Apply for a BMA Foundation grant

by Tim Tonkin

Applications for funding to support new breakthroughs in medical research will soon be under way as part of the BMA Foundation annual awards.

Location: UK
Published: Tuesday 23 February 2021
BMA House landscape image

Doctors hoping to make important contributions to furthering scientific understanding and medical treatments are being encouraged to submit their research proposals to the foundation’s 2021 awards.

Grants totalling £65,000 each across 12 research categories will be available once applications open on 1 March, with areas of research including heart disease, schizophrenia and paediatric research.

Winning entries from last year’s awards include Professor Andrew J Grant’s successful bid for the Scholarship Grant for a study into reducing stresses, pressures and levels of mental illness faced by medical students.

Another successful entry was Thomas Waterfield’s project to conduct research into paediatric sepsis for which he secured funds through the Helen H Lawson grant to assist paediatric research.

Research support

This year has also seen former grant winner David Eldred-Evans, who won the Helen H Lawson and Dawkins and Strutt grants in 2018, credit the foundation’s support for the success of research into improving diagnostics for prostate cancer.

The study, which was led by a team at Imperial College London, compared screening tests for prostate cancer, and has since led to the development of a rapid MRI for the disease.

Speaking on Twitter, Dr Eldred-Evans paid thanks to the association for its support.

He said: ‘A huge thanks to the BMA Foundation for supporting me and IP1-PROSTAGRAM.

‘This amazing charity supports so many innovative research projects across the medical field.’

Find out more and how to apply