Grant application FAQs

The Lung Research Grand Challenges are a framework for uniting the respiratory research community around three key challenges to ensure progress for people living with lung conditions.

They are supported by specific research goals. These 10-year goals will unite these communities to secure progress in three areas: diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. 

See our page for more information. 

To be considered, your application will need to evidence how your work will further understanding around one or more of the Lung Research Grand Challenges supporting goals. These are broad in nature. 
However, if you're unsure or would like to speak to a member of the research team before proceeding with your application please email research@asthmaandlung.org.uk before December 19th 2025. 
(Please note, other enquires around your application can be submitted after this date. Please enquire in good time!) 

The challenges and goals are fairly broad. While your project does need to align with the themes of the challenges and their specific goals, it does not have to answer a goal in its entirety.
Please demonstrate in your application how your work will contribute to addressing a specific goal under a specific challenge. 

We're asking for projects to align with one or more of the research goals supporting each grand challenge. For your application to be considered please ensure your project addresses one or more of the following goals: 

Diagnosis: 

• Identify biomarkers for early detection.
• Determine the role screening has in early detection.
• Use data driven approaches and AI to develop diagnostic tests.
• Develop simple, accurate, low cost tests.

Prevention:

• Keep lungs healthy throughout life.
• Understand more about how genes affect lung health.
• Prevent emergency hospital admissions by developing and implementing digital health tools to transform monitoring and guidance.

Treatment: 

• Find new classes of drugs and pathways that act on specific targets.
• Improve quality of life by reducing the impact of multiple health conditions on lung disease.
• Develop biomarkers to optimise treatment decisions and delivery.

Find out more about the Lung Research Grand Challenges.

As long as this grant(s) are below £100,000, then you are eligible to apply for this award. 

Please note, that if you have previously received an early career starter grant or junior fellowship since 2024 from Asthma + Lung UK, your application will not be favoured. You are still eligible to apply, but priority will be given to applicants who haven't previously received a grant of this type from us. 

There is no limit on the time passed post-PhD. As long as you have not held a grant of over £100,000 previously, you are eligible. 

Our terms and conditions state that an award must be taken up within 12 months of activation, so early 2027 is fine.

Please apply! Perhaps you could include your reasoning for shifting to respiratory research, or research that matches the grant call, or how the methodology you used in your previous work has informed your later work (if relevant). 

Grants are available to PhD-holders (or equivalent level qualification) working in clinical, laboratory and/or epidemiological research. This individual should be listed as the principal applicant and should be the individual who starts the application. 

You can still apply! If you’re aware of the submission date/timelines for the follow-on grant you wish to apply for when completing this grant application, please state this within your application. 

This grant is designed to support you to conduct the necessary activities to make your best next step. In your application you will need to evidence your commitment to taking this step and how this grant can support you to do that. In the application form, you are asked to describe the follow-on funding from a national funding body you’re likely to apply for, but you can change your mind re. which funding stream you apply for at a later date. Some examples of follow-on funding opportunities you can consider include an NIHR Predoctoral award, NIHR Doctoral award, MRC studentship.

That’s fine, your funding (up to £40,000) can be pro-rated to reflect the length of time that your proposed activities will take. The total funding amount available won’t change but it can be phased to support the required length of your grant. 

Sadly, this grant is only available for people who require support to prepare a competitive follow-on funding application. 

The principal applicant must not hold a PhD or equivalent qualification (e.g. Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree) but must have ambitions to study for such a qualification in future. People who have already started a PhD (or equivalent qualification), or who have completed their PhD (or equivalent qualification), are not eligible for funding

This grant is designed to support you to make a competitive application for funding that will move you towards a PhD or equivalent qualification. We know how competitive these funding competitions are and appreciate that there is no way to guarantee the success of your follow-on application. 

This award is open to any health care professional, including allied health professionals, for example: 

• medical doctors (including generalist, specialist practitioners and public health doctors)
• doctors in training
• midwives
• nurses
• pharmacists
• physiologists
• dentists
• dietitians
• clinical scientists
• occupational therapists
• paramedics
• physiotherapists
• practitioner psychologists
• radiographers
• speech and language therapists

If your profession is not featured and you’re not sure if you can apply, please contact us at research@asthmaandlung.org.uk.
 

If you’re not currently practicing (for example, you're taking a career break or currently taking parental leave) then you can still apply for this award. If you have any questions regarding this, please contact us at research@asthmaandlung.org.uk.

 

Applicants and the host/grant-holding institution must be based in the UK. Applications from individuals/institutions outside of the UK are not eligible.

That’s fine, however, please evidence in your application how your next step will contribute to the respiratory field and how your proposed PhD (or equivalent) project will be focus on a respiratory subject. 

Yes, the principal applicant for this award should be the individual who will apply for the follow-on grant. 

Yes, a named supervisor should be a co-applicant on the grant application.

Sadly, you're not able to apply for this award. Principal applicants must not hold a PhD or equivalent (e.g. Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree).

You don’t need to be a member of the BTS at application, but if your application is successful and you are not a BTS member, you are expected to join.

No. The Principal Investigator and host institution must be based in the UK. 

Yes – as long as the Principal Investigator (PI) and host institution are based in the UK.

No – applications are limited to one PI.

At least one applicant (principal or a co-applicant) should either be on a permanent contract or a fixed-term contract that covers the intended duration of the grant plus one year.

Yes – Please state this clearly in the finance section of your application and include evidence of any additional funding secured.

We advise against applicants applying for an Asthma +Lung UK grant for a project that is reliant on unsecured additional funding. We would consider accepting an application where required additional funding is not yet secured but is extremely likely to be, but an award could not be made until the additional funding is secured and evidence is provided of this.

Either a UK based University, NHS Trust or commercial healthcare research/innovation organisation.

There must be one principal investigator employed at a UK based research organisation who will be responsible for the grant.  Co-applicant roles should be clearly stated in the application.

For more information on eligibility criteria, see our Key Application Information Page

The latest date a project can start is 12 months after the date of the award letter.

This is not mandatory. If you do include references, these will count towards the section word limit.

Please ensure that they have completed the entire process for setting up a Flexi-Grant account. Please also ensure that they have responded to the email inviting them to participate in the specific application by clicking on the hyperlinked “How would you like to respond?” question in the participation invitation email.

Ensure that junk mail is checked for all emails from flexigrant.com. If all of these steps have been successfully completed and problems persist, please email research@asthmaandlung.org.uk.

Asthma + Lung UK may be able to assist with this through our Respiratory Insights service. We can support the development of your application by assisting with lay review, as well as providing advice from our Respiratory Insights Team, prior to submitting. However Asthma +Lung UK cannot be listed as a co-applicant. We will however look to support successful applicants throughout their project.

Please see our Involving people with lung disease page for full details of how we can help.

Please clearly state that ethical approval will not have been granted before submission and describe a clear plan with timescales for obtaining approval (should your application be successful).