MRC: Confidence in Concept (CiC) THIS CALL IS NOW CLOSED. There will be another call in 2023, to be announced in institute newsletters and on this page. The information below relates to the last call.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) Confidence in Concept (CiC) scheme, has received an additional £80,000 award from MRC, to be spent by March 2023. The Faculty is looking to make 2-3 awards of between £20,000 - £50,000, up to that total value. The projects must be on the theme of infection. Applications should be submitted by sending a completed application form to Amanda Fitzgerald by 10 June 2022.


Enquiries are also welcome for smaller amounts of funding to support engagement with industry in the medical area for travel & subsistence, showcasing University capability or to cover secondments and other such exploratory translational activity with non-academic external organisations. If interested please provide an expression of interest to Amanda Fitzgerald, A.Fitzgerald@liverpool.ac.uk, with a brief overview of the proposed activities, cost breakdown and expected benefits including what the activity may lead on to, by completing an MRC CiC Application Form and sending it to a.fitzgerald@liverpool.ac.uk before 10 June 2022.  


Previous funding

The MRC CiC 2021 funding supports the transition from discovery science to the early stages of therapeutic/diagnostic development relating to infectious disease. This aligns with University of Liverpool strategic priorities, encompasses a range of projects within the MRC Priority Challenge areas of antimicrobial resistance and prevention research, and aims to address the urgent need for improved antimicrobials, vaccines and novel therapies in healthcare.

Back to: Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

The funding was secured by FHLS (Faculty of Health and Life Sciences) from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to support a number of preliminary-stage translational projects. Supported projects aim to provide sufficient preliminary data to establish the viability of an approach before seeking more substantive funding (e.g. from the Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS)). Additional information on the MRC rationale for the original 2019 call for this funding is available on the MRC site.


Applications were evaluated to determine the allocation of funds by the CiC Governance Board which includes external representation. In the 2021 round, £249,000 was allocated, providing up to £50,000 per project.


All enquiries and applications for MRC CiC should be directed to: Amanda Fitzgerald, A.Fitzgerald@liverpool.ac.uk, Research and Impact Officer, FHLS Research and Impact Directorate