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# Academy of Medical Sciences funds emerging scientific leaders
- URL: https://www.pharmamanufacturingiq.com/academy-of-medical-sciences-funds-emerging-scientific-leader/
- Published: 2025-04-07T11:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-08T12:34:22.000Z
- Description: In its largest-ever funding initiative for early-career researchers, the Academy of Medical Sciences is investing £7.6 million to tackle urgent health challenges from Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and obesity to addiction and climate change impacts.
- Author: PharmaManufacturing IQ Staff
- Tags: Finance & Investment, News, Research & Development

**In its largest-ever funding initiative for early-career researchers, the Academy of Medical Sciences is investing £7.6 million to tackle urgent health challenges from Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and obesity to addiction and climate change impacts on health.** 

Linda Bestwick Shutterstock

The record investment will support 62 exceptional scientists across 41 UK institutions who are pioneering innovative approaches to improve human health and wellbeing. Each researcher will receive £100,000-£125,000 through the Academy’s [Springboard](https://acmedsci.ac.uk/grants-and-schemes/grant-schemes/springboard?utm%5Fsource=springboard%5F25&utm%5Fmedium=press+release&utm%5Fcampaign=springboard%5F25%5Flanding%5Fpage) programme, alongside mentoring and career development support to help establish their independent research careers. 

With generous support from the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Wellcome and the British Heart Foundation, this year’s funding round marks a decade of Springboard awards and brings the total investment in the next generation of research leaders to £43.8 million since the scheme launched in 2015\. 

The programme supports researchers across the full spectrum of biomedical sciences, from molecular biology to public health, with an impressive geographical spread across the UK. Projects funded this year will drive progress in critical health areas, including antimicrobial resistance, fertility, ageing and artificial intelligence (AI) applications for disease prediction and prevention. 

Among this year’s awardees are researchers working on innovative approaches to some of society’s most urgent health problems: 

Dr Charlotte Pennington from Aston University has received £123,000 to study the brain mechanisms behind teenage drinking behaviours. With alcohol misuse costing the UK economy £27 billion annually and affecting 44% of teenagers, her research uses advanced brain imaging to understand why adolescents who pay more attention to alcohol in their environment may develop drinking problems. Working with local schools and alcohol charities, her findings will help develop practical prevention tools. 

Dr Charlotte Pennington said: “I’m really excited to have received this prestigious award that will enable me to conduct crucial research into the psychological processes that underpin adolescent alcohol consumption. Alcohol is the leading cause for ill health, disability and mortality within the United Kingdom. Determining the processes that drive consumption behaviours at any early age will lead to targeted prevention and intervention strategies to improve population health.” 

University of Sheffield’s Dr Emma Lucas has secured £125,000 to investigate how common pain medication might affect women’s fertility and early pregnancy. Her pioneering research addresses a significant gap in medical knowledge created by the historical exclusion of pregnant women from clinical trials. Focusing on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen and aspirin, which millions of women take regularly without clear guidance on their effects during conception, this research could have far-reaching implications for women struggling with fertility issues. Her findings may help doctors provide better guidance about pain medication use when trying to conceive and potentially lead to more effective treatments for women undergoing fertility treatments like IVF. 

Dr Emma Lucas said: “I’m thrilled to receive the Springboard award and incredibly grateful for the support of the Academy, and to the panel and expert reviewers for the decision to fund my work. The award will help me to address a critical knowledge gap on the effects of using common medications around the time of conception and genuinely provide a springboard for me to establish my lab in this area.” 

Dr Mattias Malaguti from the University of Edinburgh has been awarded £125,000 to explore previously invisible battlefields between healthy skin cells and emerging cancer cells. His research examines whether normal skin cells naturally fight off early cancerous mutations or unwittingly create an environment that helps cancer thrive. The study could transform understanding of how cancers initially form and potentially lead to new preventative treatments that enhance the body’s natural defences against early cancerous changes. 

Dr Mattias Malaguti said: “I am profoundly thankful to the Academy of Medical Sciences for this Springboard award. This support will not only facilitate the establishment of my research programme at the interface of medical research and engineering biology, but it will also provide critical mentorship and training to ensure sustainability is woven into the programme's very foundation. I am tremendously excited by this opportunity, and I am committed to leveraging this award to create lasting impact in the field.” 

Dr Emily Hume from Northumbria University has secured £100,000 to develop a digital solution to transform the lives of patients waiting for lung transplants. With average waiting times stretching to 18 months, these critically ill patients often experience significant physical decline that impacts their survival chances both before and after surgery. Her research will test whether a digital intervention combining activity monitoring, an interactive online platform and remote professional support can help vulnerable patients maintain physical functions while waiting for new lungs. This could potentially enhance post-transplant outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. 

Dr Emily Hume said: “I am delighted to receive the Academy’s Springboard funding, which will help to develop a digital solution to support patients on the waiting list for lung transplant. By empowering them to stay active during long waiting times, this research aims to improve their quality of life, enhance post-transplant outcomes and address an important gap in transplant care.” 

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s Dr Rosie Steege has been awarded £125,000 to investigate how climate change is affecting the sexual and reproductive health of vulnerable young people in Bangladesh. Her groundbreaking research focuses on adolescents displaced by urban informal settlements due to climate disasters in one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. 

UK Science Minister Lord Vallance said: “Research supported by the Springboard programme can help to address some of the most pressing health challenges, like antimicrobial resistance and cancer, by giving early-career researchers across the UK the opportunity to test their ideas. 

“Through this programme we are supporting the next generation of researchers to lead their own groundbreaking research so that the UK can continue to be a pioneer in medical science.” 

The Springboard programme exemplifies the Academy’s work to support greater security and career development opportunities for health researchers, as highlighted in its [Future-proofing UK Health Research](https://acmedsci.ac.uk/policy/policy-projects/future-proofing-uk-health-research?utm%5Fsource=springboard%5F25&utm%5Fmedium=press+release&utm%5Fcampaign=springboard%5F25%5Ffuture%5Fproofing) report. By providing substantial funding and access to mentoring over two years, the programme has been helping emerging research leaders establish their independent research careers and contributing to a sustainable pipeline of research talent in the UK for the past decade. 

The application process for the next Springboard round has begun. Prospective candidates should contact their [institution’s Springboard Champion](https://acmedsci.ac.uk/grants-and-schemes/grant-schemes/springboard/institutions-and-champions?utm%5Fsource=springboard%5F25&utm%5Fmedium=press+release&utm%5Fcampaign=springboard%5F25%5Fchampions) for information on how to register their interest for the internal triage process. Each eligible institution will nominate up to four candidates by the end of April 2025, and selected individuals will then be invited to complete the Academy’s application form. 

#### Full list of Springboard awardees for the latest round: 

1. Dan Ma, Aston University
2. Charlotte Pennington, Aston University
3. Ines Castro, Brunel University London
4. Carly Bliss, Cardiff University
5. Mathew Clement, Cardiff University
6. Martha Canfield, Glasgow Caledonian University
7. Penny Hancock, Imperial College London
8. Oliver Watson, Imperial College London
9. Tim Harvey-Samuel, Keele University
10. Robert Seaborne, King's College London
11. Simon Cleary, King's College London
12. Rosie Steege, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
13. Amanda Pearce, Loughborough University
14. Can Zhao, Manchester Metropolitan University
15. Kevin Whitley, Newcastle University
16. Brian Ortmann, Newcastle University
17. Monika Winter, Northumbria University
18. Emily Hume, Northumbria University
19. Cuifeng Ying, Nottingham Trent University
20. Elena Torlai Triglia, Queen Mary University of London
21. Aoife Rodgers, Queen's University Belfast
22. Emma Kenyon, Swansea University
23. Takanori Furukawa, Teesside University
24. Candice Quin, University of Aberdeen
25. Edward Carter, University of Bath
26. Alex Wadley, University of Birmingham
27. Kevin Wilkinson, University of Bristol
28. Alexander Frankell, University of Cambridge
29. Kasparas Petkevicius, University of Cambridge
30. Eleanor Raffan, University of Cambridge
31. Maxim Igaev, University of Dundee
32. Ting-Yu Lin, University of Durham
33. Francesco Boselli, University of Durham
34. Matthew G. Pontifex, University of East Anglia
35. Katharine Mylonas, University of Edinburgh
36. Mattias Malaguti, University of Edinburgh
37. Rebekah Tillotson, University of Edinburgh
38. Rosie Walker, University of Exeter
39. Arianne Babina, University of Glasgow
40. Jennifer Malcolm, University of Glasgow
41. Alena Pance, University of Hertfordshire
42. Fani Papagiannouli, University of Kent
43. Sana Hannan, University of Lancaster
44. Aikaterini Gatsiou, University of Lancaster
45. Alexander Garvin, University of Leeds
46. Sharib Ali, University of Leeds
47. Abhinav Koyamangalath Vadakkepat, University of Leicester
48. Kirsty McMillan, University of Liverpool
49. Marisa Merino, University of Liverpool
50. Pedro Papotto, University of Manchester
51. Chloe Peach, University of Nottingham
52. Jennifer Ashworth, University of Nottingham
53. Sophie Joanisse, University of Nottingham
54. Rachel Clifford, University of Nottingham
55. Alex Bye, University of Reading
56. Jenny Lord, University of Sheffield
57. Emma Lucas, University of Sheffield
58. Liku Tezera, University of Southampton
59. Richard Meek, University of Southampton
60. Jaclyn Pearson, University of St Andrews
61. Daniel Turnham, University of the West of England, Bristol
62. Lucy Crompton, University of the West of England, Bristol