MRC Centre of Research Excellence: Round Five Outline Application

MRC Centre of Research Excellence: Round Five Outline Application

The Medical Research Council (MRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is running Round Five of its Centres of Research Excellence (MRC CoRE) funding. This is the outline application stage for teams proposing a substantial, long-term programme around a defined challenge in biomedical or health research. The UKRI Funding Finder labels the opportunity open and gives a 1 October 2026 opening date, while a separate MRC application-timelines page gives 7 October 2026. The Funding Finder lists the closing date as 3 February 2027 at 4:00pm UK time.

This is a competitive first stage. An applicant does not need an invitation to submit an outline. Only teams whose outlines succeed at panel assessment will be invited to prepare the later full application. The earlier Round Four invited full application has closed; its rules should not be used as the application instructions for this new round. The official Round Five page is the controlling source for requirements and any amendments.

Key details

The £50 million figure is the total fund for the call, not an amount available to each team. The £26.25 million figure is the upper project FEC for the first seven-year funding period. MRC funds 80% of FEC, with identified exceptions funded at 100%; the maximum MRC contribution, including those exceptions, is £21 million. The award can last up to 14 years. A review point in year six is used to approve release of the second seven-year funding period. UKRI sets a minimum expectation that the MRC CoRE-associated budget will double through external funding by the mid-term point in year seven, and expects to fund one or two CoREs each year.

What an MRC CoRE is intended to do

An MRC CoRE is a major, coordinated investment for a substantial research challenge. The proposal should describe a defined health or biomedical problem, the knowledge gap or barrier that makes it important, and a coherent programme capable of changing research or health within a fourteen-year horizon. The call covers the MRC remit, including discovery research, understanding mechanisms, and developing concepts or interventions for prevention or treatment.

The outline should make clear why the challenge needs flexible, long-term, multidisciplinary work. It should be ambitious but bounded: UKRI is not asking one centre to solve an entire field. Explain what is not being adequately addressed elsewhere, which strategic objectives are achievable, and what a successful programme would change. Position the proposal against relevant UK and international activity and show how it will complement, connect with, or build on existing investments.

The research environment is part of the purpose of the award, not an administrative add-on. MRC expects a collaborative environment with inclusive leadership, a team-science approach, career development, good research conduct, open communication, and meaningful public partnerships. Applicants should show how people who may benefit from the work, including patients, carers, members of the public, and community groups, can shape research priorities and delivery.

Round Five is open across the MRC remit. The current call asks each team to define its own health challenge and explain how the proposed centre fits the MRC mission; do not assume that a theme or highlight from an earlier round limits this competition.

Who can apply

The outline must be led by a proposed MRC CoRE leadership team based at an organisation eligible for MRC funding. At this stage, applicants are expected to be members of the proposed leadership team, with the expertise and experience to lead or contribute to the centre and its research culture. The team may come from one eligible organisation or a partnership of eligible organisations. Named applicants do not need employment contracts covering the whole potential award period; the host organisation confirms support for the named team and acceptance of relevant terms if it submits.

An organisation may lead one Round Five outline application addressing a challenge in any part of the MRC remit. Existing MRC units may submit in addition to other applications from their organisation and are not counted against that lead-application limit. Organisations may also participate as partners in applications led by other organisations. Check the official eligible-organisation list and internal research-office rules before settling the lead arrangement.

Businesses, charities and third-sector organisations, and international research organisations cannot apply as project lead or project co-lead, but may participate as project partners in an application led by an eligible UK organisation. The Round Five page names MRC Unit The Gambia and MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as exceptions whose employees are eligible to lead or co-lead. International researchers may join the leadership team as international project co-leads when they make a major intellectual contribution to the design or conduct of the work and explain their commitment and added value. Other international collaborators, and UK partners not based at approved organisations, should be listed as project partners. Confirm the host organisation’s eligibility using UKRI’s current eligible-organisation guidance before choosing a lead.

For a partnership, the project lead must be affiliated with the organisation leading the partnership, and all host organisations should be represented by eligible co-leads. At outline stage, applicants should be the proposed leadership team, with one project lead. UKRI encourages senior professional enabling staff, such as a chief operating officer, to be part of that team as a project co-lead. Other research-team details will be requested at the full application stage; outline teams should not import the Round Four full-application role list wholesale. An individual on the core team, or an organisation employing a core-team member, cannot also be listed as a project partner.

Funding and cost planning

At outline stage, the proposal should make a credible case for a centre-scale programme within the stated funding envelope. The first seven years can have an FEC up to £26.25 million. UKRI applies the standard 80% FEC contribution, subject to specified exceptions funded at 100%, and caps the MRC contribution at £21 million. The call says UKRI indexation is applied at award and that awards will not be supplemented for inflation after they start. The leadership team should plan a realistic first phase that can be reviewed, while explaining how the longer programme could develop. The proposed award start date must fall between 1 April 2028 and 30 October 2028; the application duration is entered as 168 months to reflect the maximum 14-year period. Build a route to additional external funding into the plan: MRC sets a minimum expectation that the CoRE-associated budget will have doubled through external funding by the year-seven mid-term point.

The official cost headings include leadership and researcher time, research staff, technicians and enabling staff, consumables, eligible equipment, travel, data preservation and sharing, training and capacity building required for the challenge, studentships, technology and data platforms where needed, experimental medicine studies, research culture, public partnerships, environmental sustainability, estates, indirect costs, and a centre website. Requests need to be connected to delivery of the challenge and should be justified rather than listed as generic institutional needs. The award is made to the lead organisation, so multi-organisation teams need a clear plan for governance, fund distribution and flexible management. UKRI also expects considerable, sustained and clearly defined host support, such as laboratory space, facilities, digital infrastructure, estates, human resources and finance services. This support is assessed, although matched funding beyond the 20% FEC contribution is not required.

Some costs have specific limits or conditions. For example, the call describes up to £500,000 for routine start-up equipment where justified; other equipment follows the opportunity’s equipment rules. International co-lead costs are an exception funded at 100%, with a 30% cap on total resources requested for international applicants from high-income countries, India, and China; no cap is stated for applicants from countries on the OECD Development Assistance Committee list. Exact cost requirements and eligible cost definitions should be checked in the official call before submission.

UKRI says exact costs are not expected to be known or specified at outline stage. Do not treat the historical Round Four full-stage budget instructions as a checklist for Round Five. Instead, show that the programme is financially plausible at the outline level, that the work can be sequenced over time, and that the team understands which resources will need detailed justification if invited to submit a full application.

The call excludes open-access charges that should be covered by the UKRI open-access grant; training available through existing routes; equipment outside the stated arrangements; duplicative equipment already in the research environment; generic computing or storage platforms that should be supplied by the host; buildings and other infrastructure; and clinical trials or longitudinal population studies that have alternative funding routes. Existing cohorts or trials funded elsewhere may be used where relevant, with support arrangements made clear. Consult the source page for the precise wording and exceptions before including a cost.

Preparing a strong outline

The outline is assessed for the strength and importance of the research challenge, the potential for transformative impact, the approach, the quality of the proposed CoRE environment, the capability of the leadership team, and support from the host organisation and partners. The outline panel includes expertise spanning the MRC remit and public partnership representatives. It ranks applications and decides which teams are invited forward; only a small number are expected to progress.

Start with the challenge statement. In the Vision response, UKRI asks for a clear statement of no more than 100 words, within a 550-word Vision limit. It should say what gap or unmet need the centre addresses, what will be different if it succeeds, why this is important to biomedical or health research, and why CoRE-scale funding is appropriate. Make the challenge intelligible to a panel with broad expertise across the MRC remit.

The Approach should show a connected programme rather than a list of unrelated projects. Explain the research questions, methods, dependencies, risks, decision points, and how evidence or learning from one strand will inform another. Make translational relevance clear where it applies, and describe how outputs could improve prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, or health and wellbeing. Define how progress and success would be monitored over time without implying that every later-stage detail is already fixed.

Describe the proposed research environment and leadership. Set out how the team will make decisions, work across disciplines and organisations, develop careers, support an inclusive and positive research culture, and involve the public in shaping priorities and research activity. Public partnership should have a meaningful role in design and delivery, rather than appear as a final dissemination item. Host support should be specific: UKRI expects sustained support for the environment and infrastructure needed to conduct the proposed work. There is no requirement for institutional matched funding beyond the standard 20% FEC, but host support is an important part of assessment.

For collaborators, make each role understandable. Explain why partners are needed, what expertise, facilities, data, samples, or other contribution they bring, and how the partnership will work. International co-leads should have a clearly justified intellectual contribution and commitment. Partners and core-team members must be assigned roles consistently; an individual or organisation cannot be made a project partner where the call says that role conflicts with core-team participation.

How to submit

Applications are submitted through the UKRI Funding Service, not Je-S. The project lead completes the application, with contributions from the wider leadership team and partners. Only the lead research organisation submits to UKRI. Before drafting, confirm that the organisation is eligible, agree which organisation will lead, and check that the applicant team matches the Round Five outline-stage role requirements.

The application starts from the “Start application” link on the official Funding Finder page. The UKRI Funding Service is the submission route; applications cannot be made through Je-S. The project lead confirms that role, signs in or creates an account linked to the organisation, and enters answers in the service’s question fields. Answers may be drafted offline and pasted in, saved, and revisited. Follow the service instructions for any uploads. Before the deadline, check the completed application in read-only view, send it to the research office for checking, make any requested edits, and allow the research office to submit the checked application to UKRI. Only the lead research organisation can submit. Finance and research-office checks do not transfer responsibility: the applicant must make sure the application complies with the opportunity requirements.

The official call lists an optional expression of interest closing date of 8 December 2026 at 4:00pm UK time. This is an administrative planning step, not an eligibility check or part of assessment. It is voluntary: a team that does not submit an expression of interest can still apply. Do not wait for a response to the expression of interest; continue preparing the outline for the main deadline.

UKRI allows visuals where indicated, but they should convey information that is difficult to express in words. Each image needs a descriptive caption immediately below it, counts against the word limit, and must meet the service’s file requirements. Text paragraphs and tables presented as images are not permitted. Applications should be self-contained; hyperlinks should be used for references rather than to extend the case being assessed.

Current timeline and assessment

The UKRI Funding Finder opportunity page labels the outline call open and lists its opening as 1 October 2026 at 9:00am UK time. A separate MRC application-timelines page lists 7 October 2026 as the opening date, so applicants should verify that the Funding Service currently accepts the application. The Funding Finder lists a webinar on 25 November 2026 at 10:00am UK time and an optional expression-of-interest deadline of 8 December 2026 at 4:00pm. The outline application must reach UKRI by 4:00pm UK time on 3 February 2027; the opportunity page says applications cannot be made after the closing time. Work backwards from that point for research-office, finance, partner, and final read-only checks.

UKRI plans an outline panel meeting in April 2027 and expects to inform applicants of the outline decision in May 2027. The assessment is two-stage: successful outline applicants are invited to submit a full application, which then goes through external peer review and a further panel process that includes interviews. The opportunity page lists the invited full application opening on 13 May 2027 and closing on 8 September 2027 at 4:00pm, while the MRC application-timelines page lists 9 September 2027 as the closing date. The MRC timelines page also lists an interview panel in January 2028; the opportunity page gives March 2028 for funding decisions. These later dates apply only to teams invited forward, and applicants should check the live UKRI pages for updates before planning their full-stage submission. Submitting an outline does not guarantee entry to the full stage.

UKRI lists the opening date for a future outline round as “To be confirmed.” The published schedule therefore does not provide a date for Round Six; applicants should use the Round Five dates above for this call and check UKRI for any later announcement.

Feedback is planned for all outline applications. If an outline is unsuccessful, UKRI says the feedback will indicate which assessment criteria were not met. Unsuccessful applications cannot be resubmitted unless invited by the panel, and resubmissions count toward the organisation’s one lead-application limit. Keep a copy of the submitted outline and feedback so that any invited full-stage response can address the panel’s points directly.

Practical checklist

• Confirm that the lead organisation is eligible and has not already used its Round Five lead outline slot, accounting for the separate treatment of existing MRC units.
• Assemble the proposed leadership team and verify each person’s role, expertise, institutional affiliation, and commitment.
• Define one specific challenge, the gap it addresses, and the changes the centre aims to achieve over the award horizon.
• Explain why coordinated, flexible, long-term investment is required and how the work relates to existing UK and international activity.
• Build a connected research plan with credible methods, sequencing, risks, milestones, and routes to impact.
• Set out leadership, decision-making, host support, research culture, training, and public partnership plans.
• Describe partner contributions and resolve any conflict between core-team and project-partner roles.
• Use the Funding Service’s current questions and limits, review the submission institutionally, and leave time to submit before the 4:00pm UK time deadline on 3 February 2027.

This listing now describes the open Round Five outline call. For the authoritative requirements, application link, eligibility details, updated dates, and any changes, use the official UKRI opportunity page.