BMA Giving
Through BMA Giving, we're committed to supporting doctors and the communities they serve.
We do this by offering grants to UK-registered charitable groups that support healthcare initiatives that reflect our priorities and values, which also include initiatives with a humanitarian or health information focus in developing countries. Our work with these partner charities promotes the expertise of our members and empowers charities to develop vital projects that support those who need it most.
BMA Giving is run by a committee of our members who meet on an annual basis. It is chaired by Professor Martin McKee.
When applying for one of our grants, we want to know how you think working with the BMA, a membership organisation of over 190,000 doctors and medical students, is relevant to your mission and could benefit your work.
Application process 2024
Applications are now closed. The 2025 grant round will be announced later this year.
Grants eligibility and criteria
BMA Giving grants are only available for UK registered charities. Grants are not available for individuals, including tuition and course fees.
Charities are asked to consider how working with the BMA, a membership organisation of over 190,000 doctors and medical students, is relevant to their mission and could benefit their work.
BMA Giving grants are assessed by the BMA Giving committee on behalf of the BMA finance committee. In judging the applications, the committee consider the following points:
- importance of the work - the lasting benefits that the organisation/project will create to patient care, the medical profession or medical and health research
- project reliability and sustainability- excellent planning and design of projects, risk mitigating and safeguarding strategies
- appropriate use of funds - the funded supplies or services that will provide a valuable contribution to the project, accuracy of quotation, project completion dependency on external funding.
Applications for projects that support the health and wellbeing of doctors and medical students must complement existing BMA services. See the BMA wellbeing support services page for further details.
Successful applicants will be asked to provide progress reports and regular updates.
2024 BMA Giving recipients
Project and partnership summaries
BMA Charities will provide financial support to medical students in financial hardship who are at UK medical schools and the refugee and asylum-seeking doctors who belong to the programmes which support such doctors on the journey to GMC registration.
Book Aid International will send brand-new medical textbooks to the Kenyan Medical Training College to help raise education standards in the college by providing textbooks that students would otherwise not have access to.
Child Bereavement UK will develop and deliver an in-depth online training module for doctors, outlining the impact of grief, different grief reactions and how to lead difficult conversations around death with the aim of improving patient care and enabling doctors to support their own wellbeing in light of these conversations.
David Nott Foundation will deliver interactive Hostile Environment Surgical Training, United Kingdom (HEST-UK) to prepare surgeons who intend to work on the frontline.
Doctors in Distress will provide separate safe spaces for GP locums and GP partners to reflect on the emotional impact of their work using safe, confidential, facilitated and psychologically focused reflective spaces.
Doctors of the World UK will deliver a Safe Surgeries project, which supports GP practices and Integrated Care Boards to ensure inclusive registration processes, providing training for frontline staff and recommendations to remove barriers to accessing their services.
NICHE International will provide equipment to facilitate and promote peer to peer training so that midwives, doctors and nurses in Cameroon who have been trained as trainers in neonatal care, can train staff in their own health facilities.
Olly’s Future will expand their Dr SAMS (Suicide Awareness in Medical Students) initiative to more medical students across the UK, equipping medical students with suicide prevention knowledge to develop self-compassion and a culture of self-care early on in their medical careers.
On Call Africa will deliver a skills-sharing programme involving UK doctors and Zambian health teams to strengthen the capacity of Zambian health teams to provide high quality facility-based and community-based healthcare, and enhance health literacy in local communities.
Royal Medical Benevolent Fund will develop an awareness campaign aimed at tackling and normalising ill health and associated financial difficulty within the medical profession, and create a dedicated financial support fund for doctors whose ill health is affecting their ability to work, resulting in financial hardship.
Second Sight will treat cataract-blind patients in Bihar, India’s poorest state, including village screening to identify patients, pre- and post-op medication, intra-ocular surgery, post-op checks, food, and transport to and from the hospital.
The Cameron Fund will provide financial support to GPs and GP trainees and their families in financial hardship due to life-changing events such as: physical illness, mental illness, bereavement, relationship breakdown, performance issues or unemployment.
BMA Giving committee
BMA Giving committee members consider requests for charitable grants on behalf of the BMA finance committee.
The remit of the BMA Giving committee includes:
- delivering the BMA’s charitable giving strategy which includes initiatives with a humanitarian or health information focus in developing countries
- distributing £75,000 in 2024, on behalf of the finance committee to applicant charities
- monitoring the impact of the BMA’s charitable donations
- ensuring that charitable donations are aligned with BMA strategic priorities.
BMA Foundation for Medical Research
The BMA Foundation for Medical Research awards funds to encourage and further medical research. Approximately 12 research grants totalling £800,000 are awarded each year, all funded by past bequests and donations to the BMA.
The grants are awarded to medical doctors and research scientists to help fund innovative medical research in a variety of areas, from cancer and heart disease to asthma and schizophrenia, as well as many others. For many, they are key to supporting career developing and contributing to advances in medical research.
For more information or clarification please contact [email protected] or call 0207 383 6341.
Social mobility foundation (SMF)
The BMA works in partnership with the social mobility foundation (SMF).
SMF is a charity which aims to make a practical improvement in social mobility for young people from low-income backgrounds.
The SMF was founded in 2005 in order to provide opportunities and networks of support for 16-17 year olds who are unable to get them from their schools or families.
Widening participation in medicine
We are committed to ensuring that medicine is a career for anyone who wishes to become a doctor, regardless of their social or economic background.
Find out more about our commitment to widening participation in the medical profession.
7/7 Tavistock Square Memorial Trust
The number 30 bus blast occurred and 13 people lost their lives on 7 July 2005.
Annual lectures took place following the event at BMA House, to discuss the positive steps being made in the area of counter terrorism.
Since the tragic event a memorial was unveiled on 12 September 2018.