By: 29 March 2022
£400,000 funding awarded for osteoporosis research

The Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) has announced the successful applicants of its largest ever research grants round, after reviewing a record number of applications.

Half of women and one fifth of men will break a bone due to osteoporosis. The charity’s research grants programme aims to change that, by offering researchers at various stages in their careers the opportunity to apply for funding that will allow them to undertake pioneering research and improve our understanding of osteoporosis.

The seven successful applicants from this year’s research grant round all showed research that aligned with the ROS Research Roadmap, covering topics like screening tools, fracture risk assessment, and bone-specific activity monitoring.

The successful grants all encourage collaborative working across the UK and Europe with a total of 39 clinicians or researchers working in 18 organisations across England, Wales, Scotland and Sweden. All of these grants will also put the voice of people living with osteoporosis at the heart of their work which is key to the ROS Osteoporosis and Bone Research Academy.

Dr Caroline Sangan, Research Manager at the ROS, said: “We’ve been really impressed with the quality of applications we received as part of this year’s research grants programme. Five project grants, one early career grant and one innovative grant have been chosen.

“Each application was reviewed by our Research Grants Assessment Panel before being peer reviewed, to ensure that we fund research of the highest standard that also meets our objectives as a charity. We were pleased to see this year’s successful applicants included detailed plans on how they’d involve individuals with experience of osteoporosis in their research, with over 50% even including them as a co-applicant.”

Patricia Williams, ROS supporter on the Research Grants Assessment Panel, said: “Being invited to review new osteoporosis research proposals has been an exciting and enlightening experience. It was clear that every research applicant not only had an understanding of the detrimental impact of osteoporosis on people’s lives, but also the urgent need to find a cure.

“It has given me much greater hope for the future, not least due to the number, quality and variety of research proposals I have seen. I have also been greatly encouraged by the underlying belief among all the different types of professionals involved in research, including the younger generation, that osteoporosis can be alleviated and cured.”

Find out more about the research grants programme and our current research projects.