Purpose

The Graham-Dixon Charitable Trust provides grants for the advancement of healthcare in cardiovascular medicine. By establishing the Graham-Dixon Excellence Awards in Translational Cardiovascular Clinical Research at Imperial, the Trust is looking to provide funding for novel projects addressing clinical research challenges with the clear potential to deliver significant impact. 

Building on the framework of the successful President’s Excellence Fund at Imperial, these awards will support researchers working on applied scientific innovative research projects with a focus on delivering clinical impact. The projects will be aimed at advancing knowledge and driving innovation in pathogenesis, disease prevention, diagnosis and medical or surgical treatment of cardiovascular and related conditions. These will include degenerative and inflammatory conditions involving the heart, cerebrovascular, and peripheral vascular/venous and small vessel diseases. Collaborative studies with basic scientists and engineers using new technologies will be encouraged. The Awards are expected to be available yearly, for 5 years.

The Awards will be run in parallel and complementary to the President’s Excellence Fund to ensure visibility and quality benchmarking. 

Funding

Funding will be available to support at least one award of up to £200,000. The Award will be made to an individual or team to carry out cutting-edge research that will transform understanding or treatment of cardiovascular disease. The projects are expected to be up to 2 years in duration and expected to deliver clinical impact. They are likely to lead to follow-up translational activity, which will be supported by the Imperial ecosystem to facilitate this rapid translation. The broad area of vascular research will be considered in remit, and we welcome interdisciplinary projects from across Imperial. 

The funds can be used to support salary, consumables, professional service fees, travel and subsistence and equipment fees. Funding is not intended to cover the full economic costs of the research; estates and indirect costs should not be included in the application. Funding of studentships will not be considered under this scheme. No cost extensions will be allowed for a maximum of two years, with access to funds available for the duration.

How to apply

The Award is best suited for established researchers, however, we would encourage co-leads, with these being non-academics (e.g. professional services) or early career researchers. Only one application per applicant(s) is permitted. The lead applicant must be a member of staff at Imperial or a clinician from the Imperial NHS Trust who has an honorary association with the University and can hold awards.  They need to be in post for the duration of the project. 
Applications are encouraged from all Departments, for this round there is no Departmental restriction on the number of applications. 

Applicants should be following the guidelines in the application form, and applications submitted to the VPRE Office should contain the following documents: 

  • Completed application form;
  • Application Attachments:
    • Intended Use and Impact (maximum 2 sides of A4)
    • Importance of the Work (maximum 1 side of A4)
    • Justification of Resources Requested (maximum 1 side of A4)
    • Justification of Lead Applicant (maximum 1 side of A4) 

Deadlines

Applications should be submitted by 17:00 (GMT), 4 April 2025 to vpr@imperial.ac.uk.

Please note that only applications submitted to the vpr@imperial.ac.uk email address will be accepted. Applications sent to other emails will not be accepted.

Review and Selection of Applications

A selection panel of 5 to 6 members will be established, including experts from within and outside Imperial and a representative from the Graham-Dixon Trust. The panel will evaluate the shortlisted applications against the criteria, and select one or more projects for potential award via an interview process with external reviewers. The panel will review and judge the proposals according to the extent that they: 

  • Are novel, innovative and with the potential to deliver clinical impact;
  • Focused on addressing current clinical research challenge(s);
  • Have the potential to transform the understanding of the treatment of cardiovascular disease. 

The panel will consider the track record of applicant teams to ensure they have the combined skills to deliver the proposed project. 

The following criteria will NOT be used to assess proposals: 

  • The level of research funding received in previous years;  
  • The potential for future external research funding in the proposed research area. 

The Trust will be consulted by the Selection Panel prior to the award recommendation. It is intended that outcomes will be communicated to the applicants in mid May 2025. 

Accessing Funds

Information on how to access funds will be provided to successful applicants with their award letter. Successful applicants cannot re-apply to this scheme while they have an ongoing award. They must also ensure that before any research funded by the award commences and during the full award period, all the necessary legal, ethical and regulatory requirements to conduct the research are met, and all necessary licences and approvals have been obtained. Where this is relevant, please state that this is the case in your application.

Reporting 

Successful applicants are required to provide a formal annual report detailing progress on the project and the use of the funding and its impact to the Graham-Dixon Trust. 

Staff receiving grants are expected to engage actively with a broad range of communication channels in order to share their findings.