MNDF announces £6 million of funding to catalyse the development of new treatments for people living with motor neuron disease

28 February 2024

My Name’5 Doddie Foundation was established with one clear goal: to expedite the development of new treatments for motor neuron disease (MND) and ultimately, a cure.

2023 was an epic year of fundraising for the Foundation and saw the launch of our new research strategy “Catalysing a Cure”. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our supporters, today we are able to announce a 6 million pound investment into research in 2024, beginning with the launch of the Discovery Network and the reopening of our flagship Advancing Treatments Award. Expression of interest applications are now open and will close at midday on the 17th May.

£4 million investment to establish the Discovery Network

The Discovery Network will provide the substantial funding and innovative environment needed to encourage breakthroughs in our understanding of MND that could lead to fundamentally new approaches to treating the disease. Multidisciplinary teams will take on bold ambitious projects to better understand MND biology and identify new targets for treatments. Underpinned by a model born out of the Milken Institute and applied in Parkinson’s and bipolar disorder, teams will collaborate in an open transparent network to stimulate innovation, spark discoveries and speed up progress. In our research strategy, we said that we’d drive the adoption of new approaches and new ways of thinking to make faster progress together - this network does just that.

£1.75 million investment in our Advancing Treatments Awards

The Advancing Treatments Award is one of our annual competitive awards that supports the next stage of research, translating breakthroughs into potential treatments. It will support the validation of new targets and the pre-clinical development of promising treatment approaches. Last year, we invested almost £1.3 million in three exciting projects through this scheme, which will be announced soon. This year we are increasing the amount of funding available to £1.75 million. To ensure we’re supporting only the very best science, all projects must be underpinned by the Guiding Principles for Drug Discovery and Development in ALS we published last year with the MND Association and Medicines Discovery Catapult.

£250,000 investment in our Catalyst Awards

Later this year, we’ll also be re-opening applications to our Catalyst Award, our smaller awards which enable researchers to bring early-stage promising ideas to life. In our last Catalyst Award round, we awarded up to £225,000 across three innovative projects which are currently being contracted and will be announced in the coming months. This year, we will be investing up to £250,000 into the Catalyst Awards which will open in Autumn.

Jessica Lee, Director of Research at My Name’5 Doddie Foundation said “When Doddie established the Foundation in 2017, he wanted to make a step change and fund the smartest, most efficient research to speed up the development of new treatments. Research takes a long time, but by investing in innovative projects and new funding models, we are striving to make faster progress and bring effective treatment options to people living with MND as quickly as possible. This is only made possible by our committed supporters, for whom we are so thankful.”

For more information about the funding available, please visit our funding opportunities page.