North West Lung Centre: what they fund and how to apply
The North West Lung Centre (charity 1090320) funds research into lung disease in North West England. It supports clinical-academic fellowships, research posts and equipment, largely at Wythenshawe Hospital and the University of Manchester. It does not run an open grants scheme for small charities.
What they fund
The charity’s stated activity is “promoting and assisting with the funding of research into lung disease in the North West of England”. In practice that means backing respiratory research and the people who do it — lung cancer, asthma, cystic fibrosis, lung fibrosis and infection.
Its best-known scheme is the Pickering Fellowship, which gives promising clinical consultants protected research time (reported as 50% research matched to 50% clinical funding) to develop into clinical academics. The charity has also funded research posts, small travel grants for early-career researchers to present at conferences, and equipment — for example a reported £500,000 towards a cardiorespiratory research MRI scanner at Wythenshawe Hospital. It supports TORCH, the Thoracic Oncology Research Hub, part of Cancer Research UK’s Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence.
How much you can apply for
Not applicable in the usual sense. The charity does not publish an award range, application form or grant sizes for external applicants. Past commitments have varied widely, from small travel grants to a £500,000 equipment donation, but these were made through its own research programmes rather than an open call. Treat any specific figure as unverified until confirmed with the charity.
Who can apply
This is not a funder for general small charities. Its funding is directed at respiratory research and clinical academics connected to the North West Lung Centre and its partners in Greater Manchester. The Charity Commission register records that it makes grants to individuals and organisations and sponsors or undertakes research, but within its specialist lung-disease remit. If your charity works outside respiratory medicine or research, this funder is very unlikely to be a fit.
Deadlines and rounds
There are no published deadlines or funding rounds. Because the charity funds its own research priorities rather than running an open competition, there is nothing to apply to on a fixed timetable.
How to apply
There is no public application process. The charity has no substantive grants website, and we found no open call for external applicants. Researchers linked to the centre would approach the charity directly; the general contact recorded elsewhere is finance@nwlcc.org.uk / 0161 946 4058. Verify these details before making contact, as the charity does not publish them prominently.
Tips
- If you are a small charity looking for grants, this is not the right funder — look instead at respiratory-health or medical-research funders that run open schemes.
- If you are a respiratory researcher in Greater Manchester, the fellowship and research support here runs through the centre and the University of Manchester, not an open portal — build the relationship first.
- Note the structure: most of the charity’s income comes from its trading subsidiary, the MEU, not from public fundraising, so it does not solicit external grant applications in the way a grant-making trust would.
Official source and last updated
Last updated: July 2026. Primary source: the Charity Commission register entry for North West Lung Centre (1090320) — view on the register. Background on the charity’s work is on the MEU site: MEU and The North West Lung Centre.
Recent grants
Recent grants are shown below where 360Giving data is available. (Theme renders from 360Giving; examples are not hand-written.)
Similar funders
You may also want to look at Rosetrees Trust and Brain Research UK, two UK charities that also fund medical research.
Check if your charity is eligible for funders like this — CharityIQ’s free Grant Finder matches your charity to real, published UK funders and cites the source for each. → /grant-finder/
Frequently asked questions
No. It is a specialist charity that funds research into lung disease in North West England — mainly clinical-academic fellowships, research posts and equipment linked to its own centre at Wythenshawe Hospital and the University of Manchester. There is no open grants scheme for unrelated small charities.
It funds lung-disease research in the North West. This includes Pickering Fellowships that give clinical academics protected research time, research posts, travel support for early-career researchers, and equipment such as a research MRI scanner. Its work centres on lung cancer, asthma, cystic fibrosis, fibrosis and infection.
The charity's largest income comes from its trading subsidiary, the Medicines Evaluation Unit (MEU), a clinical research organisation of which the charity is the majority shareholder. For the year to 31 March 2025 the charity group reported total income of about £20.9 million, most of it from trading rather than public donations.
There is no published application form or deadline. Funding is directed through the charity's own research programmes and fellowships rather than an open call. Researchers linked to the centre would approach the charity directly; the general contact is finance@nwlcc.org.uk. Verify current details before contacting.
The Charity Commission register records its area of operation as throughout England, but in practice its research funding is focused on North West England, and specifically Greater Manchester, through the North West Lung Centre at Wythenshawe Hospital.