Parkinson's UK Drug Accelerator Awards

Parkinson's UK Drug Accelerator Awards

Funds translational Parkinson's drug discovery in the United Kingdom to generate partnership-ready preclinical evidence.

Parkinson's UK Drug Accelerator Awards fund translational research aimed at advancing novel drug candidates toward full-scale industry partnerships. The standard award is up to £150,000 for 18 months; projects that require in vivo work may apply for up to £200,000. Projects must generate the pre-clinical or early-clinical data needed to make a compound ready for partnership with an industry drug discovery programme. The 2026 call is expected to open in June 2026, with preproposals due at 4:00 PM on 3 September 2026 and full applications due 22 October 2026 for invited applicants only.

This scheme is unique among Parkinson's UK grant programmes in that small start-up biotech companies may serve as lead applicants alongside UK universities and NHS Trusts. Larger commercial organisations and standalone research institutes are not eligible as lead applicants. Co-applicants and collaborators may be from institutions outside the UK or from other biotech firms. All applicants must involve people with lived experience of Parkinson's throughout the research process and address equity, diversity, and inclusion across their project.

The review process is two-stage: preproposals undergo in-house expert review, and invited full applications are assessed by a panel including industrial experts, academics, Parkinson's UK staff, and lay reviewers with lived experience of Parkinson's. In the 2025 round, 17 preproposals were submitted, 10 were invited to full application, and 3 were recommended for funding — an approximate 18 percent overall success rate. Competitive applications will demonstrate a clear translational hypothesis, a defined industry readiness milestone, and, for the higher-tier award, a scientific justification for why in vivo experiments are necessary.