27/02/2026
Now this is the sort of level of funding that might actually get us somewhere. Shame on the UK government, which points to its funding of DecodeME, the only significant biomedical grant ever, as some sort of gold star achievement.
Many congratulations to Prof. Simon Carding and his collaborators who were recently awarded โฌ7.5 million of EU Horizon Funding for ME/CFS research.
The group is planning a programme of studies called DISCOVER-ME which aims to provide "biological evidence and mechanism-based disease classification for the improved diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of ME/CFS".
ME Research UK currently funds Prof. Carding's project on the role of gut viruses in ME/CFS (meres.uk/carding060info). He says, "My ME Research UK grant played no small part in developing and validating the experimental protocols and bioinformatic pipelines that underpin the studies proposed in DISCOVER-ME. Thank you again ME Research UK for supporting our ME/CFS research."
This is a perfect example of what ME Research UK sees as its role in giving help to scientists for novel research projects that would otherwise not be funded, and supporting research groups to the stage where they can apply to major funding agencies for larger-scale projects.
The new proposal was led by the European ME Research Group (EMERG) which Prof. Carding chairs, and was supported by Invest In ME Research, and includes 21 partners and ME research groups spread across Europe and North America, and EMEA.
