FUNDING PRIORITIES
Aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of older people, the Vivensa Foundation (previously the Dunhill Medical Trust) will be focusing on the following areas of support for the next five years, making detailed calls for proposals and highlighting specific topics of interest under the following themes:
- Research that focuses on the underlying biological mechanisms of ageing-related conditions and disease, in particular, addressing inequalities in the rate of biological ageing and the links and interactions with the social determinants of health.
- Research that addresses the causes, management and treatment of specific conditions which have been shown to be under-addressed as under-funded in research relative to their prevalence in older age groups:
- Age-related vision
- Age-related hearing loss
- Infection
- Respiratory disease
- Musculoskeletal conditions
- Scaling and spreading person-centred interventions that have the potential to prevent, delay or reduce future health and social care requirements, particularly through the promotion of innovative VCSE-researcher-public sector partnerships.
- Planning for, designing and developing suitable homes and communities, particularly those that address the needs of under-served communities, for our ageing population.
More information about specific funding and support mechanisms for these priority themes can be found in pages 22-25 of the foundation’s 2025-2030 strategic framework.
UPCOMING FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
- Joint British Geriatrics Society / Vivensa Foundation Undergraduate Research Placement Scheme (opening for applications late May 2025)
- Early Career Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme (opening for applications late May 2025)*
- Implementing evidence-based interventions that prevent, delay or reduce health and social care requirements for older adults in underserved communities (opening for applications early June 2025)
- Joint MRC / Vivensa Foundation predoctoral clinical research training fellowship (opening for applications in June 2025)
- Starter Grants for Clinical Lecturers with the Academy of Medical Sciences (opening for applications in July 2025)
*Previously limited to those Departments/Centres that held Multiple PhD Studentship awards from the 2020 and 2022 rounds, this opportunity will be open to all UK universities and eligible research organisations nationally.
Further limited details of these pre-call announcements are available in the below summary documents or on the funder website. Full details will be provided in the call guidelines, which will be available once the call opens.
Details of calls which are currently closed to applications, but which will run again in the future, can also be found on the funder website. In these cases, you can read the information and guidance documentation from the most recent round of the call.
See also Vivensa Foundation funding FAQs.