Seedcorn Awards
Aim
Seedcorn awards help researchers to generate high-quality preliminary data to advance innovative and novel ideas with the potential to transform the prevention, diagnosis and/or treatment of human diseases.
We are looking for impactful, ‘out-of-the-box' ideas. Applicants should have a novel and innovative hypothesis and some preliminary data that can be developed further. We prioritise exciting ideas with the greatest potential to secure further funding and grants. We will consider both pre-clinical and clinical research studies.
At the end of the funding period, continuation funding may be available for successful projects.
SEPSIS RESEARCH
Is your research focused on sepsis? We are delighted to announce that this year, we are teaming up with the charity Sepsis Research FEAT to fund selected innovative projects that tackle unmet clinical needs in sepsis.
Please note: We continue to welcome applications from all areas of biomedical research, alongside this year's focus on sepsis.
Key Information
Funding of up to £20,000 for 12 months for Preclinical Studies
or 18 months for Clinical Studies
Submission Opening
Submission Closing
Notification of Outcome
Funding
Seedcorn awards provide £20K funding over 12 months for preclinical studies and over 18 months for clinical studies.
Funding is flexible and can be used to fund researcher salaries, research consumables and other related research costs.
If you are applying for additional funding from other sources, we will only release our funding on receiving confirmation that the additional funding has been secured.
Please note that Seedcorn funding cannot be used to fund the stipend or consumables for PhD studentships. All applicants must confirm that they are fully funded for the duration of the research project.
We will fund: Salaries of the Researchers (directly incurred costs only), Consumables of the project, Other project running costs, Purchases of small benchtop equipment and Patient travel expenses.
We will not fund: Directly allocated salary costs (e.g. PI time), Overheads, Large equipment or capital spending, Conference Travel & Accommodation, Technology transfer fees or Tuition fees.
Please note: If you are applying for the maximum £20k fund there needs to be thorough justification of all costs.
Seedcorn funding can be used in UK Universities and Research Institutes or research in other countries (e.g. fieldwork for studies of infectious disease) but the grants have to be administered and disbursed by a UK University or Institution.
Eligiblity
These grants are designed to pump-prime early stage research to generate preliminary data that can be put towards future funding proposals. We are keen to support innovative and novel ideas related to prevention, diagnosis and/or treatment of human diseases.
We encourage applications with ‘out-of-the-box’, potentially transformative ideas. Applicants are expected to have a novel and innovative hypothesis and some preliminary data that can be developed further. We will prioritise funding of applications that we believe have the greatest potential to secure further funding and grants. We will consider both pre-clinical and clinical research studies.
We will consider applications from first-time or more junior principal applicants, however, we recommend that a more experience co-applicant is included as part of the team. For all applications, the principal applicant must confirm that they will be employed at the host institution for the duration of the project.
Review Process
All applications will be initially checked for eligibility. An initial triage by an internal scientific panel will select the best applications that will be taken forward. Triage will be based on the scientific quality, clinical need, track record of research team, innovation and potential for further development and clinical translation. The best scored applications will be shortlisted and considered by a scientific panel who will make funding recommendations.
The final funding decision will be subject to internal approval.
Enquiries
Prior to contacting us please see our FAQs page.
For further general enquiries regarding eligibility and the application process, please contact Richard Miller (rmiller@rosetrees.org.uk).
Apply here on flexigrant
All applications to Rosetrees are made through Flexigrant.