Eleven new grant awards have been awarded by the Kennedy Trust in 2025, totaling £2.6m over the next 5 years.
Five early career researchers have been funded through the Trust’s new Transition Fellowship scheme, which is designed to support postdoctoral researchers and provide them with the opportunity to develop an independent research career and progress towards higher-level appointments. The Fellowship of between £250k and £500k for up to 5 years are awarded in any basic or clinical scientific discipline with a clear relevance to rheumatic or related musculoskeletal, immunological or inflammatory diseases.
A further six Research Ignition awards of approximately £100k each have been made in the second round of the scheme, which aims to pump-prime innovative and ambitious avenues of research.
The Trust is delighted to welcome these new award holders, who join the growing number of researchers funded via the Kennedy Trust’s independent funding initiatives.
| Dr Alice Bertocchi, University of Oxford-Microbial metabolite sensing: identification of new immunoregulatory checkpoints that control tolerance |
| Dr Andrea Mainardi , University of Oxford- From Turing Patterns to force Patterns, solving the ENIGMA of biophysical influences in joint development and disease |
| Dr Anna Montgomery, King’s College London-The impact of aging and the monocyte/macrophage axis in arthritis |
| Dr Joanna Sherwood, University of Birmingham-Harnessing TRPC1 activity to therapeutically regulate cellular survival and senescence pathways in osteoarthritis |
| Dr Lakshanie Wickramasinghe, University of Oxford- Keratin-17: the missing piece of the puzzle to link joint, skin and eye inflammation. |
| Dr Mahetab Amer, University of Manchester-Engineering 3D Cell-Instructive Microenvironments to Enhance Stem Cell Efficacy in Osteoarthritis |
| Professor Julie Gibbs, University of Manchester-Rev-ving up anti-inflammatory responses in Tregs |
| Dr Adrien Hallou, University of Oxford & Dr Ruby Peters, University of Sheffield-A label-free imaging method to determine the mechanical properties of human tissues in inflammatory diseases |
| Dr Chris Mahony, University of Glasgow-Unravelling the Interplay Between Ageing Fibroblasts and Immune Cells in Rheumatoid Arthritis |
| Professor Neal Millar, University of Glasgow-Dissecting the epigenetic crosstalk between stromal and immune compartments at the enthesal site in Psoriatic Arthritis |
| Dr Sarah Rice, University of Manchester-COLGALT2 as a mediator of osteoarthritis risk |
