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Programme Development Grants

An area of weakness identified by the Programme Grant Selection funding Panels to date has been the tendency for applications to be submitted at too early a stage in the development of a research programme.

The sole purpose of NIHR Programme Development Grants is to address this problem by providing funding of £20k - £100k (over a period of 6 − 18 months) to enable a research team to undertake preparatory work that will position them to submit a successful Programme Grant application in a subsequent funding competition.

Eligible uses of NIHR Programme Development Grant funding may include:

• Evidence synthesis that might include modelling
• Selection or development of interventions or measures of outcome
• Pilot/feasibility studies to determine recruitment and participant retention rates, inform sample sizes calculations, optimise delivery of the intervention, etc.
• Initiation and development of collaborations with methodological experts necessary to deliver the proposed research programme
• Convening meetings to plan programme strategy, develop protocols, foster collaborative working within the research team, etc.

Funding

Individual awards will be for a maximum of £100k over a period of up to 18 months. The amount of funding awarded will, however, be determined by the scale and nature of the preparatory work to be conducted.

Process

NIHR Programme Development Grants will be awarded by open competition.  Potential applicants are required to complete an application form detailing both the preparatory work to be undertaken and an summary of their proposed research programme.  Programme Development Grant applications will then be assessed by the Programme Grants for Applied Research Selection Panel, using defined criteria.

Successful applicants for NIHR Programme Development Grant funding will be able to submit a full application in a subsequent competition for Programme Grant funding, without previously submitting stage 1 programme grant application. A report of the outcome of the preparatory work funded via the Development Grant must be submitted as an annex to the full Programme Grant application.

There is however, no formal expectation or guarantee that the recipients of NIHR Programme Development Grants will be successful in obtaining a Programme Grant award in the future; all applications for NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research will be judged on their own merits against the published criteria.

Selection Criteria

• The relevance of the research to be funded via any future Programme Grant award to the priorities and needs of the NHS
• The likelihood that any future Programme grant award will generate significant benefit to the NHS and patients within 3 − 5 years of the end of the Programme Grant funding period
• The strength of the research team (either now, or as augmented through Programme Development Grant funding), including the relevant expertise and track-record of the team in conducting high quality applied research
• The strength of the work plan, particularly the extent to which the proposed preparatory work will enable the applicants to reach the point where they will be able to submit a competitive application to the Programme Grants for Applied Research funding scheme
• The value for money provided by the proposal

Please follow this link to Calls and Competitions

Please follow this link to Guidance Documents