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		NIHR Central Commissioning Facility (CCF)

The Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) programme

RfPB is coordinated at national level and in January 2010, Professor David Armstrong succeeded Professor Celia Davies as Programme Director.

The funding available for an individual RfPB research project is up to £250k for up to 36 months.

For the RfPB timetable of competitions please click here

Over 250 projects have received support since RfPB first launched in 2006. A review of the first three funding competitions was published in 2008.

Read Prioritising Patients – A review of the first three funding competitions

What counts as Research for Patient Benefit?
RfPB does not specify topics for research and encourages proposals for projects covering a wide range of health service issues and challenges. The programme:

• Supports applications for high quality, investigator-led research that is relevant to the NHS.
• Funds research related to day-to-day practice in areas identified and developed by health service staff – often in partnership with service users.
• Selects proposals for funding on the basis of the quality of the research proposal and its likely transition into patient benefit locally and for the wider NHS.
• Supports relevant pilot studies to help reach the next step of a definitive trial.

RfPB particularly welcomes proposals that have benefited from interaction with patients and the public, which relate to patient and service user experience and/or have been drawn up in association with a relevant group of service users.

N.B. The programme will not fund laboratory-based or basic science research, the setting-up or maintenance of research units, or proposals which are solely service developments or audits, surveys, needs assessments, etc.

Who can apply for RfPB research funding?

All researchers in the NHS in England can apply (for joint NHS/university applications, funding will be awarded to the NHS partner).

RfPB programme management

The National Institute for Health Research Central Commissioning Facility (NIHR CCF) administers the programme under the guidance of a national Programme Director. NIHR CCF coordinates the application process, manages the external peer and lay review process and acts as secretariat to the Regional Funding Committees. We have established:

• Ten Regional Funding Committees, each meeting three times a year under an appointed Regional Chair to promote the programme within the region and assess the applications.
• Allocations of regional funding on a population basis.
• An electronic process for making applications to the programme.
• Ongoing opportunities to apply, with three competitions per year.

The application process for RfPB

• Applications are first judged on the fit to scope in a preliminary scrutiny by a sub-committee of the relevant Regional Funding Committee (RFC).
• Proposals which pass this initial scrutiny are sent for peer review, which includes input from lay reviewers (we find such input especially valuable for the insight, for instance, into patient experience, consultation and implications for practice).
• Each RFC assesses the applications and feedback from reviewers to make funding recommendations.
• Recommendations are ratified by the Programme Director and the Director General of Research & Development, Department of Health.

How RfPB projects are selected for funding

Applications are assessed by all committees on the quality of the research they propose, value for money and on their significance for, and potential benefit to, the NHS and service users. RfPB also looks for project applications that indicate:

• A sound and appropriate research design.
• A strong likelihood that tangible benefits for NHS patients and other users of health and social care services will be realisable in the short to medium term (within 3-5 years).
• A team with the right mix of skills and experience for the research question.
• Evidence of relevance for a public or patient community.

Additional guidance

For guidance on completing an application to the RfPB programme please follow this link.

For additional feedback from the founding Programme Director on applying for NIHR funding under RfPB and the most frequently cited reasons for rejecting applications please follow this link.