Programme Specific Information
Through the NIHR Global Health Research (GHR) Development Awards, NIHR provides funding to increase the competitiveness of global health research applications led by researchers based in ODA-eligible countries (on the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) list). The Development Awards will support underpinning work for the development of high-quality global health research proposals and applications to help award holders and their organisations secure further research funding from the NIHR and other funders.
The below guidance covers the key principles supported by NIHR Global Health Research funding. The guidance is structured to specifically help research teams applying to the NIHR GHR Development Awards Call 1.
NIHR GHR Development Awards will provide funding of a maximum of £100,000 per application for a period of up to 12 months for projects that will meet the aims set out in the GHR Development Awards Call 1 Guidance for Applicants. This document should be read in conjunction with the NIHR GHR Development Awards Call 1 Guidance for Applicants for details of specific eligibility requirements, scope and remit.
Contrary to other NIHR Global Health Research programme awards, the following applies to NIHR GHR Development Awards only:
- The payment mechanism for this award will be as follows:
- A 50% payment will be released following successful contracting and completion of banking verification checks.
- A further 40% payment will be released following the receipt of a satisfactory Statement of Expenditure (STOX) form, and confirmation that funds in the first tranche of payment have been spent. It is intended that the STOX will be completed prior to the halfway point of the award.
- A final 10% retention payment will be released on satisfactory completion of the Final Statement of Expenditure (FSTOX) form, and confirmation from NIHR that any deliverables under this award have been accepted.
- Financial audit checks may be undertaken by NIHR at the point any STOX is submitted and all contractors should ensure they have complete documentation to support expenditure under this award for its entire duration. The inability to provide supporting documentation may result in payments being paused or refunded to the NIHR.
- Salary costs can only be claimed for individuals based in / employed by LMIC organisations.
- Costs for equipment cannot be claimed/charged to the GHR Development Awards.
- Cost for laboratory supplies and other consumables needed by research goods/equipment to operate cannot be claimed.
- It is not expected that the NIHR GHR Development Awards will be extended (time or cost).
Official Development Assistance (ODA) Eligibility
The research must be for the direct and primary benefit of people in ODA-eligible countries. In order to be eligible to receive NIHR Global Health Research funding, applications must demonstrate how they meet ODA compliance criteria and outline:
- Which country or countries on the OECD DAC list of ODA-eligible countries will directly benefit?
- How the application is directly and primarily relevant to the development challenges of those countries?
- How the outcomes will promote the health and welfare of a country or countries on the DAC list?
Further information on meeting the requirements for ODA eligibility can be found in the Official Development Assistance Guidance for Applicants and Peer Reviewers.
Single Stage Application process NIHR Global Health Research funding competitions
- Applicants are required to provide a total figure for costs required to undertake the proposed research on the application form and to provide a breakdown of costs associated with delivering proposed project plans by uploading a completed Development Award Finance Summary Form. This is available to download on the NIHR website.
- All funds must be requested at the current price at the time of the submission and inflation must not be included. These costs will be used to assess value for money. It is in the applicant’s best interests to undertake a thorough, realistic and accurate costing. Annual inflationary uplifts may be awarded to successful applicants by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) depending on the available resources.
- The information included within the application will be used to assess value for money. It is in the applicant’s best interest to undertake a thorough, realistic and accurate costing. Applicants must provide a clear and full justification for all costs, including all costs required to secure risk management and assurance appropriate to ODA funding. Further itemisation of costs and methods of calculation may be requested. Failure to provide a sound justification for expenditure will result in costs not being funded. The justification must be clear, concise, and substantiate why a cost is necessary.
- Guidance on how to complete the form is embedded within the budget section of the application form.
- Programme years should be calculated starting from the anticipated start date of the proposed research. The start date should be on the first of the month, e.g. 1st September 2024.
- All costs must be reasonable, justifiable and compliant with the principles of robust financial management. Once the contract starts, expenditure must be identifiable, verifiable and recorded in accounts with applicable accounting standards. NIHR reserves the right to inspect the accounting records at any time.
- Payments will be made to the contracted organisation only and the contracted organisation will be responsible for passing on any money due to their collaborating organisation(s) including those in LMICs. For more information on post-award reimbursement, please refer to the DHSC payment policy in the NIHR Global Health Research - Financial Management Guidance for Awards funded through Official Development Assistance (ODA).
- Applicants should ensure that all costs are converted and presented as GB £ in the application. The exchange rate used, as well as the date/source of the exchange rate, should also be provided. Further information on managing exchange rate fluctuations during the lifetime of an award can be found in Financial Guidance for NIHR Global Health Research Programme Contract Holders - Exchange Rates | NIHR.
- Appropriate sub-contracts or collaboration agreements must be put in place for any element of the project which is to be paid to another organisation. It is recommended that downstream collaborator due diligence and negotiations of collaboration agreements are done in parallel to finalising the head contract with NIHR, to ensure any downstream collaboration agreement can be signed promptly as soon as the NIHR Research contract is signed.
- All applications are expected to have appropriate input from Lead institutions, Co-applicant institutions and other relevant collaborating organisations into the completion of the finance section of the application form. Applicants should make sure the project is appropriately budgeted and that payments are scheduled in line with the needs of the project to ensure the timely release of payments to downstream collaborators.
- Once an award has been made, NIHR on behalf of DHSC will require Contractors to provide regular financial statements regarding the actual use of funds. As this funding must be ODA compliant, Contractors will also be required to forecast their expenditure on a resource (accrual) basis.
- The payment mechanism for this award will be as follows:
- A 50% payment will be released following successful contracting and completion of banking verification checks.
- A further 40% payment will be released following the receipt of a satisfactory Statement of Expenditure (STOX) form, and confirmation that funds in the first tranche of payment have been spent. It is intended that the STOX will be completed prior to the halfway point of the award and returned by the contractor within 2 weeks of the request.
- A final 10% retention payment will be released on satisfactory completion of the Final Statement of Expenditure (FSTOX) form, and confirmation from NIHR that any deliverables under this award have been accepted.
- Financial audit checks may be undertaken by NIHR at the point any STOX is submitted and all contractors should ensure they have complete documentation to support expenditure under this award for its entire duration. The inability to provide supporting documentation may result in payments being paused or refunded to the NIHR.
DHSC reserves the right to send independent auditors to the contracted organisation and to collaborating organisations involved in the research programme to confirm the actual use of funds. - Organisations which are unable to reclaim Value-Added Tax (VAT) should include costs inclusive of VAT, otherwise VAT must be excluded. Seek advice from your VAT expert to determine the VAT status of your organisation.
- General principles for completing the finance form:
- Costs may be amalgamated in the same cost category but it may be useful to itemise costs where that provides more clarity. In the description space for each cost, please describe the method of calculation or allocation for the cost in detail (e.g. Consortium annual meetings (3 people from the UK at £1,000 per person (flights and transfers) travelling to LMIC partners, once per year).
- Do not give lump sums where the costs include multiple cost categories or activities (e.g. Project travel costs - £10,000 - these costs should be broken up into relevant cost categories).
- Do not assume that the reviewer will understand the cost but try to make it as clear as possible by providing detail in the description.
- Do not repeat in the description what has been completed in the form (e.g. where salaries are input into the form alongside % Full Time Equivalent (FTE), this does not need to be reiterated in the description), unless the additional description provides additional explanation.
- Do not repeat in the justification section of the application form the methods of calculation or cost descriptions already provided line by line.
- The justification must be clear, concise, and substantiate why a cost is necessary, evidencing that value for money (VfM) has been achieved - more guidance on VfM in Section 6 below.
Information on Different Types of Organisations
Organisations based in ODA-eligible countries
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), Research Institutes, and other collaborating organisations
For applications that include HEIs or Research Institutes based in LMICs (as listed on the OECD DAC list) as the contracting organisation, 100% of direct and indirect costs will be funded.
Multilateral Organisations (MOs) based in ODA-eligible countries
For applications that include Multilateral Organisations (MOs) as a co-applicant or collaborator up to 100% of direct and indirect costs will be paid. We recognise there is generally little scope to negotiate MO’s cost recovery/overhead rates (indirect costs) but we expect that applicants (contracting organisations) scrutinise the costing of any proposed collaboration with MOs to achieve good value for money, for example, by checking for obvious duplication of cost elements appearing in both cost recovery and administration charges and ensuring MOs provide the appropriate level of salary or travel costs. The financial rules and regulations of some MOs mean they will often require advance payments before work on a project can start, but applicants should make sure the project is appropriately budgeted and that payments are scheduled in line with the needs of the project and not too far in advance.
Organisations based in non-ODA-eligible countries
Organisations based in non-ODA-eligible countries, except for NHS organisations, who are co-applicants or collaborators can apply for up to 100% of reasonable direct costs associated with this award. No indirect costs will be funded. It is not anticipated that lead LMIC applicants will request funding for costs associated with non-ODA-eligible organisations other than minimal travel and subsistence costs. Staff costs for non-ODA-eligible organisations cannot be claimed under this Development award.
NHS organisations
Due to the nature of this award and its objective of building research capacity in ODA-eligible countries, direct or indirect costs for NHS organisations will not be funded.
The sections below provide further details of the types of costs that can be claimed.
Direct Costs
Direct costs are those ODA-eligible costs that will be incurred by the Contractor (and any Co-Applicants/Collaborators) in carrying out the proposed plans. These should be charged as the amount actually incurred and should be supported by an audit record.
Eligible direct costs are listed in the sub-headings below.
Staff costs
Reasonable and proportionate staff costs for individuals based in LMIC organisations can be requested. These should include relevant on-costs, such as employer’s contributions towards national insurance (or equivalent), pension and apprenticeship levy. Applicants must provide information supporting the rates applied for each type of employer contribution.
Staff costs should be based on current salary scales and include estimated increments. Once the programme is contracted, retrospective pay awards cannot be claimed. Estimated uplifts for inflation should not be included, however, agreed multi-year pay awards may be included.
Salaries may be sought at a level appropriate to the skills, responsibilities and expertise necessary to carry out the role required.
Salaries for co-applicants and collaborators must be requested within this section of the application form unless an individual is contributing to the project in kind.
Salaries that are already being fully or in part funded by the NIHR must be declared in the justification of costs section and cannot be claimed for again.
There are specific and detailed requirements for monitoring, reporting and financial assurance relating to the distribution and use of ODA funds. Applicants are, therefore, strongly encouraged to include appropriate resources across LMIC collaborating institutions for programme management, monitoring and evaluation, and financial management to support these requirements.
It is not anticipated that lead LMIC applicants will request funding for costs associated with UK or other HIC-based organisations other than minimal travel and subsistence costs. UK HEI and other HIC staff costs cannot be claimed under this GHR Development Award.
Travel, Subsistence and Conference Costs
Travel and subsistence costs of collaborative working visits and engagement with potential stakeholders can be requested. Applicants may also request travel and subsistence costs for their programme advisory groups, steering committees, data monitoring and ethics committees. Travel and subsistence in relation to programme meetings, training and dissemination activities can also be claimed.
Amalgamation of costs for similar activities is encouraged (e.g. repeated travel to the same destination or for the same purpose). Where costs are amalgamated, a comprehensive breakdown of all costs should be provided in the description.
Applicants are required to consider value for money and environmental impact and consider whether a trip is necessary and whether alternative cheaper options (e.g. teleconferencing or video conferencing) offer a viable alternative.
The purpose of the cost needs to be stated in the description, for example, monitoring, field travel, conference, etc. The various types of costs under this category must be specific, please select whether the costs relate to travel, subsistence, conference, meeting or other. Where the cost stated is for more than one person, the number of people the cost applies to should be stated in the description.
It is not anticipated that lead LMIC applicants will request funding for costs associated with non-ODA-eligible country-based organisations other than minimal travel and subsistence costs.
Travel costs
All journeys by rail or air should be budgeted by a class of travel that is no higher than standard economy unless higher-class travel is required to comply with specific legislation. NIHR funding schemes do not fund first-class travel.
For UK travel only: If travel is by car, apply your institution’s mileage rates. However, they should not exceed HMRC-approved mileage allowances (45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p per mile thereafter).
For international travel: all journeys must be charged according to the most appropriate (basic or standard) local rate.
Costs of visas required for travel specifically related to the programme should be included within this section. If a visa covers travel across multiple projects the cost of the visa should be shared across all projects where possible but if not, only claimed once.
Subsistence
Subsistence covers accommodation (if necessary) and meals associated with travel. All costs must be based on actual receipted expenditure. Alcohol and tobacco are not allowable subsistence items. Per diem payments for subsistence are not permitted.
Conferences
Conference attendance can be supported during the contract period where this is relevant for the funded project/programme and it supports individuals’ learning and development in that area. During the contract period, conference attendance can also be supported for individuals where the attendee has submitted (and ideally been accepted for) an oral or poster presentation.
Multiple attendances should only be considered where additional support is needed or there are issues with lone travel.
Where costs for attending conferences (fees, associated travel and subsistence) are requested, a statement naming the conference or purpose of travel and the benefit to the programme must be included. Failure to adequately justify the attendance at a conference may result in these costs not being funded.
It is not anticipated that lead LMIC applicants will request funding for costs associated with non-ODA-eligible country-based organisations relating to external conferences.
Equipment
Equipment costs are not eligible under this award.
Consumables
Consumable items are normally items which will generally be used up or discarded during the lifecycle of the programme/project, including (but not limited to):
- stationery such as printing of leaflets etc.
Applicants should itemise and describe the requirements fully (e.g. printing of leaflets, postage, etc.). These items should be specific to the development award, not just general office costs. Laboratory supplies are not eligible under this development award.
A statement of justification must be included in the ‘Justification of Costs’ section for any purchases of consumables valued at £5000 or more (or equivalent currency) per single item. Where high quantities of consumables are required the applicant must name or describe briefly the inventory control processes and policies.
Community Engagement and Involvement
Applicants should include realistic costs for Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) considering the UNICEF Minimum Standards for Community Engagement. Involving people in the programme requires resources in terms of time and monetary payments. It is really important to account for the costs of involvement at an early stage. These are likely to include:
- Payments in recognition of time, skills and expertise
- Out-of-pocket expenses such as travel and subsistence
- Training and learning costs – training and induction for members of the public may be required for many involvement activities, payment for time for policymakers and other stakeholders and any relevant support costs. All costs should be itemised and described.
Please refer to the Additional Information Section of the Development Award Guidance for useful resources in relation to community engagement and involvement.
Dissemination
Costs associated with the presentation of findings and activities to support policy uptake in LMICs can be claimed as part of the dissemination costs. These may include meetings to share best practice ?and events that focus on the dissemination of early findings or proposed research questions. All events must be run at the lowest possible cost with minimal catering.
Hosting ‘Conferences’, which are described as such (e.g. requiring attendees to pay a joining/attendance fee or remunerating speakers), are not eligible for funding.
Salaries incurred after the end date of the award will not be funded.
Open access costs
Applicants should no longer include Open Access costs as part of their budget research costs.
From the 1st of June 2022, all contracts issued across NIHR Programmes and NIHR Personal Awards will have an Open Access funding envelope allocated to them on top of the award value, which is ring-fenced for Open Access costs of peer-reviewed research articles that arise directly from the research funded by the award. This funding envelope supports contractors with the implementation of the NIHR Open Access policy and will be allocated during the contracting phase and will be based on the size of the overall contract value.
Further information can be found in the Open Access Funding Guidance.
Risk Management and Assurance
Costs associated with proportionate risk management and assurance may be requested as part of this application for funding. There are specific requirements for monitoring and financial assurance relating to the distribution and use of ODA funds.
To make effective arrangements for risk management and assurance, Applicants should consider the financial systems and financial management capacity of Co-Applicants / Collaborators and the level of risk within the country, and tailor the assurance and monitoring processes appropriately. The Good Financial Grants Practice (GFGP) may be used in order to identify gaps in financial capacity, governance, systems etc.
GFGP audits and accreditation costs can be requested. Please consider that these costs can only be requested once per organisation, and should not be claimed across multiple NIHR programmes/calls.
Costs specific to safeguarding activities are also permitted, including but not limited to Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks or other statutory background checks, training, workshops and other safeguarding strengthening activities.
Breakdown of all costs and activities must be provided. Any large costs should be further detailed with a breakdown of constituent parts or a timescale profile of the costs. (e.g. due diligence cost would be expected to be profiled within the early stages of the programme)
UK statutory audit costs are not eligible direct costs.
Audits conducted in LMICs may be eligible direct costs, provided these are project audits (PA) / formal Project Expenditure Verifications (PEV). Where a PA/PEV is done as part of a statutory audit, the cost can be claimed if there are substantial project-specific audits (PSA) which are referenced or embedded in statutory accounts or as a stand-alone PEV report.
Training and Development Costs
Funds can be requested for a range of activities under the GHR Development Award, for example:
- training in technical research skills and personal development skills
- other wider institutional capacity-strengthening activities such as finance management, research management, data management, legal compliance and assurance training,
- Institutional systems for coaching, mentoring and/or peer-mentorship.
Costs relating to formal training posts and stipend costs cannot be claimed under this development award due to its short duration.
These activities can be delivered through a range of mechanisms, such as through courses, workshops, exchanges and other relevant training activities.
Events to share best practices and training workshops such as sending out colleagues to provide specific training to their counterparts in ODA-eligible countries can be requested within this section.
English language training in the context of all studentships is an eligible cost, provided clear justification and a strong value for money argument are given.
Please note, that organisations claiming indirect costs as part of Full Economic Costing (FEC) are not permitted to claim costs for general training (e.g. common IT/software packages). All eligible training should be included as Direct costs.
Other Direct Costs
These are costs, not identified elsewhere, that are specifically attributed to the NIHR Global Health Research Development Award. For example, external consultancy costs, and software licensing.
Please note that external consultants must not be people who are already employed by the contracting institution or any other Co-Applicants/Collaborators involved in the programme. All employees must be shown under staff costs. Any consultancy costs must be justified, and the number of days and a daily rate must be stated.
Translation costs of programme-specific documents can also be claimed as long as these can be supported by an audit record.
Ethical and other regulatory approval specific to the proposed research can also be requested as part of “Other Direct Costs”.
Costs associated with monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) can be requested as part of the application. The costs should be proportionate to the proposed MEL activities and may include but are not limited to:
- Stakeholder engagement
- Local evaluations
- Theory of Change development
Costs associated with establishing any memorandum of understanding (MOUs) and governance policies with potential partners, undertaking due diligence and costs related to research plan/proposal development (i.e. funding needs analysis) can be claimed as part of the GHR Development Award application. Costs associated with face-to-face and virtual meetings with stakeholders may include subscription fees for online meeting/web conferencing systems for the duration of the award, or the purchase of 4G dongles with limited data bundles for key stakeholders.
Indirect Costs / Overheads
Indirect costs may include but are not limited to:
- General office and basic laboratory consumables
- Premises costs
- Library services/learning resources
- Typing/secretarial
- Finance (including audit), 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
- Insurance
- Statutory audits
Indirect costs for organisations based in ODA-eligible countries
ODA-eligible LMIC institutions may include actual and real costs of undertaking the research preparation activities in low-resource settings. Indirect costs can be claimed and should normally be charged in proportion to the total amount of staff effort (research and support staff) requested in the application for funding. Where LMIC organisations prefer to use a different methodology for calculating indirect costs, calculation methods for these should be clearly stated.
The justification of costs section should include an explanation as to what services and resources are included within the indirect costs budget envelope. All indirect costs requested as part of the application must be fully justified as to why these costs are being requested and how they will contribute to the delivery of the objectives of the development award.
Multilateral Organisations (MOs) based in ODA-eligible countries
Indirect costs charged by Multilateral Organisations can be claimed but we expect that applicants (contracting institutions) scrutinise the costing of any proposed collaboration with MOs to achieve good value for money, for example, by checking for obvious duplication of cost elements appearing in both cost recovery and administration charges and ensuring MOs provide the right level of costing across all other direct budget lines (e.g. no excessive charges for salary levels or travel costs).
Indirect costs for organisations based in non-ODA-eligible countries
Indirect costs of organisations based in non-ODA-eligible countries cannot be claimed under this Development Award.
Ineligible costs
The following costs are not eligible under NIHR GHR Development Awards:
- Any costs that cannot be classed as ODA-eligible as defined by the OECD
- Cost associated with lobbying or any other political or exclusively religious activities
- First and Business class travel
- Per diem costs for travel and subsistence for all staff employed on the programme
- Alcohol and tobacco
- Entertainment
- UK NHS support and treatment costs
- Establishing and running new bio-banks
- Fines and penalties
- Costs already funded by NIHR or any other public organisations
- Payments reimbursed or to be reimbursed by other funding
- Contributions in kind (i.e. contributions in goods or services as opposed to money)
- VAT reclaimable from HMRC
- Contingency
- Interest payments
- Inflation or foreign exchange rate contingency
- Funding will not be provided to meet the costs of basic research,
- NHS Equipment costs will not be funded by NIHR Global Health Research funding
- Capital investments in new buildings
- Salary costs for individuals based in non-ODA-eligible countries
- Equipment Costs
- Costs for laboratory supplies and other consumables needed by research goods/equipment to operate
- Formal training posts or stipend costs
Justification of Costs
Justification for all resources requested should be provided in the appropriate part of the NIHR application form.
The justification must be clear, concise, and substantiate why a cost is necessary. Do not repeat in the justification section of the application form the methods of calculation or cost descriptions already provided line by line.
Please provide a full justification for indirect costs requested clearly stating the methodology used to calculate these costs, what services and resources they include, and how they represent a good value for money.
The NIHR requires evidence of good value for money within the justification of costs and considers this to be the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes. ‘Optimal’ being considered as ‘the most desirable possible given expressed or implied restrictions or constraints’. Value for money goes beyond achieving the lowest initial price and includes consideration of Economy, Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Equity (as appropriate) and what these mean in the context of a research proposal:
- Economy: Are we buying inputs of the appropriate quality at the right price? (Inputs are things such as staff, consultants, raw materials and capital that are used to produce outputs)
- Efficiency: How well do we convert inputs into outputs? (Outputs are results delivered by us or our agents to an external party. We exercise strong control over the quality and quantity of outputs)
- Effectiveness: How well are the outputs from an intervention achieving the desired outcome? (Note that in contrast to outputs, we do not exercise direct control over outcomes)
- Equity: the extent to which the outputs of our interventions are equitably distributed.
The following reference resources may be useful:
Please contact ghrdevelopmentawards@nihr.ac.uk if you have any queries when completing the budget section of the application form.