The Medical Research Council (MRC) is changing the way they fund long-term research by adopting a new challenge-led, time-limited approach through MRC Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs). MRC CoREs will be funded for up to 14 years (initial 7 years plus a further 7 based on successful review in year 6). Applicants can request up to £21.2 million at 80% FEC for the first 7 years.
CoREs Round 4: internal selection
The MRC has pre-announced round 4 of the MRC CoREs funding call. The University of Oxford may only lead on one application which can be in any research theme. The Medical Sciences Division is running internal selection process to identify Oxford’s single submission as lead organisation.
If you are either:
- interested in leading Oxford’s single CoRE bid in round 4, or
- exploring a collaboration where another institution is likely to lead the CoRE with Oxford as a major partner (defined as Oxford receiving at least one third of the CoRE’s budget)
You must submit an internal expression of interest (EOI) in IRAMS by 12 noon on Wednesday 17th September 2025.
EOIs will be reviewed by the Medical Sciences Division senior leadership team. The panel will send feedback to the applicants who will then have one week to return responses to the panel’s questions. By mid-late October:
- The single successful CoRE bid led by Oxford will be selected. The applicants will be supported to develop their outline application to the MRC by their deadline on 4th February 2026.
- Oxford co-applicants on bids led by external partners will be notified of any competing or overlapping bids with Oxford involvement. They and their partners in the lead organisation will benefit from Oxford’s experience in applying for previous CoRE funding.
Applicants do not need to have sign-off from their Department for the EOI; however all potential Oxford applicants must have discussed a possible bid with their Head of Department and confirm this on the EOI form.
Please attach to your IRAMS submission as a single collated PDF document:
- The internal EOI form, which can be downloaded from IRAMS
- A short CV of the lead applicant(s) and any other key members of the CoRE leadership team sufficient to demonstrate effective and long-term leadership of the CoRE. It is not necessary to submit CVs for all co-applicants.
Applicants should be aware that MSD is expecting this call to be extremely competitive both locally and nationally. Each institution can only lead on one bid, and the MRC is intending to fund only one or two CoREs nationwide in each round.
Resources and Help
MRC's application timelines for CoRE round 4 can be found here
Further information about the CoRE funding call can be found here. Please note that this information relates to CoRE round 3; we expect details for round 4 to be published when the call launches, on 1 October 2025.
Please contact research@medsci.ox.ac.uk if you have questions about Oxford's internal selection process.
