United Kingdom

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2026

Geography: United Kingdom

Beyond the Surface is a two-day workshop bringing together 50 experts from diverse disciplines to foster cross-sector dialogue, collaboration and innovation in skin research.

We have already identified key challenges and potential innovations, but aim to go further. From November 2026, we will launch a UK-wide online questionnaire to gather insights from the public, healthcare professionals, industry and academia. This will inform a pre-workshop synthesis paper to structure discussions.
The workshop will take place in May 2026 in Edinburgh, focusing on defining key challenges and co-developing solutions and future directions. Embedded artists will document the discussions and contribute to a graphic novel capturing emerging ideas.

Outputs will include a strategic white paper and visual infographics for dissemination, strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration, accelerating translation into practice, and improving communication of skin science across sectors and society.

Grant category: Serendipity Grants

Year: 2026

Geography: United Kingdom

The skin is an important sensory organ, with nerve endings extending into its outer layer (the epidermis), to detect heat, cold and harmful stimuli. In some skin diseases and during cancer treatments, these nerves are damaged and withdraw from the epidermis. Instead of causing numbness, this often leads to chronic, difficult-to-treat pain; in cancer patients, it can limit treatment. But why this happens is not fully understood. We are studying how immune cells in the skin interact with nerve endings. In our models, we see nerve loss similar to patients. Unexpectedly, when the nerves try to regrow, we have discovered that they follow the paths made by other types of nerves (sympathetic nerves) and end up in the wrong place, near hair follicles rather than in the epidermis. We think this misdirected growth causes nerves to behave as if they are detecting danger, triggering pain. By understanding this process, we aim to find ways to guide nerves correctly and reduce chronic pain.

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2026

Geography: United Kingdom

The ESDR Future Leaders Academy (FLA) is an annual three-day meeting held for invited young research leaders (below 40 years) which includes scientific sessions both by external speakers and the participants themselves. It also includes mentoring and networking sessions. This year’s event is held in Edinburgh from 5-7 October 2026.

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Grant category: Research Grants

Year: 2026

Geography: United Kingdom

Genetics alone cannot account for the alarming increase in atopic dermatitis (AD) and allergic disease over the last few decades. Thus, we must look to understand the impact of environmental factors in the development of skin disease and allergy. Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs), as well as chemical plasticizers, have become ubiquitous environmental contaminants. Albeit epidemiological data suggests a link between exposure to such plastic pollutants and development of AD and allergy, it remains unknown how they may impact on skin health and the immune system as a whole. This discovery study will define how MNPs and plasticizers affect skin immunity and characterise mechanism(s) whereby they regulate initiation of allergic disease. Results from this project will delineate how plastic pollutants may alter skin immunology and affect specific sensitisation pathways, thus elucidating new immune-therapeutic targets against skin barrier disruption, skin inflammation and allergy.