The MS Society have announced £100,000 funding for projects to use make use of MS Register Data to aim to increase understanding of MS risk factors.
It is hoped the Data Discovery Awards will move research towards a more integrated approach to assessing someone’s risk of developing MS and ultimately inform new prevention strategies. The awards will be for up to £50,000, but they hope to fund 2-4 projects from the £100,000.
The UK MS Register is the world’s first register to combine information collected directly from people about their MS, with clinical and NHS data. Over 17,000 people have joined so far since its launch in May 2011.
The UK MS Register is a valuable piece of research infrastructure funded by the MS Society. This new funding call aims to stimulate the use of register data and support the building of data science capability among the UK MS research community.
It is hoped these awards will further understanding of risk factors for MS. This will move research towards a more consolidated approach to assessing MS risk and ultimately towards the development of preventative strategies.
Proposals must make use of data from the UK MS Register, either alone or with other existing datasets. The project should aim to do one of the following:
- Uncover new risk factors for developing MS
- Further characterise known MS risk factors
- Increase our understanding of risk factors and comorbidities that influence MS progression
If the call is successful, the MS Society intends to run the call again in 2023 and 2024. The deadline for applications is the 11th May
See the MS Societies webpage for more information about the call.
