Research we fund
As part of our 2016 - 2021 strategy, Action for M.E. pledged to focus 20% of our activities on bringing more research, more money and more people into the field. All funding applications we receive are put through a five-stage funding assessment process, overseen by our Research Panel, with input from our Scientific Advisory Panel and people with M.E.
Our research-related activity is funded by our Clare Francis Research Fund, named for our President.
You can make a donation to our research activities by:
- visiting our Clare Francis Research Fund page on JustGiving
- calling 0117 927 9551 and speaking to the Fundraising team
- texting CFRF87 and your donation amount (£3, £5 or £10) to 70070 (texts to this number are free).
Our current projects
We are currently funding:
- a University of Edinburgh PhD Studentship comparing immune cells (T cells) from people with M.E. with those from controls.
- a brain inflammation PhD Studentship supervised by Prof Neil Harrison, now based at Cardiff University.
Our 2021 application call for a third biomedical PhD Studentship was launched on Thursday 7 January, and the deadline for applications is noon on Monday 22 February.
We work in partnership with the UK CFS/M.E. Research Collaborative and our Chief Executive, Sonya Chowdhury, is Co-Investigator on the M.E./CFS Biomedical Partnership, leading DecodeME, the world's largest M.E. DNA study.
Sonya is a member of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative ME (ICanCME) Research Network.
Previously funded projects
Research we funded prior to 2016 (when we launched our five-year strategy with a focus on funding PhDs and our Clare Francis Fellowship) include:
- an autonomic dysfunction feasibility study at Newcastle University
- research into the neurophysiology of pain in M.E., the funds for which we managed, having accepted a donation of funds from the CFS Research Foundation for this work
- a study comparing patterns of mitochondrial DNA variation in people with M.E. and healthy controls
- a study into muscle dysfunction in M.E. at Newcastle University
- a study into immune responses in M.E. at Newcastle University.
