA Giving grant cycle will open from 13 January to 5 March 2026.
Grants eligibility and criteria
BMA Giving grants are only available for UK-registered charities. Grants are not available for individuals, including tuition and course fees.
Charities may apply for any amount up to but not exceeding £10,000.
Charities are asked to consider how working with the BMA, a membership organisation of over 196,000 doctors and medical students, is relevant to their mission and could benefit their work.
BMA Giving grants are assessed by the BMA Giving committee on behalf of the BMA finance committee. In judging the applications, the committee consider the following points:
Governance and capacity to deliver project effectively
- Demonstrates strong organisational capability through relevant track record, qualified staff or volunteers, effective partnerships, and evidence of delivering similar work.
- Governance arrangements are robust and proportionate to the project’s scale and nature, including appropriate financial controls, safeguarding measures, and risk management.
- Project plan is clear, achievable and well-structured, with defined timelines and delivery mechanisms.
- Risks are identified with practical and credible mitigation strategies.
- Ethical and inclusive practices are evident throughout.
Appropriate use of funds
- Budget is clear, accurate and well justified.
- Funding request represents good value for money, considering scale of benefit, cost-effectiveness, and alternative options explored.
- BMA Giving contribution is meaningful and essential to achieving the project’s aims.
- Co-funding arrangements or financial dependencies are transparent and credible, with contingency plans for changes in external funding.
- Financial sustainability addressed where relevant, including how ongoing or future costs will be supported.
Importance, impact and alignment
- Outcomes are clearly defined, measurable, and realistic, supported by a credible approach to monitoring and evaluation.
- Project aligns with the BMA’s mission, vision and values, addresses an identified need, and demonstrates how it will improve doctors’ wellbeing, working lives, patient care, or health outcomes.
- Expected impact is significant and consistent with BMA values.
- International projects demonstrate ethical practice, local leadership or co-design, cultural sensitivity, sustainable capacity-building, and clear benefits to local health systems.
Applications for projects that support the health and wellbeing of doctors and medical students must complement existing BMA services. See the BMA wellbeing support services page for further details.
Successful applicants will be asked to provide progress reports, and the grant must be spent within 12 months of the date in their grant offer letter.
See the BMA Giving terms and conditions for further details.
Get in touch
For more information on BMA grants, email [email protected] . Please note that we cannot offer guidance or advice on the content of your application.
2025 recipients - project and partnership summaries
AKAYA Foundation will deliver a community driven intervention, 'Like Her Project: Northern Edition’, to equip women in Tolon, a deprived rural district in Ghana’s Northern region, with knowledge, confidence and resources to manage their health and wellbeing effectively.
Beyond Words will ensure people with Learning Disabilities are better supported by midwives and maternity professionals to think about what it means to be pregnant, to have a baby, and the choices available.
BMA Charities will provide financial support to refugee and asylum-seeking doctors, who are members of the programmes, to support them on their journey to GMC registration.
Book Aid International will send brand-new medical textbooks to the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau and Fortportal International Nursing School, to improve the quality of education and healthcare in Uganda.
Breaking Barriers will support refugee doctors in their return to the medical profession in the UK by funding their Language and Reaccreditation Programme.
David Nott Foundation will fund the course fees of surgeons from low and middle-income countries to attend their Hostile Environment Surgical Training, United Kingdom (HEST-UK), to prepare them to work on the frontline.
Doctors of the World UK will expand their Safe Surgeries toolkit and equip primary care clinicians with practical digital resources to help them navigate the complexities of delivering care to refugees, and people seeking asylum and residing in Home Office accommodation.
Royal Medical Benevolent Fund will provide emergency relief funds for doctors facing urgent financial crises due to illness, injury and bereavement.
Second Sight will treat and prevent blindness in rural Bihar, India's poorest state. Meticulous outreach programmes screen and treat primary eye diseases in the villages and identify the cataract-blind who are transported to hospital for pre and post operative medication, intra-ocular surgery and follow-up checks.
The Cameron Fund will provide financial support to working age GPs in financial hardship, providing money advice and covering their essential household expenditure, emergency items like car or household repairs and back to work costs.
BMA Foundation for Medical Research
The BMA Foundation for Medical Research awards funds to encourage and further medical research. Approximately 12 research grants totalling £800,000 are awarded each year, all funded by past bequests and donations to the BMA.
The grants are awarded to medical doctors and research scientists to help fund innovative medical research in a variety of areas, from cancer and heart disease to asthma and schizophrenia, as well as many others. For many, they are key to supporting career developing and contributing to advances in medical research.
For more information or clarification please contact [email protected] or call 0207 383 6341.
Social mobility foundation (SMF)
The BMA works in partnership with the social mobility foundation (SMF).
SMF is a charity which aims to make a practical improvement in social mobility for young people from low-income backgrounds.
The SMF was founded in 2005 in order to provide opportunities and networks of support for 16-17 year olds who are unable to get them from their schools or families.
Widening participation in medicine
We are committed to ensuring that medicine is a career for anyone who wishes to become a doctor, regardless of their social or economic background.
Find out more about our commitment to widening participation in the medical profession.
7/7 Tavistock Square Memorial Trust
The number 30 bus blast occurred and 13 people lost their lives on 7 July 2005.
Annual lectures took place following the event at BMA House, to discuss the positive steps being made in the area of counter terrorism.
Since the tragic event a memorial was unveiled on 12 September 2018.