Research Grants

Our research remit

Specifically and exclusively to improve the health and wellbeing of older people, we make grants to support research to:

• Translate actual or potential solutions to problems into practice.
This may include early or late-stage development of interventions, dissemination of research findings into practice and the adoption of interventions. ‘Practice’ may include health, wellbeing or medical care practice in institutional settings (e.g. hospitals and care homes); practice by professionals delivering health, wellbeing or medical services to older people in the community setting; and interventions that older people can adopt themselves in any setting.

• Apply existing evidence to generate new solutions or to improve existing solutions to problems.

• Generate new knowledge of problems of ageing where the proposed research has a clear strategic aim towards a new or improved solution to the problem.

‘Solutions’ (interventions) include the following, but this is not an exhaustive list:

• Improving knowledge of the causes of age-related diseases or conditions.
• Novel methods to improve diagnosis or timeliness of diagnosis of age-related diseases or conditions.
• Prevention of age-related diseases or conditions.
• Treatment of age-related diseases or conditions.
• Management of age-related diseases or conditions.
• Delivery of care or services to older people to improve health or well-being.
• Promotion of healthy ageing or adoption, or encouragement of adoption, of actions and behaviours that would contribute to healthy ageing.

Generally, we want to fund research that will or is likely to lead to the delivery of an intervention for older people, typically within 5 years of the end of the research project but we will consider research proposals that would have a longer delivery time.

Currently, we do not fund:

• research relating to cancer except for research on palliative and end-of-life medicine/care that may include cancer among a range of terminal diseases that the research addresses;
• research to evaluate, compare or optimise existing NHS treatments.

Our awards

We normally invite applications for grants once a year, for one or more of the following types of award:

We publish detailed eligibility criteria for the type(s) of award(s) on offer at the time of calling for grant applications. However, in all cases:

• research proposals submitted to us must have a clearly defined hypothesis or research question with specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely (SMART) objectives
• the proposal must have a basis of evidence published in quality peer-reviewed research literature
• the host institution must be one of the following in the UK: a university or other recognised higher education institutions, a recognised research institute (charitable and other) or an NHS trust

Research Fellowships are open to candidates who have at least 3 years’ post-doctoral research experience in the field of their proposed Fellowship research. 

Research Fellowships are open to candidates who have at least 3 years’ post-doctoral research experience in the field of their proposed Fellowship research.

Grants for Clinical Research Fellowships are awarded in conjunction with the British Geriatrics Society. Candidates must hold an NTN in Geriatric Medicine and be a BGS member. A PhD is not a pre-requisite; Clinical Fellows may study for this qualification during their Fellowship programme.

Senior Fellowships are open to current Research Fellows who are funded by us and in the final year of their award. Senior Fellowships are awarded subject to the host institution guaranteeing to fund at least 50% of the costs. We also look for an undertaking that the host institution will employ the Senior Fellow at the end of the award.

All our awards are tenable for up to three years.

Value of awards

PhD Studentships are awarded at fixed values that we determine.

Grants for New Investigator awards and all three types of Fellowship are subject to a maximum value within which the applicant sets out a detailed proposed budget.

 Find out our award values

We do not fund full economic costs and will not support any indirect, directly allocated or any other non-attributable overhead costs in any grant.

Our process

For all types of award, we normally invite Expressions of Interest in the first instance. These are assessed by our Research Advisory Council (RAC). Applicants who are successful at this stage are invited to submit full applications. 

All full applications are reviewed by a target of three independent referees in line with AMRC guidelines and are evaluated for overall merit by the RAC. Fellowship candidates are shortlisted after the full application stage for interview with the RAC. 

The RAC ultimately recommends grant awards to the Age UK Trustees’ Board for decision.

We publish timetables and deadlines for the process together with full guidance for applicants at the time of calling for applications.  The criteria that we use for evaluating Expressions of Interest and full applications are included in this information.

At the end of the process, we make the independent referees’ reviews available anonymously to all proposers of full applications, whether or not a grant is awarded.

Research funding data

Get data from our 2010 grant round

Terms and conditions of grants

Funding is awarded subject to our terms and conditions for research grants, which can be downloaded here.

Research grants terms and conditions (PDF 72KB)