Invitation to apply

The NPRF welcomes applications for grants at any time of the year, we do not run application rounds as we want to hear about new, novel ideas immediately.  The Research Strategy  sets out certain principles that the charity has adopted in developing its Research Strategy and also those areas that it considers to be priority areas.

The priority areas are as follows;

  • Accelerating research and alleviating bottlenecks and impediments to progress in research,
  • Laboratory based research into the effectiveness of compounds thought to have a potential beneficial therapeutic impact on NPC, and
  • Compassionate use trials of potential therapies.

The NPRF believes that basic scientific research has an important part to play in improving knowledge of NPC alongside clinical trials into potential therapeutic treatments.  The only currently approved intervention for NPC, Miglustat, was the result of lab-based research in the past.  There are currently many compounds being tested in vitro and in vivo by various labs across the world to ascertain whether they can help in fighting NPC.  There is also much speculation on the benefits of combination therapy using two or more different compounds, perhaps with each compound targeting a different aspect of cell activity affected by NPC.

The NPRF is a small charity and is very unlikely to have resources to be able to fund whole scale research projects. However, there are a number of labs that work on NPC research which are funded from various sources. The Charity believes that it will be able to help these labs by being responsive (in particular by accepting applications at any time of the year) and through its focus on NPC.

Applications should include;

  • Budget.
  • Purpose. A description of how the funds would be applied, over what period and what could be achieved by the lab that would not otherwise have been possible.
  • Project success.  Subjective and/or objective measures that can be pre-determined at the start of the funding and can subsequently be tested to provide a means of assessing the success of the funding.
  • Benefits to the charity.  Describe any publicity or citations which will be available to the Charity as a result of the grant funding.
  • NPC implications. Describe how the grant will help in researching NPC.

The Charity will submit applications to its Scientific Advisory Board for review .  The Scientific Advisory Board may  seek peer review from independent experts on the suitability of each grant application.  The successful applicant will be required to agree to the Charity’s grant funding terms and conditions.

Please submit applications by email to David French (david.french@nprf.org.uk).