Small Molecule High Throughput Screen Using AstraZeneca Facilities: MRC Funding for Academic Drug Discovery (Deadline 9 September 2026)

The Medical Research Council (MRC), through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is accepting applications for academic projects that will use AstraZeneca’s compound library and high throughput screening facilities. The programme is intended to help researchers find potential starting points for small molecule medicinal drugs. It is open to all targets, but the project must present a credible route from the target and assay through screening, hit assessment, and useful follow-up work.

The current opportunity opened on 30 January 2026 and closes on 9 September 2026 at 4pm UK time. The official timeline also lists a future round opening on 10 September 2026. That future opening does not replace the current deadline: applicants who want this round must submit by the stated closing time, while applicants who miss it can watch the official UKRI page for the next round’s requirements and dates.

Key details

What the programme provides

The opportunity gives academic researchers access to more than two million molecules in AstraZeneca’s compound library, subject to the assay being suitable for the platform. AstraZeneca will also provide access to high throughput screening infrastructure, compound management, screening robotics, and multiple assay technologies. Depending on the optimisation results, the screen may cover a compound set between 100,000 and 1 million molecules rather than automatically using the entire collection.

This is a research collaboration, not a general-purpose cash award for an entire drug discovery programme. AstraZeneca will provide technical input during assay optimisation, including consideration of alternative readout technologies and a pilot high throughput screen, before the assay is transferred to the high throughput platform. The research question can come from any target area, but the application needs to explain why the target matters, what the assay measures, and how the resulting data will be interpreted.

The MRC expects to support up to four projects per year. Facility capacity is limited, so projects are prioritised for both funding and available screening time. The official guidance says that study commencement is expected within six months of the funding decision, although the exact start timing can vary. AstraZeneca may also offer to fund a project in its entirety when its assessment indicates that direct company collaboration is the most suitable route. If that happens, the applicant may decline that route and continue seeking MRC support through the initiative.

Funding and costs

The full economic cost of a project can be up to £270,000, with an MRC cost of £250,000. MRC will fund 100% of the full economic cost for work conducted at AstraZeneca. It will fund 80% of full economic cost for work at the research organisation and for eligible staff costs, subsistence, and travel.

The official cost examples are specific. They include £20,000 as a 100% full economic cost exception for optimisation and establishment of a high throughput screen, and £150,000 as a 100% full economic cost exception for execution of the screen. The budget can also cover travel, accommodation, and subsistence for a researcher from the host institution to work at AstraZeneca in Cambridge for up to three months in total. Other eligible costs include parts of the screening cascade that must be carried out at the host organisation and a minimal full-time-equivalent allocation for the project lead.

Conference attendance is not funded. There is no requirement for matched funding from the institutions hosting the project lead, project co-leads, or other staff beyond the standard 20% full economic cost contribution. Applicants should still discuss costings and their internal submission timetable with their research office well before the external deadline.

Who can apply

The project lead must be based at an organisation eligible for UKRI funding and must show that they will direct the project and be actively engaged in the work. The organisation must be registered in the UKRI Funding Service. If a lead applicant does not have an employment contract covering the duration of the proposed project, submitting the application confirms that the research organisation will extend the contract if the project is successful. It also confirms that the organisation will provide the necessary support, including mentorship and career development support for early career researchers.

Commercial entities cannot lead applications, and the application cannot include collaborations with additional commercial parties. A project lead based at an international research organisation is not eligible. The official exception is MRC Unit The Gambia or the MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Researchers at other international organisations should check their position with MRC before investing in an application.

The AstraZeneca relationship is part of this initiative and is handled through the programme’s standard collaborative arrangements; it does not mean that an applicant can add another commercial collaborator. MRC will share the application and its personal information with AstraZeneca so that the company can participate in assessment. Successful projects use a pre-agreed standard collaborative research agreement, signed by the research organisation and AstraZeneca. Release of funds depends on receiving that signed agreement.

What makes a project competitive

The target may be new, difficult, or outside the usual focus of medicinal chemistry, because the opportunity remains open to all targets. The proposal still needs a practical screening case. Reviewers and the panel will consider whether the project is technically feasible, whether it can pass AstraZeneca’s internal project-gating criteria, whether third-party agreements would prevent the work, and whether an equivalent screen has already been done in AstraZeneca’s internal research or an earlier open innovation collaboration.

Assay maturity is important, but an assay does not need to be finished before application. The programme includes funds for assay development, and the guidance says that a less-developed assay is not automatically a barrier. Applicants should provide enough evidence that the assay can be made suitable for screening. Useful evidence includes reliable reagents, a measurable signal, appropriate controls, an indication that the readout relates to the mechanism of intervention, and a realistic plan for generating enough reagent or cells.

The application should address the operational demands of scale. The official feasibility guidance considers whether the assay can run in a suitable plate format, whether cells or other reagents can be supplied consistently, whether the number of steps and readouts is compatible with high throughput work, and whether the full collection can be screened within the project’s resources. It also considers the likely complexity of hit triage, the expected level of false positives and false negatives, the availability of counter-screens or orthogonal assays, and the cost and timing of assay build.

Do not describe the screen as a guaranteed route to a drug candidate. The defensible outcome is a set of potential starting points or biological tools, together with data that supports confirmation and later chemistry or mechanistic work. Explain what will happen if the primary screen produces a small number of hits, a large noisy set, or no convincing hits. A clear decision tree is more useful than a promise that every active compound will translate.

What to prepare

The Funding Service application asks for a concise summary, a core team, a vision for the project, an approach, applicant and team capability, resources and costs, and responsible research information. The summary has a 550-word limit and should be written for a broad scientific and public audience because UKRI may publish it externally. It should identify the target, the biological or medical problem, the assay concept, and what the screen could make possible without including confidential material.

The approach should explain the scientific rationale and the technical route. Set out the target hypothesis, assay format, primary readout, controls, expected signal, and the work needed to transfer the assay to AstraZeneca’s platform. Include the pilot and optimisation logic, the proposed screening collection or range, hit criteria, confirmation assays, counter-screens, and any work that must remain at the host institution. If additional readouts are useful, distinguish them from the primary readout and place them in the confirmatory cascade rather than making the primary screen unnecessarily complex.

The application should also show that the team can deliver the work. Use the required Résumé for Research and Innovation format to describe the relevant skills and contributions of the project lead and other team members. Make roles unambiguous: only one person may be listed as project lead. Include the people responsible for assay development, data analysis, hit triage, relevant biology, laboratory execution, and project administration where they are material to delivery.

Budget explanations should connect each requested cost to a work package. Include the AstraZeneca optimisation and screening costs, host-organisation screening-cascade costs, staff allocation, and any proposed travel or embedded researcher time. The programme strongly encourages a host-institution researcher to spend up to three months in total at AstraZeneca’s Cambridge facilities, either as one period or several shorter visits. If that is not viable, explain why in the application; the guidance says this does not affect the evaluation of the project’s merits.

How to apply

Applications must be made through the new UKRI Funding Service. Je-S cannot be used for this opportunity. The lead organisation must be registered, and an NHS lead organisation should check early that it is available in the Funding Service because setup may require additional steps.

The official submission sequence is:

1. Select “Start application” on the UKRI Funding Finder page and confirm that you are the project lead.
2. Sign in or create a Funding Service account. Account creation requires selecting the organisation, verifying the email address, and setting a password.
3. Answer the application questions in the text boxes. The system allows answers to be saved and revisited; applicants can also work offline and paste answers back into the service. Upload any requested documents according to the Funding Service instructions.
4. Check the completed application in read-only view before sending it to the research office.
5. Send the application to the research office for checking. The office can return it for edits.
6. The research office submits the checked application to UKRI. Only the lead research organisation can submit.

Applications must be received by 9 September 2026 at 4pm UK time. After that time, the system will not accept an application. The official guidance also says to account for internal institutional deadlines and to allow time for the research office to check and submit the application. Once submitted, an application cannot be changed or returned for amendment. If the guidance is not followed, the application may be rejected.

Before submitting

Confirm that the lead organisation and project lead meet the geographic and organisational eligibility rules. Then ask the research office to review the budget and internal deadline. Contact the programme team at [email protected] for questions specific to this opportunity when the answer is not on the official page.

Before opening the form, prepare a one-page project logic: target and rationale, assay and controls, optimisation work, screen size, hit definition, triage cascade, host-institution work, AstraZeneca work, and the decision that each result will trigger. Check that every cost and team role maps to that logic. Finally, read the full UKRI opportunity page and its application questions, because the page—not a summary listing—is the controlling source for eligibility, assessment, and submission requirements.

This page describes a live 2026 MRC opportunity. For the current round, use the official UKRI page and submit by the published closing time. The UKRI timeline lists the next round as opening on 10 September 2026, but applicants should verify the next round’s full guidance on the official source rather than assuming that every requirement will remain unchanged.