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Our 2025 research grant round is now open  

15 October 2024

We’re delighted to announce our research grant round for 2025 is now open! We’re calling on all researchers from across the UK to apply. 

The new grant round offers funding for four-year PhD studentships and project grants (including two to three-year project grants and shorter, proof-of-principle projects of up to one year) that have relevance to one or more types of muscular dystrophy or a related neuromuscular condition.  

The deadline for applications is 3pm on Wednesday 15 January 2025. 

Grants decision-making process  

All applications will go through an extensive decision-making process including international community experts, a Lay Research Panel consisting of people with lived experience of muscle wasting and weakening conditions and a Medical Research Committee made up of experts in the field of neuromuscular research. Applicants will receive a decision letter in late July 2025. 

Importance of funding research  

Our Director of Research and Innovation Dr Kate Adcock said: “We pride ourselves on funding groundbreaking research to change the future of muscle wasting conditions, so we’re delighted to open the call for our 2025 research grant round.  

“We’re looking to invest in research that increases our understanding of neuromuscular conditions, promotes the development of potential treatments and ultimately helps to improve the lives of people living with muscle wasting and weakening conditions.”

Dr Kate Adcock
Director of Research and Innovation

Professor Francesco Saverio Tedesco, at University College London, who recently received funding for his PhD student. The project aims to understand if changes in the shape of nuclei in muscle cells of people with laminopathies cause the loss of organisation of DNA

He said: “I’m grateful to Muscular Dystrophy UK for their continuous trust and support. The funding was critical to establish my laboratory about 10 years ago. The first research grant I received was a PhD studentship, as an independent researcher. It provided a fantastic springboard for my research programme in human muscle disease and therapy modelling. It has also been key for the PhD students, who went on to have amazing biomedical careers in academia, the NHS and the private sector.  

Talking about his latest project he said: “We previously described changes in the shape of the cell nuclei in laminopathies, thanks to previous funding from Muscular Dystrophy UK. We believe that now we have the right tools to understand why those changes eventually cause muscle weakness in children with muscular dystrophies caused by changes in the LMNA gene.”

“We hope that our project will help clarifying why a misshaped cell nucleus is associated with a weaker muscle fibre in laminopathies, so that we can develop precise and safe treatments for this group of conditions.”

Professor Francesco Saverio Tedesco
University College London

Open grant calls

We fund groundbreaking research to change the future of muscle wasting conditions. Find out more about our open grants.

Our research

We fund groundbreaking research to learn more about muscle wasting conditions and lead us to new treatments. We’ve already made advances that would have been unthinkable just 10 years ago, and we are determined to go even further and faster.

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