Strategic Award funding is a mechanism to provide outstanding research groups with significant levels of support.

A new Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research has been established at the University of Cambridge following a £7m Strategic Award to Professor Austin Smith and Professor Fiona Watt. The Centre will also run a new four-year PhD programme dedicated to stem cell biology.

The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London, funded through a £6.7m Strategic Award, builds on its earlier success as the Functional Imaging Laboratory. It will be led by Professor Ray Dolan and Professor Karl Friston.

A Strategic Award of £4m was made to the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research for the renewal of its core support and to establish two new training programmes operating at the interface between clinical and basic research.

An existing Wellcome Trust Centre, the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, was awarded £3.3m renewal of its core funding.

Image: Mouse blastocyst in diapause; Jose Silva and Jennifer Nichols

See also

• Strategic Awards (Funding)