Information for researchers
If your research has the potential to improve palliative and end of life care for people with a terminal illness, their carers, families, friends and communities, we could support you.
How does Marie Curie fund research?
We award research project grants in open competition through the Marie Curie Research Grants Scheme .
Our new Research Impact Fund provides support for activities that facilitate the uptake of existing palliative and end of life care research into policy and practice.
From time to time we also put out targeted calls to commission specific research projects that help support ongoing activity at the charity, such as policy and campaigns activity. You can read more and view active commissioned calls here.
What types of research do you fund?
We fund research which will inform better quality of care for people with any terminal illness, and the people who care for them. This includes systematic reviews, qualitative and quantitative studies, and feasibility trials.
See what research we fund by theme, including previous themes and success rates.
We also work in partnership with other organisations, such as the Motor Neurone Disease Association, to fund projects on specific diseases.
How do I apply for funding?
Every year we put out a call for applications to the Marie Curie Research Grants Scheme. We provide guidelines and themes to help you apply.
All applications are subject to a process of external peer review before a final decision is made by an independent funding committee.
Find out more about the Marie Curie Research Grants Scheme and this year’s call for applications.
Guidance for researchers
Step by step: Research in hospices – free online resource
Whether you're just starting out in hospice research or have experience being involved in studies, understanding how to plan and conduct a study can be difficult.
That's why Marie Curie has developed a hospice research resources website , in partnership with Lancaster University, Sue Ryder, Hospice UK and PalCaRe NWC.
You'll find bite-size resources to access, aimed to guide you through different stages of a study. Each resource has a five to eight minute video and a factsheet.
Open Access publishing
We believe that publications arising from research we fund should be widely available to other researchers, as well as the general public. So, we ask the researchers we support to comply with our Open Access policy
We're a funder of the Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) funder, a free database of over two million full-text biomedical and life sciences journal articles. Our Open Access policy states that electronic copies of publications arising from our funding should be made available on this database as soon as possible, and in any event within six months of publication.
There are various ways articles can be made Open Access and this depends on the journal. Authors can pay a fee to publish their article Open Access either in an Open Access journal or in a journal where a paid Open Access option is available (known as Gold Open Access). The journal will usually deposit the article in PMC immediately on publication.
Alternatively, journals may archive or allow authors to self-archive articles after a journal-specific embargo period (known as Green Open Access).
Details on how to claim potential Open Access fees are available in our Open Access policy. Please contact the Research Management Team for more information.
Marie Curie funded researchers may wish to consider publishing their research on the recently launched Health Open Research, which publishes a broad range of peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed article types, including study protocols, case reports, clinical practice articles, policy and position statements, policy briefs, meeting and conference materials and full papers. Marie Curie's Gateway on Health Open Research enables research funded by Marie Curie to be quickly published and then openly peer reviewed, supporting a faster route to impact. If you publish on Health Open Research, please email research.grants@mariecurie.org.uk and we will add your research to our Gateway .
Peer review
As a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), we adhere to its guidelines on peer review.
How do our peer review processes work?
Applications to our funding streams are peer-reviewed in a two stage process, involving international and national external peer reviewers as well as an independent funding committee for each funding stream. All funding committees are subject to a conflict of interest policy that is rigorously adhered to.
How does the AMRC check our peer review processes?
When charities first apply for AMRC membership, the AMRC checks their peer review processes. They then ensure this quality is maintained by carrying out a peer review audit every five years. Marie Curie successfully passed the AMRC Peer Review Audit 2011, 2015 and 2020.
Promoting co-operation in cancer research
Marie Curie is a member of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) , a UK-wide partnership between the government, charity and industry which promotes co-operation in cancer research among the 22 member organisations for the benefit of patients, the public and the scientific community.
The NCRI Conference is the leading international cancer research meeting in the UK and delivers a pioneering programme showcasing high-quality data and a multi-disciplinary approach to cancer research from basic research to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship.
Finding the resources to develop proposals
Marie Curie is a member of the NCRI, which has developed the NCRI Grantsmanship Gateway to help researchers locate resources to inform all aspects of research proposal development.
Support from the NIHR Clinical Research Network
We are an NIHR Clinical Research Network (NIHR) non-commercial partner. This means studies funded by us are automatically eligible for NIHR Clinical Research Network support, if this is required and the study fulfils the eligibility criteria definition of a ‘research study’.
How to reduce, handle and report missing data in palliative and end of life care trials
Large amounts of missing data are found in palliative and end of life care trials which reduce how meaningful the findings of a study are. Guidelines have been published by Dr Jamilla Hussain, in collaboration with Marie Curie, on how to reduce, handle and report missing data. The guidelines are relevant for researchers, clinicians, research funders, trial units, patients, carers and patient and public involvement (PPI) partners and others about how missing data should be approached throughout the course of a study and how to evaluate the risks missing data pose to research findings.
Although this guidance focuses on palliative care studies, many of the recommendations will be relevant to other areas of healthcare research.
View the full guidance document
View infographic produced by the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL
Following the publication of the guidelines, the NCRI hosted a session online with Dr Jamilla Hussain, Professor Ian White (UCL) and Professor Anthony Byrne (Cardiff University & Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Centre, Cardiff) to explore:
- why missing data matter in trials
- why everyone involved in clinical trials is responsible for addressing missing data, including participants and clinicians
- how to reduce missing data especially in trials with participants with advanced disease
- how to handle missing data using principled approaches, including handling data truncated due to death
- how to report missing data clearly and transparently.
The recording from this talk can be viewed here: Missing data in clinical trials: how to reduce it, handle it and report it
Involving people with lived experience in research
Involving people with lived experience in research
People are at the heart of what we do, so involving those who have experience, expertise and interest in palliative and end of life care in our research is vital.
Research Voices Group
Members of our Research Voices Group have direct experience of caring for someone at the end of their life, as well as an interest in research. As volunteers, they help us improve care for the future by sharing their personal experience, ideas and views. Find out more about our Research Voices Group. If you would like to involve members of the group in any aspect of your research, please email research.info@mariecurie.org.uk.
