Funded by the Wellcome Translational Partnership Award (TPA), by the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), and by the UKRI MRC Impact Accelerator Account (IAA) this scheme enables researchers to unlock translational bottlenecks.

Awards up to the value of £75k, for projects of 6-9 months in duration (exceptionally 12). The award encourages interdisciplinary working to address major challenges in translational research, and support the progression of existing research projects along the translational pipeline. This scheme combines the former Confidence in Concept (CIC) and Project for Translation (P4T) Schemes from MRC and Wellcome respectively. Successful C4T awards will be funded from either the URKI MRC IAA, the Wellcome TPA, or the NIHR Manchester BRC with the decision being made at the discretion of the review panel. The C4T call features a 2-stage application process with an initial expression of interest (EoI) stage prior to invitation to submit a full application, full costings are not required at the EOI stage.

The C4T scheme for 2023 is now CLOSED.

EoI deadline was 28th April 2023, peer review is currently in progress and we are not accepting new applications.

Other key dates and all relevant documents for the call can be found below.

  • Funding call opens: 28th March 2023
  • Deadline for EoI stage: Friday 28th April 2023
  • Invitations to Full Application Stage: w/c 22nd May 2023
  • RSMs costings deadline*: Friday 26th May 2023
  • Full Application deadline: Friday 7th July 2023 – Extended to 17th July, noon
  • Notification of outcomes: w/c 2nd October
  • Projects start: End of October onwards

*notify your RSM of your invitation to submit a full application

Application brief and application form for the C4T scheme can be downloaded below:

You can download and read the frequently asked questions for the Translation Manchester Accelerator Awards 2023 by following this link:

 

For more information on our activities and future funding opportunities subscribe to our newsletter. For any other queries please contact translation@manchester.ac.uk.

 

Previous C4T and P4T awards

2023 Awards

The following projects were funded through the Wellcome TPA:

Prof Dawn Edge
Implementing culturally-adapted family intervention (CAFI: DIGITAL) for Psychosis in Jamaica – a translational feasibility study

Prof Michael Brockhurst
Developing a phage therapy testing-tomanufacture platform for treating multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Manchester hospitals.

Dr Alexandra Clipson
Determining tissue-of-origin from cfDNA methylation profiles for diagnosis in Cancers of Unknown Primary.

Prof Caroline Jay & Dr Alaa Alahmadi
CG-X: Explainable automated ECG interpretation for Long QT Syndrome – validation with further data.

 

The following projects were funded through the Institutional UKRI MRC Impact Accelerator Account 2022-25

Dr Chris Worth*
YPO-CHEAT: prospective data-driven hypoglycaemia reduction in the rare disease of Congenital Hyperinsulinism.
*This project is co-funded by the NIHR Manchester BRC

Prof Brian Bigger
Biodistribution of Haematopoietic Stem Cell Gene Therapy in MPSI and MPSII Mice.

Dr Alan McWilliam
Validation and deployment of on-line monitoring of body composition of patients being treated with radiotherapy for head and neck cancer.

Mr Adam Haque & Mr Jonathan Ghosh 
Novel use of bedside arm ergometry CardioPulmonary Exercise Tests for the riskstratification of patients with chronic limbthreatening ischaemia: A Feasibility Trial.

Dr Jaleel Miyan
Raman Spectroscopy and machine learning: A rapid and accurate diagnosis for meningitis

Dr Robert Morgan
Developing a liquid biopsy to detect minimal residual disease in women diagnosed with highgrade serous ovarian cancer.

Prof Stuart Allan
Assessment of thrombolytic efficacy of caADAMTS13 in ex vivo human stroke thrombi.

2022 Awards

The following projects were funded through the Wellcome TPA:

Helen Hawley-Hague
Exploring the usability and acceptability of a virtual reality training programme to increase awareness of falls prevention and management

Madhvi Menon
Harnessing the nasal proteome for early detection of lung cancer

Tom Jowitt
Tools for stem cell biomarker identification


The following projects were funded through the Institutional UKRI MRC Impact Accelerator Account 2022-25:

Paul Kasher
Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors as a neuroprotective strategy for intracerebral haemorrhage: a proof of principle in vivo study

Sarah Herrick
Novel hydrogel-based drug delivery strategies to prevent surgical adhesions

Steven Rogers
Developing AI based computational modelling software for the prediction of cardiovascular events in high-risk patients.

Robert Wykes
In vivo evaluation of the efficacy of a novel anti-epileptic drug and gene therapy strategy to suppress spontaneous seizures.

Steven Taylor
Re-purposing cabazitaxel to overcome drug pump-mediated taxane resistance in high-grade serious ovarian cancer

Shruti Garg
Optimizing non-invasive brain stimulation for working memory difficulties in Neurofibromatosis

2021 Awards

Richard Edmonson
Investigating the DNA damage response in ovarian cancer
9 months of P4T support

Stuart Ellison
At scale transduction of hCD34+ stem cells for Wolman disease biodistribution studies
9 months of P4T support

Lydia Tabernero
Developing novel medicines to tackle difficult-to treat mycobacterial infections
9 months of P4T support

Kathryn Else
Refining imidazopyridines: new anthelmintics targeting whipworm
9 months of P4T support

2020 awards

Alan McWilliam
Remote cardiac monitoring in patients follow lung cancer radiotherapy
9 months P4T support

Claudia Lindner
An Automated Software System for Monitoring Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip in Children
9 months P4T support

Jeremy Derrick
Using novel virus-like particle engineering to generate a second generation COVID-19 vaccine
9 months P4T support

Josef Schlittenlacher
Hearing Health: Personalised hearing-aid fitting using suprathreshold tests
12 months P4T support

Rachel Watson
Systemic sclerosis-related calcinosis: developing safe, effective topical treatments to reduce pain, ulceration and disability (TOPiCAL) project
6 months P4T support

2018 awards

Brian Bigger
Establish manufacturing scale-up of lentiviral transduction of peripheral blood derived CD34+ stem cells at GMP
9 months P4T support

Tony Day & Caroline Milner
Development of Link_TSG6 as a protein biological with disease-modifying and anti-inflammatory properties
9 months P4T support

Mike Bromley
Project title: A point of Care Diagnostic for Fungal Keratitis
6 months P4T support

Ellen Poliakoff
Action Imagery and Observation in Neurorehabilitation for Parkinson’s Disease (ACTION-PD)
6 months P4T support

William Newman
Development and implementation of a point-of-care pharmacogenetic test to avoid antibiotic-related hearing loss in neonates
12 months P4T support

Previous CiC awards

Round 7

Prof Perdita Barran, FSE  

Smell-led volatile biomarker discovery from sebum and breath for tuberculosis diagnosis

Prof Brian Bigger, FBMH  

Evaluation of genotoxicity & scale up transduction of HSC Gene Therapy for MPSII

Prof Giulio Cossu, FBMH  

Immortal, universal donor cells for the ex vivo gene therapy of muscular dystrophy: development of a pre-clinical mouse model

Prof Tony Day, FBMH        

Proof of concept for Link_TSG6 as a protein-based biologic for wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

Dr Mark Dunne, FBMH      

Assay Detection for Focal Congenital Hyperinsulinism

Dr Katie Finegan, FBMH   

Exploring the utility of targeting ERK5-signalling to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)

Prof Anthony Jones, FBMH          

Neurofeedback platform for long-term use in patients with chronic arthritic pain

Prof Lydia Tabernero, FBMH       

Development of anti-virulence agents for tuberculosis treatment

Prof Catharine West, FBMH        

Translation of a hypoxia gene signature for use in bladder cancer onto a clinically applicable measurement platform

Round 6
Project Title Principal Investigator

Development of a novel treatment for age-related macular degeneration

Professor Paul Bishop 

Development of VRAC inhibitors as new anti-inflammatory agents

Dr David Brough 

CCR2-targeted peptide-drug conjugates for the treatment of CMML

Dr Sam Butterworth 

Validation of a novel immunomodulatory approach to the treatment of Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Dr Katie Finegan 

Development of blood-based proteomic biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease

Professor Nigel Hooper 

Automated Low Dose Risk Assessment Mammography (ALDRAM): defining breast cancer risk to reach the unreached

Dr Sacha Howell 

Computer-Aided Surgical Planning (CASP): Feasibility of the First Surgical Planning Platform for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting 

Dr Amir Keshmiri 

Validation of secreted markers and Biochip Assay development for use in clinical and commercial scaleup of pluripotent stem cells

Professor Susan Kimber 

Screening for Biomarkers in Synovial Fluid to Stratify Osteoarthritis Patients

Professor Qing-Jun Meng 

Dynamic glucose-enhanced (DGE)-MRI for non-invasive detection of altered blood-brain barrier glucose transport in dementia

Dr Laura Parkes 

Can clinical imaging be used to predict the optimal type of therapy for aphasia?

Dr Anna Woollams 
Round 5
Project Title Principal Investigator
Investigation of Strathclyde minor groove binders as antifungal agents Dr Michael Bromley (FBMH)

Optimisation of a novel chimeric protein to promote its cell secretion for the treatment
of age-related macular degeneration by gene therapy

Dr Simon J Clark (FBMH)
Development of ‘QuickWord’ Aphasia Software as a novel and promising approach to the treatment of Anomia after Stroke Dr Paul Conroy (FBMH)
Do plasma proteomic patterns relate to CNS changes and predict syndromes and course of schizophrenia? Towards improved diagnosis and prognosis of schizophrenia Prof Bill Deakin (FBMH)
A Novel Diagnostic Method to Stratify Anti-Drug Antibody Responses in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients by Immunosignature Profiling Prof Jeremy Derrick (FBMH)
Development of fenamate NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors as potent treatments for the neuropathological, synaptic and cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease Dr John Gigg (FBMH)
Feasibility study of photoacoustic imaging for early diagnosis and risk stratification of severe digital ischaemia in systemic sclerosis-spectrum disorders Prof Ariane Herrick (FBMH)
Stimulating the brain to reduce chronic pain in the elderly Professor Anthony Jones(FBMH)
Using Gene Expression Data for the Diagnosis of Childhood Growth Hormone Deficiency Dr Philip Murray (FBMH)
Action Imagery and Observation in Neurorehabilitation for Parkinson’s Disease (ACTION-PD): User-informed development of a personalised home-based therapy Ellen Poliakoff (FBMH)
Self-healing, Biocompatible ‘NanoGlue’ for Repair of Meniscal Tears Dr Stephen Richardson (FBMH)
Round 4
Project Title Principal Investigator
Validation of hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy for Mucopolysaccharidosis IIIB in human CD34+ stem cells Dr Brian Bigger (FMHS)
Imaging of synaptic density in neurodegenerative conditions using PET-MR Dr Herve Boutin (FMHS)
Mast cell activation assay – a robust and novel tool to diagnose clinical food allergy Prof Silvia Bulfone-Paus (FMHS)
Elevated Copper in Human Diabetic Nephropathy: A New Therapeutic Target?

Prof Garth Cooper (FMHS)

Infrared Spectral Pathology on Glass Slides Prof Peter Gardner (FEPS)
Using gallium labelled prostate specific membrane antigen (68GA PSMATHP) to guide patient selection for extended pelvic lymph-node dissection Prof Alan Jackson (FBMH)
Development of a predictive tool for subsequent biologic response and adverse events in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with TNF-a inhibitors Dr Meghna Jani (FMHS)
Advanced characterisation of tumour hypoxia using PET-MRI to personalise radiotherapy for cervical cancer patient Dr Lucy Kershaw (FMHS)
Kinectin frailty Prof Harm van Marwijk (FMHS)
Advanced nerve guidance conduits for peripheral nerve repair

Dr Adam J Reid (FMHS)

Bringing quantitative nailfold capillaroscopy into the clinic Prof Chris Taylor (FMHS)
Novel dual chemokine receptor inhibitors targeting endometrial cancer spread Prof Kaye Williams (FMHS)
Round 3
Project Title Principal Investigator
Anti-PLA2R immunoadsorption therapy for membranous nephropathy patients Prof Paul Brenchley (FMHS)
A novel therapeutic for OA: generation of new IP Prof Tony Day (FLS)
Adaptation of a virus-like particle platform for high throughput vaccine antigen selection Prof Jeremy Derrick (FLS)
Cognitive biomarkers for drug development: evidence for psychopharmacological modulation of a novel test battery

Prof Rebecca Elliott (FMHS)

Increasing donor heart availability for transplantation using ex-vivo perfusion Dr James Fildes (FMHS)
In vivo characterization of the inflammatory component of carotid plaques using PET/ CT and PET/MR in order to develop non-invasive prognostic imaging markers for stroke Dr Alex Gerhard and Dr Sarah Skeoch (FMHS)
The use of a semi-autologous structural bone graft to improve the clinical outcome of revision hip arthroplasty Prof Judith Hoyland (FMHS)
Inhibition of epidermal Langerhans cell (LC) migration with soft drugs (SD) as a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of psoriasis Prof Ian Kimber (FLS) and Prof Chris Griffiths (FMHS)
Repositioning of urea cycle disorder drug for inherited retinal disease Dr Forbes Manson (FMHS)
Pilot investigation of polarisation sensitive optical coherence tomography as a non-invasive measure of skin fibrosis Dr Andrea Murray (FMHS)
MRI-based Diffusion Orientation Complexity (DOC) A Non-Invasive Novel Biomarker of cardiac fibrosis and heart failure Dr Josephine Naish (FMHS)
A novel regenerative therapy for IVD degeneration and treatment of low back pain Dr Stephen Richardson (FMHS)
Enriching biomarker identification – earlier diagnosis of Prostate Cancer Prof Paul Townsend (FMHS)
Automated prognostic cellular pattern recognition in pathology using multicoloured Luminsphere biolabels & multispectral microscopy Prof Michael Turner (FEPS)
Round 2
Project Title Principal Investigator
Developing cell/gene therapies for heritable fibrillinopathies Prof Cay Kielty (FLS)
Towards a mobile health device for day-to-day monitoring of Parkinson’s disease Prof Sonja Kotz (FMHS)
To develop a novel treatment for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy Prof Christopher Miller (FMHS)
New target identification for neurodevelopmental disorders through development of a neuro immune animal model

Prof Jo Neill (FMHS)

Development of novel topical therapies for Raynaud’s phenomenon Prof Ariane Herrick (FMHS)
Gene therapy to restore vision in retinal dystrophies Prof Rob Lucas (FLS)
Improved drug discovery in psychiatry using arterial spin labeling based quantitative pharmacological magnetic resonance imaging Dr Shane McKie (FMHS)
Accelerating the early phase development of a new therapeutic for the treatment of small cell Lung cancer (SCLC) Dr Harmesh Aojula (FMHS)
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-Cell Therapy for Ovarian Cancer Dr David Gilham (FMHS)
Development of a validated clinical and research tool for measuring musculoskeletal disease severity using passive motion and position sensing Dr Will Dixon (FMHS)
Dysphagia in early stage Huntington’s disease: A multimodal imaging approach to target stimulation based therapies Prof Shaheen Hamdy (FMHS)
Identification of novel REV-ERB agonists with anti-inflammatory action Prof David Ray (FMHS) and Prof Andrew Loudon (FLS)
Development of novel inflammasome inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease Dr David Brough (FLS)
A new treatment for tuberculosis by targeting MptpB phosphatase Dr Lydia Tabernero (FLS)
Development of a novel therapy to treat fungal infection Prof Mike Bromley (FMHS)
Repositioning of an anti-epileptic drug for anti-arrhythmic treatment Prof Xin Wang (FLS)
Round 1
Project Title Principal Investigator
Optimisation of an anti-angiogenic opticin peptide for eye diseases Prof Paul Bishop (FMHS)
Development of a novel therapeutic approach to cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure Dr Elizabeth Cartwright (FMHS)
Development of point-of-care microbial safety monitors for peritoneal and haemodialysis patients Dr Curtis Dobson (FLS) 
Chondrocytes from human embryonic stem cells for the clinical repair of cartilage defects Prof Sue Kimber (FLS)
Resorbable magnesium alloys for bone repair applications Dr Julie Gough (FEPS)
Exploitation of Genome wide association markers for cognitive decline Dr Neil Pendleton (FMHS) and Prof. John Quinn (University of Liverpool)
Arterial Spin Labelled MRI – an imaging biomarker of cerebral blood flow in children Dr Laura Parkes (FMHS) and Prof. Graham Kemp (Liverpool)
Molecular subtyping of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) – developing a simple and inexpensive method for routine clinical use Dr Kim Linton (FMHS) and Prof. Andrew Pettit (Liverpool)
Graphene as a vehicle for drug delivery Prof Robert Dryfe (FEPS)
Role of Graphene combined with electrical stimulation in the acceleration of wound repair Dr Ardy Bayat (FMHS)
Graphene-based MRI contrast agents Prof Steve Williams (FMHS)
Edge-specific reactions of biomolecules with graphene flakes on surfaces Dr Chris Blanford (FEPS)
Nanocomposite Graphene Biomaterials and Bionanofilm Platform Prof Jian Lu (FEPS)
Assessing graphene oxide as a matrix for DNA repair and DNA damage assays Prof Geoff Margison (FMHS)
Antimicrobial properties of graphene oxide Prof Ian Roberts (FLS)

 

Read about other funding opportunities by following the links below.

Access to Expertise (A2E)

Up to £25k to access external technical expertise

Translation for ECRs (T4E)

Up to £5k for translational early career researchers

Access to Tissue (A2T)

Up to £10k to purchase tissue samples from the TMRN biobanks

TMAA 2023

An overview of the Translation Manchester Accelerator Awards 2023 call