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NIHR NICE rolling call specification document

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Published: 11 August 2022

Version: V4.0 August 2022

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NIHR NICE rolling call for research studies addressing NICE research recommendations

The NIHR research programmes – Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME), Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR), Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and Public Health Research (PHR) – are interested in receiving applications to meet recommendations in research identified in NICE guidance, that has been published or updated during the last 5 years. For the purposes of this call, NICE guidance includes the following:

  • clinical
  • social care
  • public health
  • technology appraisals
  • interventional procedures
  • diagnostics

Proposals must be within the remit of one of the participating NIHR research programmes, and the primary outcome measure must be health-related. Applicants should note that:

  1. Proposals should reference the NICE research recommendation(s) being addressed and provide clear rationale and justification for any deviation from the given research recommendation.
  2. The importance of the proposed research should be justified, along with how the work supports aspirations to reduce health inequalities and improve health outcomes.
  3. Applicants should clearly state how their proposed research addresses a current evidence gap, and how the research adds value to the existing NIHR research portfolio.
  4. Applicants must demonstrate that the proposed methodology is appropriate and robust, with consideration given to methodological limitations.
  5. Applications should be co-produced, demonstrating an equal partnership with service commissioners, providers and service users in order to provide evidence and actionable findings of utility to decision-makers and service users. Applicants may wish to consult the NIHR INVOLVE guidance on co-producing research.
  6. Patient and public involvement must be included within the application and study design, to ensure the research is relevant and appropriate to patients and the public.

How to apply and supporting information

Proposals must be within the remit of at least one of the following participating NIHR Programmes. However, applications which span the remit of one or more programme are welcome.

NICE research recommendations can be found on the website of each individual guidance topic. NICE recommendations can also be searched for on the research recommendations webpage. Applicants are encouraged to review any additional information relating to the research recommendation, such as PICO tables, committee discussions and/or rationale statements. For NICE clinical, public health and social care guidelines, the evidence reviews currently hold this information (found on the ‘evidence’ tab). For other guidance products, the committee considerations may be helpful to review. Only NICE research recommendations published during the last 5 years will be eligible for this call.

Deadline for proposals

Application forms will be available from participating programmes’ webpages. Please note that open and close dates vary and completed forms must be submitted by the date specified on the relevant programme’s website.

This call represents an ongoing area of interest for the NIHR. This opportunity will be advertised as a rolling call with cut-off dates per year when applications will be considered by the relevant NIHR programme's decision making committees.

For support developing applications, applicants are also encouraged to contact the NIHR Research Support Service (RSS) or equivalent in the first instance (this was previously supported by the Research Design Service).

Contact information

General questions should be raised via the NIHR Research Support Service (RSS) or equivalent.

Further guidance may also be obtained by sending a short summary (maximum of one A4 page) of the research proposal in a structured format (including rationale, research question, proposed methodology and outcome/evaluation methods) to the programme you intend to apply to: