Delivered through the Academy’s flagship Springboard programme, the grants support curiosity-driven, discovery-stage research – the foundational science that underpins future treatments and interventions. The awards support researchers to take their first steps as independent group leaders, testing bold ideas with the potential to improve lives, reduce health inequalities and strengthen the UK’s long-term research base.
Now in its eleventh year, Springboard supports researchers at a critical point in their careers, when many are establishing laboratories for the first time and need the freedom to explore ambitious questions.
Having recently marked a decade of impact, the programme has now supported 471 early career researchers at 68 UK higher education institutions, expanding institutional and regional reach with researchers at the University of Lincoln and the University of Greenwich funded for the first time this year, and more than £50.5 million invested since it’s creation in 2015.
With support from the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Wellcome and the British Heart Foundation, this year’s awards span the full breadth of biomedical and health research. Together, these projects aim to help people to live healthier lives, reduce health inequalities and strengthen the UK’s ability to prevent and respond to future health emergencies.
Dr Pramila Rijal said:” This Springboard award comes at a pivotal stage in my career, enabling me to accelerate translational research to understand immune response and improve influenza vaccines. As a newly independent researcher, this support is crucial for developing my own research programme and providing the foundation and structure needed to compete for larger grants and long-term funding. Influenza remains a major global public health threat, causing substantial annual morbidity and mortality and carrying an ever-present risk of new pandemics. More effective and broadly protective vaccines are essential both to mitigate seasonal epidemics and to strengthen pandemic preparedness. This award will allow me to advance work on broader-reactivity influenza vaccines that can better protect vulnerable populations and reduce the impact of future outbreaks.”
Find out more about the Academy’s flagship Springboard programme.