Application process

It is mandatory for interested Oxford, MORU, and OUCRU based investigators to contact the TRO or your local translational support team (see section 7 for contact details) in the first instance before submitting a full application on IRAMS. The purpose of these discussions will be to i) finalise the concept for the proposal and ascertain eligibility for the scheme; ii) assist teams in finding collaborating groups in Oxford/MORU network as appropriate; iii) to identify opportunities for project support (both financial and non-financial) to accelerate translation; and iv) assist with application development.

Please provide i) summary of the proposed project and key milestones, including a summary of supporting background data, ii) objectives and proposed outcomes of the project and iii) a justification for support explaining how your proposal is aligned to the priority areas of diagnostics in tropical medicine.

Once discussions with TRO have commenced, please use the case for support form* to complete your application. The application form should be submitted online via IRAMS which requests information about the principal applicant and any co-applicants or collaborators, a lay summary (non-confidential), a financial breakdown of your proposal (X5 report must be appended), a Gantt chart depicting the timeline and milestone of your project and a case for support form uploaded to the application system.

You must incorporate all requested components of the case for support into one document (see application form) and upload this in the template provided on IRAMS as one single PDF. IRAMS Guidance in the form of quick reference guide documents for applicants, departmental approvers and administrators can be found on Research Support pages. 

Please note that applications must be reviewed and approved in IRAMS by a Departmental Approver before they will be reviewed by the MORU-Oxford DiTi Panel; the advertised application deadline is the deadline for final submission to the MORU-Oxford DiTi Panel. Departments may set an earlier internal deadline to allow for departmental review, so please check with your local admin team and submit your application to your Departmental Approver in advance of the advertised deadline.

Please note: if you haven’t yet identified a corresponding partner team at Oxford, MORU, or OUCRU (as appropriate) with whom to collaborate, your organisation’s MORU-Oxford DiTi Support team can work with you to identify potential synergies and to explore potential partnerships to take your proposal forward.

The case for support must answer the following sections comprehensively:

• A 250-word non-confidential lay summary of the proposal requesting DiTi funding including specific tropical or infectious disease (s) to be tackled and the proposed diagnostic tool(s);
• A 500-word scientific justification on the background information and unmet need of the disease in which your proposal will be addressing;
• A 500-word on the Project Description and Developmental Plans including project objectives and proposed outcomes, including information about proposed development milestones and potential next steps following completion of the project; A project timeline, aligning with milestones to demonstrate that these are realistic both in terms of the objectives set and the time necessary to achieve them in the form of a Gantt chart to be appended;
• IP status: Does the project require use of background IP and do you/will you have the necessary agreements in place if such background IP is controlled by a third party? Will the project generate any arising IP? How will this be managed between collaborators;
• A discussion around market competition – will the proposed research offer significant advantages over current methodologies and/or approaches from other research teams?
• Details of any industrial engagement in your project and plans to advance this or if any conversations with regulatory experts have been had?;
• Details on any data management plans (if applicable) for projects utilising clinical or public health data;
• A justification for support for the MORU-, OUCRU-, and Oxford based teams, explaining how the proposal is aligned with the remit and objectives of the fund;

The deadline for submission of applications to IRAMS is 12pm (BST) on Tuesday 22 October 2024.

Medical and Life Sciences Translational Fund (MLSTF) is a translational scheme run by the TRO. An example of an outstanding proposal which has been recently awarded by the MLSTF committee panel is shared here The proposal entitled: “Evaluation of the efficacy of an mRNA-based multi-antigen vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) disease in guinea pigs received MLSTF funding in March 2024 to Dr Elena Stylianou and Professor Helen McShane.