Top Tips - RfPB

RFPB is a research funding programme with a top limit of £500,000 for projects that increase the effectiveness of NHS services, provide value for money and benefit patients.

Funding

• • Upper limit of £500,000 (up to three years) for research with a clear and close trajectory to patient benefit, such as randomised controlled trials or other well designed quasi-experimental observational studies.
  • Soft ceiling of £300,000 for feasibility studies (these are essentially de-risking studies for future trials: to see if it’s doable, is worthwhile even if the answer is 'no', as it can save a lot of money down the line)
  • Higher-risk studies costing less than £200,000 (these are upstream and will need further studies before they provide patient benefit)

What the funding stream is looking for

A list of examples that would be considered:

• • Observational studies
  • Studies developing and refining interventions
  • Studies developing new scales or outcome measures
  • Exploratory studies that might provide insights into an intractable problem
  • Secondary data analyses
  • Additional follow-up of patients in a completed clinical trial
  • Post-market surveillance for unknown side-effects of a drug (Phase IV trials)
  • Systematic reviews where the number of relevant studies is likely to be limited
• NOT high-risk studies that are open-ended and inductive in approach.
• Avoid 'me too' applications: one -are-bandit applications where a known intervention is applied to a new disease or different population.

Early Career Researchers

 Previous fellowship applicants can access RfPB and new investigators can be named as PI on bids as long as they are part of a solid team, with research experience and mentorship. The new Joint Lead Applicant role is ideal for early-career researchers, as it allows new investigators to be formally supported by established researchers in a mentorship/guidance role.

It is a two-stage application process

Stage 1 guidance and template can be found here: www.nihr.ac.uk/research-patient-benefit-programme-guidance-stage-1-applications

Stage2 guidance and template can be found here: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/research-patient-benefit-programme-guidance-stage-2-applications

Criteria

At Stage 1: Is the research timely and has potential for impact on services and/or patients’ benefit?

• Can it be answered using these methods?
• Can this team deliver it?  
• Is good value for money?

Stage 1 panels give successful applicants constructive feedback on how to improve the bid before Stage 2. It’s very important that researchers act on the feedback.

At stage 2, a detailed project plan, public involvement and inclusion section, and cost allocation (contact your local RDN for a SoECAT) need to be provided. The turnaround is relatively short (4-6 weeks) but submission can be deferred in exceptional circumstance. The aim is to have a 50% success rate among those submitting to Stage 2. 

Public involvement

A list of PPI resources for applicants to NIHR research programmes is available on the NIHR website.

Public involvement and benefit have always been central to the RfPB. It should not be constrained to the public involvement section but embedded in the whole application. A public involvement lead needs to be named within the research team and the addition of a public involvement co-applicant as member of the research team is highly recommended. Projects that answer the following questions in their bid are more likely to be reviewed positively:

• Would an answer to the question be important to patients?
• Are outcome measures relevant for patients?
• Is the burden of being in the study acceptable?

Research inclusion as a condition for funding will apply to all of NIHR’s UK based domestic programmes with calls that go live from the 27th November 2024. This takes a broad approach that requires researchers to consider which communities or groups might be most relevant, or are most ‘in need’ based on the research focus and known information about prevalence or incidence in particular demographic groups.

Project costing

Please refer to the Attributing the costs of health and social care research (AcoRD) guidance when preparing the finance section of the application form: 

Read more about Research for Patient Benefit on the NIHR website.

Author: Annalisa Casarin     Created: March 2018    Last Updated: November 2024