2025 Advancing Treatments Award

The Advancing Treatments Award will support the early-stage development of new treatments to slow, stop, or reverse the progression of Motor Neuron Disease (MND).

The award aims to help researchers build data packages that will attract further investment and strategic partnerships to accelerate promising treatments through additional testing and towards commercialisation.

Applications are being accepted for projects that align with two of the strategic priorities outlined in our research strategy:

1. Validate Therapeutic Targets

The My Name’5 Doddie Foundation will support studies that robustly validate novel targets for MND treatments.

For projects focusing on validating therapeutic targets, applicants must demonstrate the target’s relevance (i.e., biological rationale), differentiation, and safety. Applicants must clearly outline how they will show that target modulation results in pathway modification and disease phenotype rescue. Successful projects will aim to define target engagement and downstream pharmacodynamic biomarkers.

1. Accelerate New Treatments

The My Name’5 Doddie Foundation will support the pre-clinical development of novel or repositioned pharmacological interventions for MND.

For projects focused on accelerating new treatments, the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation will support the development of new pharmacological interventions and studies to demonstrate their efficacy in pre-clinical models. Projects must assess target engagement and build a robust body of evidence using multiple relevant models or approaches. Safety and pharmacokinetic studies are also supported, enabling human dose prediction. Successful studies will consider the development of biomarker and patient stratification approaches.

Eligibility

• Lead applicants must be based at a UK academic institution, although collaborators can be based anywhere in the world.
• Collaborators can be based anywhere in the world.
• Subcontracting to contract research organisations is permitted.
• Industry partners are encouraged, but pharmaceutical and biotech companies are not eligible for grant funding.
• Projects that leverage additional funding sources or in-kind support will be viewed favourably.
• Projects exceeding £300,000 or three years in duration should be milestone-gated with clear go/no-go decisions.

Key Dates

• 18 March 2025 – Applications open for Expression of Interest (EoI)
• 2 May 2025, midday – Deadline for EoI
• June – Successful EoIs are invited to the Full Application stage
• July – Deadline for Full Applications
• November – Anticipated award decision