Most people who work in the lab are funded through grants that are awarded to principal investigators. These grants pay salaries and the direct costs of doing research (such as buying reagents); some grants also contribute to the indirect research costs (such as paying electricity bills and maintenance charges). Bristol University supports the laboratory by providing a structure within which we can operate effectively.
We apply for grants from institutions that support biological and biomedical research. These may be charities (e.g. the National Eye Research Centre; The Wellcome Trust, The Multiple Sclerosis Society), or they may be funded centrally by government (the Medical Research Council, the BBSRC). Applications for grants differ in detail between different organisations, but they are basically in two parts, an administrative overview that incorporates budget and personnel information, and a project plan, that describes the scientific background and the experiments that are planned.
Once a grant is submitted, it is subjected to peer review. This means that it is sent out to independent scientific assessors, who read the grant and report on it. The grant is then considered by a panel who recommend whether it should be funded or not. This decision is made on the basis of the scientific reports, but also in the light of other factors such as the priorities of the awarding institution. Most granting authorities in the UK discourage the resubmission of grants which have been rejected once. This is in contrast to the USA where resubmission is more common.
Obtaining research funding is a difficult process, which presents problems for forward planning. The MRC quotes a success rate for research grants in 2005-2006 of 19% (Up from 16% the year before). In 2005/2006 the Wellcome Trust funded 24% of project grant applications. As well as grants for research, we also have to raise money to support lab members who want to travel to meetings, for equipment and to support the communication of science, for examples through the Vision Research meeting, which runs annually in Bristol. In the end, all the money we spend comes from the public, and we try to use these resources to their maximum effect to advance research.