This scheme is designed to support clinical lecturers with ‘starter funds’ to enable them to establish their independent research portfolio and form the basis of further grant funding applications. It was launched in 2008 as a partnership between the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Wellcome Trust. The Vivensa Foundation joined the contributing funders for the first time in 2024, and we are delighted to introduce our first awardees – Dr Claire Broderick and Dr Meher Lad.
Based at Imperial College London, Claire will investigate the impact of older age on immune response to infection and the performance of host-based diagnostic tests for infectious diseases in older persons. This will include new gene signature tests which have been studied in predominantly younger populations but not in older people. Claire will also investigate the impact of old age on transcriptomic responses to infectious diseases, aiming to identify genes and biological pathways of interest for future studies on age-host-pathogen interactions, with relevance for vaccine and immunotherapy development.
Meher’s research, based at Newcastle University, will look to examine the relationship between performance on auditory memory tests and markers of neurodegeneration / neuroinflammation. The findings from this pilot study will be used to support larger prospective studies that test the predictive value of both auditory and blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease.
The assessment process is managed by The Academy of Medical Sciences, with applications undergoing peer and panel review. The average success rate for the scheme is 42%. More information can be found on The Academy of Medical Sciences’ website.
The scheme is open to applications twice a year in January and July, with deadlines in March and September. For more information, visit our ‘Apply for funding’ page.