What is seed funding?
Seed funding is the first small amount of money given to help researchers start working on a new idea. It gives researchers the chance to try out new lines of investigation, work with the right people, and gather the first pieces of evidence. This early work is often needed to convince larger funders to invest.
Why seed funding matters
Large research funders, such as the Medical Research Council, usually need to see early evidence that a research idea could work before they will support it. Without seed funding, researchers often cannot collect this early information, so promising ideas may never be explored.
Seed funding gives researchers the chance to develop an idea enough to apply for larger grants.
This is especially important in rare diseases like PSC, where even small early studies can lead to further research and real progress.
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Seed funding from PSC Support enabled Professor Boulter and his team to explore a new idea about how bile duct scarring develops in PSC. Their early work showed that a specific signalling pathway plays an important role in driving this scarring. They also identified a drug that can block this pathway, which reduced scarring by half in a mouse model.
Because this seed funding provided strong early evidence, the team was then able to secure major follow-on investment, including a £1.5 million grant from Cancer Research UK, to continue and expand this promising line of research.