Top Tips - PGfAR

With the push from NIHR and DHSC for better links between NIHR programmes, there is potential for dedicated calls and workshops with other parts of the NIHR.

The programme is also keen to encourage new approaches to funding and research management such as working in partnership with charities and industry.

Aim

To provide evidence to improve health outcomes in areas of priority or need through:

• promotion of health
• prevention of ill health
• optimal disease management

Funding and Duration

• Funding is not fixed, although it is unusual for an award to be of over £2.5 million, or more than six years in duration.
• Amount and duration depend on the scale and nature of the proposed research.
• The use of novel designs is encouraged and facilitates shorter more efficient research programmes – these may typically be £1m to £1.5m over 3 years.

Process

• There are three funding rounds each year, check the dates online.
• Two-stage process. Applicants are given the opportunity to respond to peer reviewers' comments in stage 2 before the main selection panel makes its final funding recommendations. The whole process takes about ten months.

Criteria

The panel are looking for looking for creative, innovative projects that address future health challenges. Applications will also be judged on:

• track-record of applicants (breadth and depth of expertise on the team (multidisciplinary), suitability of lead applicant)
• relevance of the proposed research to priorities and needs of the NHS
• patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) with sufficient resources allocated in the costings, and a names person (PPIE lead) responsible.
• equality diversity and inclusion (EDI) – for which the RDS EDI Toolkit will be a useful guide.
• likelihood of significant benefit to NHS and patients within 3-5 years of the end of the funding period
• quality of the proposal (realistic timeframe; appropriate, valid, robust and feasible methods)
• value for money

The panel is keen to see:

• more proposals linked to Epidemiology
• more observational studies using routinely collected healthcare data
• more studies addressing public health and social care problems
• proposals addressing James Lind Alliance priorities and NICE research recommendations
• more programmes that, rather than sitting in a clinical silo, address broader issues of multi-morbidity and long-term conditions
• teams wanting to study “difficult to study” topics

Future direction

The programme is:

• looking at a broader and more imaginative and inclusive definition of patient benefit
• considering introducing research programmes of different sizes to encourage more junior researchers to apply as principal investigators
• revamping the peer review process and composition of the panel in order to fund these more diverse proposals
• addressing the challenge of social care

Author: Nick Taub            Created: March 2018    Last Updated: December 2022