About the application and review process
Preparing your application
We award funding as part of a grant round which contains multiple types of awards. You'll need to prepare a detailed application to support your own research idea, which must fall in the remit and adhere to the guidelines of the current funding round.
Read our Key Application Information page for an overview of what you’ll be asked to include.
Applying online
All applications must be completed through Flexi-Grant.
Applicants will require a Flexi-Grant account and are strongly advised to familiarise themselves with Flexi-Grant before making their application. The prosective principal grant-holder/investigator should initiate an application by registering with the system and starting an application. Invited co-applicants will have permission to work on the content of an application but should not initiate the application. We also recommend that one other co-applicant be familiar with the system. For assistance or if you get stuck email research@asthmaandlung.org.uk in the first instance.
Applicants must be approved by all signatories before making a submission.
Submissions after the grant round closes will not be accepted. Please submit your application in advance of the deadline to enable any technical difficulties to be resolved. We are unable to discuss individual circumstances that result in an applicant not being able to meet the deadline. Late applications and applications not meeting the eligibility criteria will be rejected prior to review.
Grant review process
We want the money we give to research to have the biggest possible impact, so we have a rigorous system to decide which projects receive our funding. As a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities, we follow their guidelines for best practice in peer-review, where grants are awarded based on principles of accountability, balance, independent-decision making, rotation of scientific advisers, and impartiality.
All funding recommendations are made by our Research Review Panel, which consists of core members, in addition members with specific expertise recruited for certain grant rounds.
Current research review membership is:
Core members:
- Professor Andres Floto (University of Cambridge) - chair
- Professor Clare Lloyd (Imperial College London)
- Professor Najib Rahman (University of Oxford)
- Dr Shamil Haroon (University of Aberdeen)
- Dr Nicola Heron (Medicines Discovery Catapult)
- Phil Taverner (lay member)
- Roberta Hobbs (lay member)
Mesothelioma members:
- Professor Daniel Murphy (University of Glasgow)
- Dr Katie Finegan (University of Manchester)
- Dr Astero Klampatsa (The Institute of Cancer Research)
- Dr Alastair Greystoke (University of Newcastle)
- Professor Gareth Griffiths (University of Southampton)
- Dr Crispin Hiley (University College London)
- Dr Ed Hollox (University of Leicester)
- Jude Irvine (lay member)
PhD bursary members:
- Kate Lippett (University of Southampton)
- Professor Janelle York (University of Manchester)
- Ruth Barker (Imperial College London)
- Dr Anna Murphy (University of Leicester)
- Dr Enya Daynes (University of Leicester)
- Dr Nicola Roberts (University of Edinburgh)
- Felicity Payne (lay member)
Early career starter grant members:
- Professor Ameila Shoemark (University of Dundee)
- Professor Phil Molyneaux (Imperial College London)
- Professor Mona Bafadhel (King's College London)
- Professor Sejal Saglani (Imperial College London)
- Professor Liz Sapey (University of Birmingham)
- Dr Hannah Durrington (University of Manchester)
- Dr Lynne Prince (University of Sheffield)
- Dr Nicholas Hannan (University of Nottingham)
- Ireti Adejumo (University of Nottingham)
- Malcolm Ginever (lay memeber)
Review of applications
The review process undertaken for our grants is dictated by the type of award and its value.
Applications are reviewed as follows:
Submission of full applications, which are shortlisted by our Research Review Panel to proceed to the external peer review stage.
External peer-review of short-listed full applications. This involves requesting leading respiratory experts from all over the world to submit a written review of the application.
There may be interview process for award types such as Senior Fellowships.
Discussion and scoring of short-listed applications in a review meeting. During this meeting RRP members are selected to present each application and its external peer reviews, based on their area of expertise. All non-conflicted members are invited to score the application. These scores are used to rank applications. Applications with the highest scores, and that fall within the available budget, are recommended for funding.
Annual budgets are approved in advance by our Board of Trustees and funding recommendations are subsequently ratified by our delegated representatives (CEO and the Director of Research and Innovation).
Pump-priming grants are not subject to external peer review due to their relatively small value. Relevant applications are reviewed by our Research Review Panel only.
The terms of reference for our Research Review Panel can be found here.
Lay review
Lay review by patient representatives is a crucial step to making sure research projects provide the best impact for patients overall. Patient representatives are always included in our Research Review Panel and assess applications to make sure research is relevant to patients and includes appropriate patient and public involvement.
It’s important that any lay summaries included in your application are written in plain English and provides enough information for lay reviewers to make informed decisions. There is help and advice about writing in lay language on our website.
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.
Conflicts of interest
Members of our Research Review Panel and all external peer-reviewers are required to declare any conflicts of interest before being granted access to application documents. Conflicted individuals are not permitted to contribute to the assessment or discussion of relevant applications. Further detail can be found in our Conflicts of Interest Policy.