Research Funding in Medical Ethics

‘Research in Medical Ethics’ for small research projects in medical ethics (defined broadly to include all areas of biomedical ethics). This funding stream extends our Annual Seminar Competition by broadening its remit to include small research projects, research collaborations and pump priming initiatives.

What We Offer
We will fund projects in the region of £5000, with a ceiling of £10,000 for individual projects. We strongly encourage applicants to consider value for money when costing their proposal, and all costs must be fully justified. Applications will not be considered where the amount of support required from the IME is less than £500, or where the events or activities proposed are targeted at academic staff or students from a single institution.

We are happy to receive applications for co-funded projects, so long as the IME is fully acknowledged in any outputs and events associated with the award (e.g. publications, reports, conference papers etc.), and the applicant is able to demonstrate the benefit of the project to the wider IME community.

Eligibility
Applications will only be accepted from current IME members, but no restrictions are placed on the professional background of the lead applicant (e.g. academia, research, clinical practice). Whilst early career researchers are encouraged to apply, applications led by, or solely aimed at postgraduate students (including doctoral students) are not permitted via this scheme. Postgraduate students may be listed as co-applicants for this scheme, but are otherwise encouraged to contact the IME’s Postgraduate Committee for possible guidance on alternative funding opportunities.

What We Fund
The funds can be used to support the delivery of small research projects, pump priming initiatives, individual seminars, workshops or short conferences, or to support a series of other academic events. Provided that applicants can show relevance to the aims and objectives of the IME, there are no restrictions concerning the subject matter, although applicants should be able to demonstrate clear benefits of the proposed activity to the wider biomedical ethics community in the UK. For example, this may be through the identification of new areas for inter-disciplinary scholarship, developments in methodology or theory, or through broader research/scholarship capacity building activities. Innovation in activity, content and design, as well as collaboration with clinical practitioners is encouraged. Participants must also be able to demonstrate wide-reaching dissemination plans for the outcomes of their project or event, in order to maximise the impact and benefit for the wider UK biomedical ethics community.

We will fund:
• Small research projects
• Support groups to work together to develop a larger research grant application
• Seminars, events or workshops
• Collaboration development (i.e. short visits to other institutions, exchange visits aimed at supporting individual mobility, strengthening existing networks and fostering research collaborations between researchers)
• Pump priming for medical ethics research projects, this could include those that fostered collaboration between clinicians and medical ethics academics.