NIHR Research Professorships Guidance Notes - Round 12

Application Form Guidance

1. Application Summary Information

Host Organisation

• The contractor is expected to respond to annual financial reconciliation exercises, provide the final financial reconciliation statement for the award and to provide ad hoc requests for financial information during the lifetime of the award.
• In the same way, the contractor is expected to respond to any queries relating to Intellectual Property, commercialisation and benefit realisation.

Partner Organisation

Research Title

Research Type 

Proposed Start Date

WTE of Award

2. Applicant CV

Degrees and Professional Qualifications

Present and previous positions

Research grants held

Publication Record

Peer Reviewed Publication Summary

Other significant publications or outputs

• Books and/or book chapters;
• Papers in conference proceedings;
• Research reports to government departments, charities, the voluntary sector, professional bodies, industry or commerce;
• Monographs;
• Intellectual Property (patents, patent applications or other forms of IP);
• Other applied research outputs (new materials, software packages, images and devices, research derived from development, analysis and interpretation of bio-informatic databases, work published in non-print media, Cochrane reviews and NICE Guidelines).

Relevant Prizes, Awards and other Academic Distinctions

ORCiD

3. Applicant Research Background 

Professional background

Please describe your research career to date - 1000 word limit

• Track record of research and its translation;
• Track record of driving collaboration and partnership in research’
• Contributions towards research leadership;
• Developing translational research capability;
• Track record in training researchers;
• Previous involvement of patients/service users, carers and public in research.

Impact of Professorship

Has this application been previously submitted to this or any other funding body? - 500 word limit

Mitigating Factors - 500 word limit

• Career breaks due to parental leave, or periods of illness.
• Reduced time spent undertaking research due to a disability or caring responsibilities. This could include any physical or mental difficulty that may have impacted your research career. These are situations that have a significant impact on your ability to undertake research
• Reduced opportunities to career support e.g. mentorship, and limited opportunities to undertake prior research and training, for example due to high levels of administrative and teaching responsibilities.

4. Plain English Summary of Research

The importance of a plain English summary - 600 word limit

• those carrying out the review (reviewers and board and Selection Committee members) to have a better understanding of your research proposal;
• inform others about your research such as members of the public, health and care professionals, policy makers and the media;
• the research funder to publicise the research that they fund.

Content

• aim(s) of the research;
• background to the research;
• design and methods used;
• patient and public involvement;
• dissemination. 

5. Scientific Abstract - 500 word limit

• Research question
• Background
• Aims and objectives
• Methods
• Timelines for delivery
• Anticipated impact and dissemination

6. Detailed Research Plan - 5000 word limit

Guidance for applicants on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for study participants:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Ethnicity - link (for example) to the toolkit for increasing participation of BAME groups in health and care research.
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• Geographical location
• Socioeconomic status
• Access to health or social care
   

Applicants should demonstrate how these factors have been considered and addressed in their proposal, including steps taken to ensure the research sample is representative of the population the study is targeted at. Applicants need to explain who they are planning to recruit to ensure inclusivity of study participants and justify and explain any exclusions, for example by completing an Equality Impact Assessment. Additionally, applicants should demonstrate that all potential recruiting locations have been considered and the research is deliverable to those areas.

There is information on how NIHR is promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in research on the link below:

• NIHR Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Contribution to, or collaboration with, service

• Have established at least 2 major international collaborations;
• Have demonstrated leadership at a national level;
• Have been developed and protected by their institutions, including being relieved of administrative tasks at the local and regional level so that they can concentrate on their Professorship. 

1. What is the problem being addressed?

2. Why is this research important in terms of improving the health and/or wellbeing of the public and/or to patients/service users, cares and health and care services?

3. Review of existing evidence - How does the existing literature support this proposal?

4. What is the research question / aims and objectives?

5. Project Plan

• Inclusion and exclusion criteria to help ensure that certain groups were not being excluded without justification
• Recruitment method and consent process to ensure it is practical and fair
• Type and content of participant information materials
• Overview of research methods to capture data from participants and their frequency e.g. questionnaires/tests/intervention/focus groups/ interviews
• Study participant support to consider how drop-out and issues of participation would be handled/helplines/ other access arrangements required
• Methods for sharing study progress and findings with study participants
• Payments, rewards and recognition for study participants.

6. Dissemination, Outputs and anticipated Impact

• What do you intend to produce from your research? This could include but is not limited to: Conference presentation or other workshop events; Publications (academic or otherwise); Guidelines (clinical, service or otherwise); Other copyright (e.g. questionnaires, training aids, toolkits, manuals, software, etc.); New or improved design of medical devices or instrumentation; New or improved diagnostics; Trial data that could be used to support a CE mark, market authorisation or equivalent; Trial data that could be used to shape or influence a healthcare or social care market or government; Potential new drug or health/care intervention; Other. Please provide brief details of each of the anticipated outputs.
• How will you inform and engage patients/service user, carers, relevant health and care system and the wider population about your work? Describe your plans for disseminating this research. If you have not yet made plans, please outline at what stage in your project you intend to start formulating these.
• How will your outputs enter the health and care system or society as a whole? Describe how any new or improved outputs generate through the proposed research will be recognised, captured, managed and use directly in the health and care service or wider society. This might be through commercial exploitation or other non-commercial routes or means. If the output(s) from your research are likely to be commercial, describe the proposed route to market and by whom, or how you plan on developing this.
• What further funding or support will be required if this research is successful (e.g. from NIHR, other Government departments, charity or industry)? This should be linked to the responses in questions 2 and 3 above.
• What are the possible barriers for further research, development, adoption and implementation?
  • Will the proposed research use data, technology, materials or other inventions that are subject to any form of intellectual property protection (e.g. copyright, design rights, patents) or rights owned by another organisation(s)? If yes, provide brief details including how such third party IP will be accessed (e.g. collaboration agreement, drug supply agreement).
  • What are the key current and future barriers to uptake of any likely output or innovation directly in the health and care service, through commercial exploitation or other means, e.g. potential regulatory hurdles?
• What do you think the impact of your research will be and for whom? In describing the anticipated impact of the expected outputs on the health and care of patients/service users, carers, the public, and on health and care services, please consider; patient, service user or carer benefit; changes in the relevant health and care system service (including efficiency savings); commercial return (which could contribute to economic growth). Indicate the anticipated timescale for the benefits to reach patients/service users, carers, the public and services, providing a quantitative estimate of the scale of these potential benefits, if possible.

7. Project Management

8. Ethics

9. Success Criteria

7. Patient and Public Involvement

Please describe how patients/service users, carers and the public have been involved in developing this proposal - 350 word limit

Please describe the ways in which patients/service users, carers and the public will be actively involved the proposed research, including any training and support provided - 350 word limit

• Explain why your approach to patient and public involvement is appropriate for this proposal. In your description you will need to say who will be involved and why.
• Please use this opportunity to describe how you plan to manage and coordinate the patient and public involvement activities in your project.
• Describe how you will support and enable patients/service users, carers, the public and members of relevant communities to contribute to your research (e.g. access, payments, training).
• We would also encourage you to outline plans for the capturing, evaluating and reporting the impact of patient and public involvement activities.
• Patients, carers, service users and the public can be involved in every stage of a research project, from developing a proposal through to dissemination and evaluation. You can find further resources to support the design of your PPI.

If it is considered not appropriate and meaningful to actively involve patients/service users, carers and the public in your proposed research, please justify why - 350 word limit

8. Leadership and Development and Research Support

Proposed leadership and development programme - 1000 word limit

Research support - 250 words per justification of mentor

Collaborations - 600 word limit

Host Organisation support statement - 3000 word limit

The following sections are required to be completed by the Lead Signatory of the host organisation:

Statement of support - 1000 word limit

The nominating host will need to include within this statement when they expect the nominee to be appointed as a Professor (full Professor, not Associate or Assistant) and, if already appointed at Professorial level, why they consider the nominee is still qualified for this award and how the award will change their potential to become a leader in the field.

Support for the nominee at an organisational level

Support for the nominee at a national/international level

Finance Guidance

9. Detailed Budget 

Justification of costs

• Please provide a breakdown of research costs associated with undertaking the research and provide justification for the resources requested. This should include the following costs: staff costs, travel and subsistence, dissemination costs, equipment (including lease versus purchase costs), consumables, patient and public involvement (PPI) and any other direct costs. For help with estimating PPI costs please see payment guidance for researchers and professionals
• When justifying staff costs you should also provide the % amount of time input of each member of staff and link this to the specific area/work package of the proposed study where this input will be taking place.
• You should indicate here how this research will potentially benefit the NHS, social care, or public health. For example, where appropriate, describe the likely cost savings or benefits in terms of numbers of patients treated, treatment times, service users or carers supported etc.
• You should describe the value for money of the conduct of the proposed research.
• Please provide a breakdown of the NHS costs associated with undertaking the research and provide justification for the resources required. If there are no NHS Support or Excess Treatment Costs associated with the research you must explain why you think this is the case.
• Please provide a breakdown of any non-NHS intervention costs and provide justification for the resources required. Non-NHS intervention costs should include costs incurred in delivering the intervention which would continue to be incurred after the trial, should the intervention become standard care.
• NIHR Personal awards are not project or programme grants; therefore, extensions to the duration of awards to allow for completion of research and/or training and development are not permitted. This doesn't affect suspensions of awards to allow for periods of maternity, paternity, adoption or sickness leave.

Detailed Budget Breakdown

General information

• The information entered in this section should provide an analysis of the total funds requested to undertake the research proposed and should be based on current prices. These costs will be used to assess value for money.
• The average cost of a Research Professorship is between £1.7m to £1.8m. Costs may be slightly higher or lower than this depending upon the research being undertaken; however any project over £2m will need to be re-profiled to bring it under this figure.
• It is in the best interest to undertake a thorough, realistic and accurate costing. You must provide a clear and full justification for all costs including NHS costs.  You must also ensure that you include all costs including those required to secure good research management.
• Costs must be provided at current prices. An adjustment for inflation will be made annually thereafter at rates set by the Department of Health and Social Care. Whilst allowances for incremental increases should be included on the form, nationally or locally agreed pay increases should be excluded.
• Years should be calculated starting from the anticipated start date of the proposed research. For example, if your research is expected to start on 01 October 2022 then its second year starts 01 October 2023.
• Further itemisation of costs and methods of calculation may be requested to support the application at a later date.
• Payments will be made to the contracted organisation only and the contracted organisation will be responsible for passing on any money due to their partner organisation(s).
• Appropriate sub-contracts must be put in place for any element of the research which is to be paid to another organisation.
• NHS Support Costs, including costs for social care research are funded via Clinical Research Networks. Researchers should contact their local NHS R&D Department initially and, if they are unable to help directly or if there is no local NHS R&D Department, contact their Local Clinical Research Network.
• All applications are expected to have appropriate HEI, commercial and other partner organisation input into the finance section of the application form.
• There is no need to individually itemise costs where the total is below £1,000.

Information on different types of organisations

• Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) should determine the Full Economic Cost (FEC) of their research using the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) methodology. For HEIs, up to 80% of FEC will be paid, provided that TRAC methodology has been used.

• For applications where the contractor is an NHS body or provider of NHS services in England, up to 100% of direct costs will be paid.
• If you are a commercial organisation/consultancy, please fill in direct costs and commercial indirect costs. Indirect costs should be charged in proportion to the amount of research staff effort requested on the funding application form. Up to 100% of costs will be paid.

Other Partner Organisations

• If you are an other partner organisation (e.g. charity or NGO), please fill in direct costs and other partner organisations indirect costs. Indirect costs should be charged in proportion to the amount of research staff effort requested on the funding application form. Up to 100% of costs will be paid.

Direct costs

These are costs that are specific to the research, which will be charged as the amount actually spent and can be supported by an audit record. They should comprise:

I) Details of posts and salaries

Three support posts are available to accompany the Professorships.

• Post-Doctoral (5 years) – this is for one person at Post-Doctoral/NIHR Clinical Lecturer level. The acceptable maximum basic salary for this post will be £54,741. Under ‘Type of Cost’, please enter this post as ‘HEI’ from the drop down list. This post attracts Full Economic Costing and has a training allowance of £3,000. Any conferences, courses etc. must be included within this £3,000 limit.
• Post-Doctoral (3 years) – this is for one person at Post-Doctoral level. The acceptable maximum basic salary for this post will be £54,741. Under ‘Type of Cost’, please enter this post as ‘Other’, even if the post will be based in a HEI. This post does not attract Full Economic Costing and will therefore be paid at 100%. If you choose HEI, it will be returned at 80%, rather than the 100% required. There is no training allowance for this post.
• Doctoral Post (3 years) – this is for one person at Doctoral level. The acceptable maximum basic salary for this post will be £40,100. Under ‘Type of Cost’, please enter this post as ‘Other’, even if the post will be based in a HEI. This post does not attract Full Economic Costing and will therefore be paid at 100%. If you choose HEI, it will be returned at 80%, rather than the 100% required. There is no training allowance for this post. PhD fees for this post should be included within the Training and Development section.

II) Salary costs

III) Travel, Subsistence and Dissemination costs

• Journey Costs

• Subsistence

• Conference Fees

• Dissemination costs (in addition to conference costs)
  • Open Access Costs: During the course of your project and throughout review and publishing phase you may choose to submit an article based on your research to an Open Access publication. Depending on the publication you may be subject to an article processing charge (APC). APC rates vary but are usually within the range of £300 and £3000. Open Access publications usually list their APC rates on their websites. Where possible you should include an estimate for any APC in your funding application, since NIHR expects that APCs will be covered by the funding award.
  • Other Dissemination Costs: Any large costs should be further detailed with a breakdown of constituent parts or a timescale profile of the costs. Meetings to share best practice, training events and events to disseminate research findings must be run at the lowest possible cost with minimal catering. ‘Conferences’ which are described as such are not eligible for funding.

IV) Equipment

Essential items of equipment plus maintenance and related costs not included as part of estates should be input in this section. These can be lease or purchase costs. The purchase cost of pieces of equipment, valued up to £5,000 excluding VAT, will be considered.

V) Consumables

VI) Patient and Public Involvement

VII) Other Direct Costs

Notes on CTU costs in Personal Training Awards

• Costs claimed should be for the additional support from the CTU for the necessary expertise that the applicant cannot provide themselves. For example, part time support from a trial manager, database manager, and statistician are all costs that could potentially be included.
• The level of support and input from the CTU will likely vary depending on the level of fellowship and experience of the applicant. For example, doctoral applicants will be expected to be undertaking the majority of the day-to-day tasks involved in running a trial, with oversight from a more senior member of CTU staff (though specialist input in database programming may be needed).
• For more senior post-doctoral awards it may be more appropriate for other members of staff to be undertaking some of the day-to-day tasks. This also very much depends on the experience and expertise of the applicant and the applicant’s training needs and should be agreed with the CTU before submitting an application. These costs should all be agreed with the CTU and budgeted for.
• Staff costs should be detailed under the ‘other direct costs’ section. Staff costs should include basic salary and on-costs for each member of staff involved and it should be made clear within the justification section what role each member of staff has within the context of the personal award application and the time they will spend on the award.
• Please note that because NIHR research training awards are personal awards and not project or programme grants we can’t fund whole or significant portions of posts other than that of the applicant themselves and their support staff member (where applicable).
• We would not normally expect the time commitment of any individual costed into the application other than the applicant or member of support staff to exceed 0.3 WTE. In total we wouldn’t normally expect the total WTE of all staff costed into the application to support clinical trial activities to exceed 1 WTE (excluding the applicant and support staff member) for more junior awards (doctoral and early post-doctoral level awards) and 2 WTEs for more senior awards (this includes any shared staff also costed into the application). The level of additional staff input will obviously depend on the type and scope of the trial and the experience of the applicant.
• Full justification should be provided for all staff costs requested. Overheads (estates and indirect costs) can be included for CTU staff costed into the application. The justification section should split out the overheads from the salary costs and overheads shouldn’t exceed 40% of the total CTU staff cost.
• Any costs must be realistic in order to deliver the trial but must also represent value for money. Applicants can also include non-staff costs for the CTU for example; randomisation service, and license fees for clinical data management software.

VIII) Training and Development

• Leadership Training Programme, short course and workshops

• Support Post – Training & Development (5 year Post-Doctoral position only)

NIHR will make a maximum contribution of £3,000 in total (including any identified travel and subsistence) for the duration of this Professorship towards the cost of training and development for the member of staff in the 5 year support post.

• Overseas Research Visits

Please provide costs for any overseas research visits that the nominee wishes to undertake during the course of the award. The NIHR Academy will consider overseas research visits on an individual basis and reserves the right to limit expenditure.

• Support post – PhD fees

Where relevant, NIHR will make an estimated maximum contribution of £4,500 per year, based on Research Council UK 2021 published PhD fees.

Indirect costs and overheads

HEI Indirect Costs

Commercial/Other Partner Organisation Indirect Costs

I) Indirect Costs

• General office and basic laboratory consumables
• Premises costs
• Library services/learning resources
• Typing/secretarial
• Finance, personnel, public relations and departmental services
• Usage costs of major research facilities
• Central and distributed computing
• Charge out rates for shared equipment
• Cost of capital employed

NHS support and treatment costs (incl. Excess Treatment Costs/Savings) 

Summary of costs

• NIHR programmes currently fund HEIs at a maximum of 80% of full economic cost.
• Please note that whilst these percentages will be used to calculate the maximum grant payable, the programme reserves the right to award a grant for less than this maximum where it is considered appropriate.

10. Management and Governance

11. Uploads

• References: One A4 page listing all references cited in the application.
• Figures/Tables: Up to two A4 pages of figures/tables may be included to supplement your research plan.
• Research Timetable: One A4 page detailing specific milestones and deliverables (Gantt Chart).
• CTU Letter of Support: Where you are working with a CTU please include a supporting letter.
• Publications Summary: Please use the Round 4 form downloaded from the NIHR website to include all relevant publications information.

13. Management and Governance

14. Participants and Signatories

15. Acknowledge, review and submit

Conflict checks 

Agreement to terms and conditions 

Equality and Diversity Monitoring Information

Checklist of information to include when submitting a NIHR research application

• A good quality Plain English Summary;
• A clear explanation of the problem being addressed;
• A clear demonstration of the need and importance of the research;
• A review of existing literature (primary research);
• A clear research question aim(s) and objectives;
• A clear project plan summarising the study design and methods;
• Appropriate and relevant involvement of patients/services users, carers and the public;
• A clear, appropriate and relevant plan for dissemination;
• A single A4 page of references (document upload);
• All mandatory additional information has been uploaded to the online application system. 

Additional Supporting Information

NIHR Privacy Policy

International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN)

Requirements for systematic reviews to be registered with PROSPERO

UK Biobank

NIHR Carbon Reduction Guidelines

Transparency Agenda

Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) support

MRC Complex Intervention Guidance

NIHR Research Design Service 

NIHR INVOLVE

CRN support

Ethics and Regulatory Approvals