GOSH Charity & LifeArc Translational Research Accelerator Grants

Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH Charity) is proud to partner with medical research charity LifeArc to deliver our ambitious translational research funding scheme.

For the first time, the 2025 call will be open nationally to academic researchers from eligible Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the United Kingdom.

We are excited to welcome applications for projects on the translational pathway that will improve the prevention, diagnosis, prognosis or treatment of paediatric rare disease.

GOSH Charity and LifeArc will be hosting a webinar to give candidates further information on the call from 12:00 – 13:30 on Monday 3 February 2025.

To be updated when the call officially opens, or to find out more, please contact grants@gosh.org.

Support for outline stage: pre-application webinar

GOSH Charity and LifeArc will be running a webinar to provide further information about the call and assist applicants with their applications on Monday 3 February at 12pm. This webinar is aimed at those who are interested in submitting an outline application, and will provide:

  • Information about the scheme and the types of applications we are looking for.
  • An opportunity for applicants to ask questions about the scheme and the application process.

Find out more about the webinar and register your place.

How to apply

This funding scheme will open for outline applications the week of Monday 13 January 2025. Please contact grants@gosh.org if you would like to be notified when the call launches. Applications will be submitted through GOSH Charity’s application portal.

The deadline for outline submission is 12pm, Thursday 3 April 2025.

Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their outline applications in early May, and successfully shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit a full application. The deadline for full applications will be in late June 2025

Remit

GOSH Charity and LifeArc are inviting translational, milestone-driven applications which aim to:

  • Improve the prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment of rare disease.
  • Developing research tools that increase the efficiency of developing interventions in rare disease.

The scheme is designed to support applications on the translational pathway with the expectation that researchers will continue to develop their therapy/diagnostic after GOSH Charity/LifeArc funding, either by securing further funding from external translational schemes (from funders such as the Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, Innovate UK and others), or partnering with/licensing to industry.

Applicant eligibility

Projects must be led by active academic research professionals based at an eligible Higher Education Institution in the UK[NS1] . Collaborations with industry and other academic partners are encouraged where relevant to the project. Lead applicants may only submit one application per round.

Applications should:

  • address a rare disease medical need
  • have a strong scientific rationale
  • be a target-driven, milestone-oriented project with a credible delivery plan
  • have a clear route to patient

The following activities are eligible for support:

  • pre-clinical testing of novel therapeutic entities in vitro or in vivo
  • pre-clinical validation for repurposed therapeutics
  • early-phase clinical trials of novel therapeutic entities (phases 1/2)
  • clinical trials of existing therapeutics repurposed for a new indication
  • developing and testing novel devices
  • developing and testing diagnostics (including biomarker validation)

All modalities of intervention are eligible for support from the scheme, including small molecules, peptides, antibodies, vaccines, regenerative medicine, cell and gene therapy, devices, surgical techniques and psychological approaches. An indication of where this scheme fits within the wider translational funding pathway can be seen in the funding call document.

If you have any questions before applying, please contact the GOSH Charity grants team by emailing grants@gosh.org. Including questions around eligibility of the proposed project.

Funding available

There is a total of £1m available under this call. From this, we expect to award 2-3 high-quality projects with a minimum value of £250k each, for up to three years. Applicants should note that continued funding will be subject to the achievement of the corresponding milestones.

Application process

This is a two-stage application process:

1) Applicants are required to submit an outline application form through the charity’s online application portal which will be shortlisted by GOSH Charity’s Research Assessment Panel.

2) Shortlisted applicants will then be invited to submit a full application which will undergo external peer review, due diligence review by LifeArc’s Opportunity Assessment Group, and further review by GOSH Charity’s Research Assessment Panel, and GOSH Charity’s Research Patient Insight Panel.

COVID-19 statement

As funders, we have signed a cross-funder statement coordinated by the Academy of Medical Sciences, on the COVID-19 institutional memory: how we as funders will look to fairly remember and recognise the impacts of COVID-19 on grant applicants' work in the future.

As part of this statement, we would like to reassure our research community that we are aware of the immediate and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on research activities. Any disruptions to research activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be taken into consideration by our panels and committees when assessing an individual applicant’s record of outputs, research achievements, and career progression in future grant rounds. Read the Covid-19 Statement here.

The deadline for submission of outline applications is 12pm, Thursday 3 April 2025.