Programme Grants for Applied Research - Guidance for Stage 2 applications

This document provides guidance on completing an application for stage 2 of funding competition for the NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) Programme. Please see also the supporting information for Stage 1 and Stage 2 applicants.

We supply a word document version of the online Stage 2 application form (.DOCX - Word) to help researchers prepare their proposal ahead of submission. This is to be used as a guide and to assist with completion of the online application form only. Please do not try to use this as an application form. You must apply using the online form in the Research Management System (RMS), available when calls are open.

As part of NIHR’s drive to develop research capacity, PGfAR is now offering the opportunity to develop and advance health and care research careers. Applications that include research capacity development for methodological and under-represented disciplines and professions are particularly encouraged. This will be an ongoing opportunity, available to applicants in each round of the competition.

Applicants to PGfAR can now include funding for research capacity development, across all stages of the academic career pathway (i.e., from internships to Masters to PhD, to post-doctoral). For more information please visit our capacity building information for applicants.

Please note that you can still apply for embedded research capacity development as part of your programme at Stage 2, even if you have not indicated this in your Stage 1 application. You can find instructions on what information to include in Sections 4, 8.5, 8.8, 8.9 and 10 of this document.

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

PGfAR has expanded the eligibility of contracting organisations and will now contract research programmes with HEIs but only for social care and public health focused programmes . Applicants conducting research focused on health outcomes for patients, service users, carers and the wider public delivered through NHS service provision must be hosted by an NHS body.

Application Summary Information

Host Organisation

Provide details of the organisation who will be the contractor if the project is funded.

If you have any queries, please contact pgfar@nihr.ac.uk before submitting your application.

Research Title

The project title should state clearly and concisely the proposed research. Any abbreviations should be spelled out in full.

Research Type

Select the appropriate research type. If your proposed programme includes any element of primary research, please select ‘Primary Research’. If you are carrying out new analysis of existing data, select ‘Secondary Research’. If you are not sure which category to select, choose the closest match to your project as this can be adjusted later.

Proposed Start Date

Note this should be from 1st of the month regardless of whether this is a working day or not. Please be realistic about your possible start date taking account of the necessary contracting, and staff recruitment prior to starting your project.

Research Duration (months)

Ensure you include sufficient time to complete all aspects of the research including applications for regulatory
approvals (where required) and the final report.

End Date

This field will automatically populate once you have entered the start date and research duration information.

Total (Stage 2) Research Costs

This will be automatically pulled through from the budget section.

CV - Lead and Co-applicants

Complete your name, contact details and other requested information.

A lead applicant should have appropriate expertise and experience in the area of research to lead a programme of applied health or social care research.

Up to a maximum of 15 co-applicants will be allowed. Please note that any joint lead applicant will be counted as a co-applicant. If you have listed a joint lead applicant, then only a further 14 co-applicants can be included.

Public co-applicants

We encourage the inclusion of public co-applicants, where appropriate. Please include a clear description of their role and the reasons why a public co-applicant is joining the team. They are not obliged to complete a standard CV but are required to provide a summary of any knowledge, skills and experience relevant to their role in the application in a separate text box. This appears when ‘yes’ is selected to indicate if co-applicants are a member of the public.

We recognise and value the varied perspectives that patients / service users and carers bring to a project as applicants. In this section, please provide a summary of any relevant knowledge, skills and experience that you will draw upon to contribute to this project.

This could include information about:

• Previous or present work (paid or unpaid) with any relevant organisations
• Links with any relevant groups, committees, networks or organisations
• Experience of particular health conditions, treatments, use of services, being a carer - or as a member of a particular community
• Knowledge and experience of research including previous research undertaken
• Knowledge and experience of patient and public involvement including previous involvement activities
• Skills from any other roles that are transferable
• Relevant qualifications, training and learning.

The bullet point list above is not exhaustive. Please include anything else that is relevant to the application.

For further information please access the Public Co-Applicants in Research guidance.

Research Background - Lead and Co-applicants

Publication record

Provide details of a MAXIMUM of 6 of your most recent / relevant publications (in the last 10 years) relevant to this application (using Vancouver or Harvard citation format). Please use DOI reference numbers if needed.

Research Grants Held

Please select research grants held (as a named applicant) currently or in the last five years – as well as any additional previous grants, relevant to this application, stating who the grant is with and the amount of each grant. If no grants are held please enter N/A (as this is a mandatory field).

Has this application been previously submitted to this or any other funding body?

To be completed by the lead applicant only.

Select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ from the drop down box to indicate whether this or a similar application has previously been submitted to this or any other funding body.

Applications Submitted to other NIHR programmes

Where this application or a similar one has been submitted to this or another NIHR programme or elsewhere please complete the necessary information.

We are keen to know if the application has been submitted elsewhere and you must be as open about this as possible. This includes, but is not limited to, any facts that, should they come to light at a future date, would embarrass either the programme or the individual who withheld the fact (e.g. if a member of the team holds a patent or has a financial interest within the research area).

Failure to disclose accurately or fully will be considered by the programme as academic misconduct and treated accordingly. You should also include in this section information on whether this or a similar application has been submitted to any programme previously, or to any other funder including other NIHR programmes. You should name, and provide dates and outcomes of these. Please indicate whether you hold or have ever held an NIHR programme contract which has been terminated prior to completion, extended in time or in terms of funding.

The Research Team

Specify your (lead applicant) role in this research

Explain in addition to your role as Lead Applicant, the role that you will be undertaking in the research, e.g. coordination and project management, analysis, methodological input etc.

%FTE Commitment

This refers to the percentage of your time that you will commit to this project. If you are funded as part of other NIHR projects that will be running concurrently, your time must not exceed 100% overall.

Joint Lead Applicant

Where appropriate and justified it is acceptable for the application to be led by joint Lead Applicants. Where this applies, please complete your name, contact details and other requested information.

Justification for Joint Lead Applicant

Justification should be given to demonstrate why more than one person would be required to lead this research and how this brings added value to the application.

Relevant expertise and experience of Joint Lead Applicant

Please summarise the proposed Joint Lead Applicant’s relevant expertise and track record in applied health research or social care research, in terms of skills and experience, previous publications, grant funding and impact on health service or social care provision.

Specify role in research

Please provide a brief overview of your role in the proposed research. You have the opportunity to elaborate upon this further in the ‘Research Plan’ section.

%FTE Commitment

This refers to the percentage of your time that you will commit to this project. If you are funded as part of other NIHR projects that will be running concurrently, your time must not exceed 100% overall.

NOTE: For application/contracting purposes, the joint lead applicant will be counted as a co-applicant.

Co-Applicants

Add details of all co-applicants and their specific role in the programme. Do not include collaborators, who should be mentioned (if necessary) in the Detailed Research Plan section of the form. The co-applicant team should possess all the necessary breadth and depth of expertise in methodological areas required to deliver the proposed programme of work (e.g. trial or observational study design, statistics, health economics, health services research, behavioural science, qualitative research methodologies, sociology etc.)

Co-applicants are those individuals with responsibility for the day to day management and delivery of the project. Co-applicants, including public co-applicants, are considered part of the project team and are expected to share responsibility for its successful delivery. In contrast, collaborators normally provide specific expertise on particular aspects of the project but who do not share in the responsibility for the delivery of the project.

Allow sufficient time for your co-applicants to complete their sections of the online form before the application deadline.

Research capacity building

For applications seeking to embed research capacity building, indicate which member of the team will be the Named Point of Contact for Training and Development (NPC). The NPC should ideally be different from the Academic supervisor. Alternatively, if an existing dedicated career development and training lead from the contracting or collaborating institutions will take on this role, this can be explained in the Project/Research expertise sub-section of the Detailed Research Plan. For more information, please visit the webpage for outlining the NPC’s role. 

Scientific Abstract

The scientific abstract should be a clear and concise scientific summary of the Detailed Research Plan / Methods.

The following is a list of potential elements / headings that might be included depending on the design of the proposed research, the setting and programme being applied to, and whether it is for primary research or evidence synthesis. It will be for researchers to decide the appropriate elements to be included in the scientific abstract and could include elements outside this list. Applicants may find the guidance on the EQUATOR Network website useful.

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

Plain English Summary

A plain English summary is a clear explanation of your research.

Many reviewers use this summary to inform their review of your funding application. They include clinicians, other practitioners and researchers who do not have specialist knowledge of your field as well as members of the public. If your application for funding is successful, the summary will be used on the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and other websites.

A good quality plain English summary providing an easy to read overview of your whole study will help:

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

If it is felt that your plain English summary is not clear and of a good quality then you may be required to amend
it prior to final funding approval.

It is helpful to involve patients / carers / service users/ practitioners and members of the public in developing a plain English summary.

Content

When writing your summary consider including the following information where appropriate:

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

The plain English summary is not the same as a scientific abstract - please do not cut and paste this or other sections of your application form to create the plain English summary.

Further guidance on writing in plain English is available online in our plain English summaries guidance.

For further support and advice on writing a plain English summary, please contact the Research Support Service (where applicable). 

Changes from First stage

Please list the feedback received at Stage 1 and under separate headings indicate what has changed as a result.

Please describe and explain any additional changes that have been made to this proposal since the Stage 1 application e.g. in the light of new research.

Detailed Research Plan

Using all of the headings (in the order presented) and guidance below, clearly explain your proposed research.

As this is the main part of your application that will be considered by the reviewing committee, you should ensure that the information is accurate, succinct, clearly laid out and provides adequate methodological detail. The proposal should be written in plain English, logically and coherently set out with minimal jargon, abbreviations and acronyms. The proposed research should be realistic in scope and scale and deliverable within the time and funding agreed. This section should not exceed 20 pages in Arial Font 11.

Applicants should therefore aim to reserve a significant proportion of the word limit for the research plan to ensure methodological approaches are fully specified.

Background and Rationale

Briefly describe the background and rationale of the proposed research, addressing the following areas:

Remember that the application will be reviewed by assessors who may not have a detailed understanding of the particular clinical area that your application relates to. It is vitally important that you clearly tell the story of why this research is important, and how it will make a stepped change to practice and/or outcomes. The committee is looking for novel approaches. Research which, in the committee’s view, represents only an incremental development on current practice, or is unlikely to have general application / uptake is unlikely to be supported. Research which improves efficiency and effectiveness (rather than increasing workload in an already stretched NHS) is welcomed.

What is the problem being addressed?

Provide a clear explanation of the health or social care problem to be addressed, the impact on patients/service users, carers or the public as well as health and care services, and how this research would fill a demonstrable evidence gap, addressing patient/service user, carer needs and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) priorities (at national or local levels).

Explain how your proposed research is within the remit of the PGfAR programme and how it addresses the key aim of the programme to produce research findings that will have practical application for the benefit of patients/service users, carers, the public or populations, the NHS or/ social care sectors in the relatively near future.

Please indicate under this question if you are responding to the NIHR highlight notice on ‘Brain Tumours’.

Why is this research important in terms of improving the health and/or wellbeing of the public and/or to patients and health and care services?

It is essential that you clearly identify the health and care need your research meets or contributes to. Please outline the anticipated value or contribution the study will provide. Briefly describe:

• The importance of the proposed research and its relevance to the priorities and needs of the NHS, public health or social care (including a statement of the significance of the research area, e.g. burden of disease)
• The anticipated outputs, outcomes and impact of the proposed research on the health of patients/service users, carers and/or the public, highlighting the innovation and/or development aspects and quantifying the potential benefits, where possible
• The anticipated timescale for the benefits to patients/service users, carers, the public or populations and the NHS, public health or social care settings resulting from the proposed research to be realised.
• As well as the overarching patient/service user, carer benefits the proposal seeks to achieve, the clear and identifiable patient/service user, carer benefits emerging from each work package. For example, patient/service user, carer and/or health and care professional or practitioner experience data following qualitative work, increased knowledge following surveys/observational studies etc.).

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

Explain why this research is needed now, both in terms of time and relevance. Briefly describe:

• The need for research in this area, drawing particularly from systematic reviews (including NHS, public health or social care context and relevant literature), and the rationale for the particular lines of research you plan to pursue
• Past and current research that justifies the proposed research and shows that it will add distinct value to what is already known, or in progress
• Work undertaken previously by the research team which has led to the proposed programme (e.g., describe any pilot or feasibility data).

Note: We will only fund primary research where the proposed research is informed by a review of the existing evidence.

Applicants should be aware of ongoing research in this area and comment on any other research which might be deemed to overlap with the contents of the proposal. In particular, applicants are advised to use both PubMed Central and Europe PubMed Central for recent material on the topic area they are applying for. All applicants must also include reference to relevant on-going studies, e.g. from trial registries.

Any applications that include primary research should include reference to the existing evidence and explain how this evidence has informed the proposed research. Where a systematic review already exists that summarises the available evidence this should be referenced, as well as including reference to any relevant literature published subsequent to that systematic review. Where no such systematic review exists, it is expected that the applicants will undertake an appropriate scoping review of the currently available and relevant evidence and then summarise this in their proposal. The application may then include a more detailed review in early work packages. Read more about the NIHR's approach to adding value and the adding value in research model.

Aims and objectives

This section should be used to indicate the overarching aims/objectives of the research, outlining the key question(s) which the work will address and, where appropriate, the main hypothesis.

Research plan/Methods

Describe the proposed research plan, providing descriptions of individual projects/work streams/ work packages in turn and indicate how they integrate together to form a coherent programme of research. As well as the overarching patient/service user and carer benefits the proposal seeks to achieve, the clear and identifiable patient/service user benefits emerging from each work package should be detailed. For example, patient/service user, carer and/or health and care professional or practitioner experience data following qualitative work, increased knowledge following surveys/observational studies etc.).

Specify the methodological approaches proposed in sufficient detail to allow them to be assessed (for example, study design, setting, target population, inclusion and exclusion criteria, measurements, sample size, nature of follow-up, economic evaluation, duration, and practical arrangements).

Applicants are reminded that NIHR strategy encourages research which follows patient needs. Researchers should clearly articulate how their research meets this objective, and how this contributes to the scientific rigour of their programme. Programmes should recruit participants from geographical areas where patient need is greatest, including for example the rural and semi-rural areas where many older people live, and represent areas of diverse socioeconomic and ethnic diversity.

Equality, inclusion and diversity should also be properly considered when planning and describing the research, and evidenced in the application (see below).

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

Every person eligible to take part in research should be offered the same opportunity of taking part in that research regardless of:

• Geographical location
• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Ethnicity - for example:
• The Centre for Ethnic Health Research toolkit for increasing participation of ethnic minority groups in health and care research
• The INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework which aims to improve trial delivery for under-served groups
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• Socioeconomic status
• Access to health or social care

All NIHR applications are expected to include information about how this data will be collected. In addition, 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. Costs associated with inclusivity, which may include, but are not limited to justified translation of research participant material into other relevant languages, would be expected and where appropriate should be included in the detailed budget section under ‘Other Direct Costs’. Additionally, applicants should demonstrate that all potential recruiting locations have been considered and the research is deliverable to those areas.

Please see the NIHR INCLUDE guidance for more information about how to include under-served groups effectively:

• NIHR INCLUDE guidance (General)

Helpful links:

• NIHR's promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion in research webpage

In particular and where appropriate, if involving patients/service users, carers as research participants, please also provide key details about how they will be supported, managed and involved (see below)

Summary of patients/service users/carers/public as research participants

The successful recruitment and retention of study participants is strategically important for the NIHR. If your proposed study involves patients/service users/carers/public as research participants please use the following bullet points to summarise their characteristics and what would be expected of them throughout the research project lifecycle. The potential burden on study participants can then be understood as well as whether or not the proposed strategies are practical, inclusive and feasible. Please also signpost to where further information on these points can be found in the detailed research plan and application.

Points to cover:

• 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.

Researchers may find the SPIRIT 2013 statement a useful resource when preparing their protocol.

Dissemination, outputs and anticipated impact

The purpose of this section is for the applicant to describe the planned outputs of the research, how these will be communicated and to whom, and how the research may lead to short and longer-term impacts. NIHR understands that the impact of any research may take time to be realised and will likely involve other funders, institutions and sustained efforts in practice. NIHR also recognises it may be difficult to provide definitive answers or guarantees on longer term impacts. However, applicants are invited below to consider various aspects of pathways and how the likelihood of impact can be maximised. This includes considering what outputs are produced, how these can be best connected to the health and/or social care environment, what efforts and investment are likely to be needed beyond the project, what barriers are likely to be encountered and what impacts the research is seeking to achieve.

What do you intend to produce from your research?

Please provide brief details of each anticipated output. NB the term ‘outputs’ refers to any tangible product of the research, not just academic publications. Outputs can include but are 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 diagnostic; 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 market or government; potential new drug or health or social care intervention.

How will you inform and engage patients/service user, carer, NHS, social care organisations and the wider population about your work?

Describe who you need to communicate with within this research, and your plans for engaging relevant audiences. For impact, it is unlikely that simply making outputs available will be sufficient. Please consider, and outline the active approach you will take to engaging key parties, or identify the process you will use to identify them and formulate an engagement plan.

How will your outputs enter our health and care system or society as a whole?

Describe the process by which the research will enter the health and/or social care environment, including how your outputs will be acknowledged, selected and introduced for use in the health and care service or wider society. Where possible consider how the work will be able to be adopted and implemented longer term. Please describe the proposed route to market (commercial or non-commercial) for your outputs. Describe who is needed to take it forward and the relationship you currently (or propose to) have with these parties. If your outputs are likely to be commercially exploitable, please include details on how you plan to develop this.

What further funding or support will be required if this research is successful (e.g. from NIHR, other government departments, charity or industry)?

Consider what investment or support may be needed at the end of this project to maximise impact. Not all projects will require this but if so, plans should be linked to the responses in questions 2 and 3 above.

What are the possible barriers for further research, development, adoption and implementation?

Describe the difficulties which may be faced in generating impact from your research. These may be difficulties you will face yourself, or challenges faced by those in the implementing context (e.g., clinicians)

• 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 are the challenges for getting your research implemented in terms of acceptability, accessibility and feasibility? How will you address these?

What do you think the impact of your research will be and for whom?

Describe the impacts you aim to achieve as a direct result of the project and those which are anticipated longer term. Please consider how any smaller, more immediate effects may mature over time into larger scale or more significant effects, and the steps by which this may be achieved. As far as possible, indicate anticipated timescales for these benefits and a quantitative estimate of their scale. Impacts may include, but are not restricted to - patient/service user, carer benefit; health and/or social care staff benefits; changes in NHS or care services (including efficiency savings); commercial return (which could contribute to economic growth); public wellbeing.  

How will you share with study participants the progress and findings funding of your research?

What strategies will you use to keep your research participants informed of the progress of your project and the findings? Consider the ethical implications of informing study participants and also what the most accessible methods could be, such as newsletters, leaflets, webpages, social media and where relevant different languages and formats. The Health Research Authority best practice webpage on publication and dissemination of research findings provides guidance on the information participants of trials should receive at the end of the study.

Project/Research timetable

Describe the progression of the research plan, including the timetable, key milestones and, deliverables of each work package / work stream.

Research capacity building

For applications seeking to embed research capacity building, include the timelines for recruitment of the individual(s) supported through the award, and the work to be completed on the work packages by said individual(s). Please note we also ask for the timelines of planned research activities and recruitment associated with research capacity building are presented clearly in the Gantt chart (see Section 8.9).

Project management

Explain the practical arrangements for managing the programme and its constituent components. Applicants are strongly advised to include a Programme Manager in their team and to clearly specify their role. This should include specification of the roles and responsibilities of the individual team members who will undertake the proposed research, the management structure (i.e., reporting lines), the programme manager, frequency of meetings, financial management etc., and highlight the role of any Advisory or Reference Groups associated with the research.

NOTE: Programme grant awards are required to have a Programme Steering Committee (PSC) in place. Successful applicants will be requested to provide the names of an independent Chair and three independent members of the committee (one of whom should represent the interests of patients and the public) once funding has been approved. Further information about the main role of PSC’s can be found in our Programme Steering Committee Guidance.

Ethics / Regulatory approvals

Outline any ethical issues associated with this research and the arrangements for handling them. If there are no plans to obtain ethical review, this must be clearly justified. Note that work outlined in your application/protocol must adhere to the UK Policy Framework for Health and Social Care.

Project/Research expertise

Explain why the group is well qualified to do this research, describing the track record of the research team in applied health, public health or social care research (including innovation and, where appropriate, evidence synthesis and assembly for dissemination at national level), including publication outputs, grant income and impact on health service, public health or social care practice and policy.

Explain how the applicant's work together (or propose to work together if they have not done so previously), and identify other major collaborations important for the research. State clearly the particular contribution that each of the applicants will make towards the programme and the particular contribution that any collaborators intend to make. Describe the existing research support (e.g. funding from other sources) available to the research team, which is relevant to this proposal. Clearly delineate the proposed programme from other related research, funded from another source.

PPI Lead 

There should be a named person with appropriate skills and experience who is responsible for leading the PPI element within the project. This role should be an adequately costed and resourced research team member who is able to manage the PPI plans and related activities. More information and examples of the activities a PPI lead might undertake can be found in the guidance on the NIHR website. 

If submitting with a joint lead applicant, justify why more than one person is needed to lead the proposal and why they are qualified to do so. 

(If, for any reason, salary costs of members of the team are not going to be sought via this application, it should be made clear how their contribution will be supported in the ‘Detailed Budget’ section).

Research capacity building

Please indicate if your proposal involves research capacity building plans.

As appropriate, please use this section to outline your plans for increasing research capacity, including through the provision of training, which supports diverse career paths and promotes equality, diversity and inclusion, as well as which competitively recruited post(s) this will apply to (addressing the bullets below).

Include an explanation of why it would be beneficial to increase the research capacity in the specific selected discipline(s) and the area of research being addressed with the proposal, and what stages of the academic career pathway require capacity building.

• What stages in the career pathway need to be developed?
• Why has this particular career stage and discipline been chosen that you are planning to support?
• What will the individuals be doing and when: where possible, the parts of the programme used to support capacity building should be clearly indicated in the Gantt chart?
• What supervision arrangements will be in place, and what training, mentorship and support will be available so that they can forge a sustainable research career beyond the lifetime of the award?
• Recruitment will occur using a competitive process, and how you will ensure equitable engagement of methodological and under-represented disciplines and professions.
• Include a NPC and indicate who this person will be as highlighted in Section 4.
• Positions are appropriately funded (see section 10: Detailed Budget).

Success criteria and barriers to proposed work

Please set out the measurements of success you intend to use throughout the programme. Also the key risks to delivering this research and what contingencies you will put in place to reduce or eliminate each risk or its impact.

NOTE: A risk is defined as any factor which may delay, disrupt or prevent the full achievement of a research objective. Typical areas of risk for a research application might include staffing, resource constraints, technical constraints, data access, timing, management and operational issues (please note that this list is not exhaustive).

Upload a Gantt chart

It is mandatory to attach a Gantt chart indicating a schedule for the completion of work, including the timing of key milestones and deliverables.

Remember to indicate clearly in the Gantt chart the timelines for the recruitment and work to be completed through the embedded support for research capacity development.

Patient and Public Involvement

Please describe how patients/service users, carers and the public have been involved in developing this proposal.

You should describe who has been involved and why this is appropriate, what role(s) they have played and what influence or change has happened as a result of their involvement

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

PPI approach, management and support

• 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. More resources to support the design of your PPI are available in our guidance on the NIHR website.

PPI Lead

There should be a named person with appropriate skills and experience who is responsible for leading the PPI element within the project. This role should be an adequately costed and resourced research team member who is able to manage the PPI plans and related activities. More information and examples of the activities a PPI lead might undertake can be found in our guidance on the NIHR website.

A summary of PPI activities

Please provide a summary below of the proposed PPI activities embedded throughout the research project lifecycle. Please clearly signpost to other sections of the Detailed Research Plan where the PPI is described further in relation to the relevant project stage e.g. dissemination, intervention design, data collection, analysis.

In rare cases where proposals do NOT involve patients and the public, clear justification must be provided.

Complete/justify as necessary.

Detailed Budget

Justification of costs

Provide justification for the resources requested, including the following:

• staff costs,
• travel, subsistence, and conference fees,
• equipment (including lease versus purchase costs),
• consumables,
• patient and public involvement, engagement and participation,
• other direct costs,
• dissemination costs,
• indirect costs

For help with estimating PPI costs, please see the NIHR payment guidance for researchers and professionals.

You should also indicate here how this research will potentially benefit the NHS and/ or public health and social care sector. 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 also provide justification for the NHS Support and Excess Treatment costs detailed in the SoECAT. If there are no NHS Support or Excess Treatment Costs associated with the research, you must explain why you think this is the case.

Detailed Budget Breakdown

The finance section should provide a breakdown of costs associated with undertaking the research as described in the proposal. Please refer to the associated ‘How to complete the finance form’ or short video for guidance about how to complete this section of the application form.

Programme specific information

Programme Grants for Applied Research and Programme Development Grants will fund 80% FEC of direct and indirect research costs.

The amount awarded and the length of the funding period depends on the nature of the proposed work. Smaller applications using novel methodological approaches to delivering research with direct benefit to patients, the public, NHS or social care systems are to be welcomed. One advantage of such approaches might be that they speed up the delivery of research outputs – as a guide such programmes delivered over 3 years might be expected to be costed at £1-1.5m

Research capacity building

For applications seeking to embed research capacity building, detail the staff salary/stipend costs, time commitment, and as appropriate academic tuition fees. Funds can be requested for studentship fees, salaries and full or partial formal training posts for individuals competitively recruited to work on the award (including but not limited to BSc, MSc, MPhil, MRes, PhD, Post docs). As a general rule between 10% and 20% of the overall programme grant budget should be spent on capacity building within the grant.

In addition to academic tuition fees, we encourage programmes to ring-fence a maximum budget of £7,500 per individual whose career development will be supported for training in technical research skills, personal development skills and conference attendance. Noting that the Researcher Development Concordat recommends an annual allowance of 10 days of training and development. Please also include the direct salary costs for the time dedicated to capacity development within this award for the Named Point of Contact for their Training and Development.

To be eligible for the benefits associated with NIHR Academy membership, competitively recruited individuals, with a formal training plan, should be receiving at least 25% of funding through the PGfAR award for salary/stipend over the lifetime of the individual’s post within the award.

As guidance you may want to consider the following recommendations by the NIHR Academy:

• Doctoral projects are commonly three years' Full or Whole Time Equivalent (FTE/WTE) in duration and could be taken up on a part time basis of between 50 and 100% WTE. Applicants from clinical or social care practice might want to include up to 20% clinical/practice time to ensure the maintenance of their clinical/practice competence.
• For clinical/practice applicants applying for a full time Doctoral award only, up to 2 sessions per week (i.e., 20%) may be allocated to clinical/practice time for service and/or training. If undertaking part-time this should be reduced accordingly up to a maximum of 20%. The remaining time must only be allocated to the research or research-related training proposed in the application.
• Post doctoral positions are commonly between 2 and 5 years Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) in duration and could be taken up on a part-time basis between 50% and 100% WTE.
• For clinical/practice applicants applying for a postdoctoral position, up to 40% of time can be allocated to clinical/practice for service and/or training.

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.

It is in your best interest to undertake a thorough, realistic and accurate costing. Where an outline/stage 1 application has been produced and this is the full stage (2) application, the committee will pay close attention to any material increase in costs. 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. 

• We recognise that the current higher level of inflation is increasing costs in research. NIHR aims to ensure that the cost of research is properly recompensed, therefore we will fund appropriate, evidenced inflationary price increases, including pay deals, within current contracts. Researchers should present evidence justifying any additional inflationary costs at contract close, with any pre-close pressures managed through normal contract management.
• 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 June 2020 then its second year starts 01 June 2021.
• 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 the Local Comprehensive Research Network (LCRN) senior manager for advice on NHS support costs. Further details about LCRN contacts are available on the NIHR Local CRN website.
• All applications are expected to have appropriate NHS, HEI, commercial and other partner organisation input into the finance section of the application form.
• Non-commercial led Awards (e.g., NHS, HEI etc.) will be paid via BAC transfer payment schedules. The NIHR will release funds net of VAT as Research and Development is considered VAT exempt. There are some cost items within an application which may incur VAT, such as equipment or subcontractors. If the applying organisation is unable to claim back the VAT on these items (e.g., maybe they are not VAT registered) then applicants can charge the gross value to the application.
• Commercial led awards will be paid via invoicing. It is up to the company to decide if it is appropriate to apply VAT on the invoice. If the company decides to apply VAT, then DHSC will pay the invoice and claim back the VAT. We recommend that applicants seek advice from VAT experts within their organisation before applying.

Please note that whilst the applicable 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.

Information on different types of organisations

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

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.

NHS bodies and other providers of NHS services in England

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.

Commercial/other partner organisations

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.

If you are another 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:

Staff costs

This section presents an overview of salary and associated on-costs for the applicant(s) contributing to the research, including normal salary increments broken down individually.

Salary costs (apply to years)

This section specifies the annual costs of each applicant contributing to the research. You should now allocate the individual staff member costs to each year of the research, allowing for increments. Use current rates of pay, and build in any known annual increments (again at current rates). You will not be able to claim for pay awards retrospectively, once your research is underway.

Research capacity building

Funds can be requested for salaries and any full time and/or part time formal training and development posts. Please also include the direct salary costs for the time dedicated to supporting research capacity buidingwithin this award for the Named Point of Contact for their Training and Development.

Travel, subsistence and conference dissemination costs

This section includes journey costs, subsistence and conference fees. Where applicable, you will need to include the travel and subsistence costs of your project advisory group, steering committee and/or data monitoring & ethics committee. Travel and subsistence costs relating to dissemination should also be included here, as should costs relating to overseas travel.

Journey costs

Enter the total cost of transport for all journeys for destination/purpose. If travel is by car, apply your institution’s mileage rates (however this should not exceed HMRC approved mileage allowance payments, which is 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and 25p thereafter).

Travel by the most economic means possible is encouraged. NIHR programmes do not usually fund first class travel.

Subsistence

Subsistence covers accommodation (if necessary) and meals associated with the travel, excluding any alcoholic beverages.

Conferences

Where national or international conference costs are included, a statement naming the conference or purpose  of travel and the benefit to the research must also be made; failure to adequately justify your attendance at a conference will mean the programme will not fund this cost.

For research of up to five years, the programme will usually fund up to a maximum of two international conference attendances. (two people attending one conference or one person attending two conferences). There are no limits on the number of UK conference attendances. For research beyond five years, the programme will usually fund up to a maximum of two international conference attendances per five year or part of five year research period.

Research capacity building - Please note costs associated with conference attendance by the individuals whose research careers will be formally supported through the PGfAR award, should be included in their ring fenced budget for training in the Other Direct Costs section.

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.
• Pieces of equipment costing more than £5,000 to purchase will usually need to be leased. Where applicants are leasing equipment with a purchase price of more than £5,000, a comparison of leasing versus purchasing costs must be provided in the ‘Justification of Costs’ section.
• Items of equipment valued at £250 or more must be itemised separately; however grouping same type equipment is permitted.
• Costs of computers are limited to a maximum of £1,000 per item. This includes the costs of any associated software and VAT. A statement of justification must be included in the relevant ‘Justification of Costs’ section for any purchase above this limit.

Consumables

This section includes non-reusable items specific to the research. Please itemise and describe the requirements fully (e.g. postage, stationery, photocopying). These items should be research specific, not just general office costs which should be covered by indirect costs.

Patient and public involvement

Please itemise and describe fully the costs associated with patient and public involvement. These are likely to include individual travel, out of pocket expenses, payment for time and any relevant training and support costs. Costs related to study participants should not be itemised here.

If voluntary, charity or community groups are supporting the research via activities such as facilitating contact with potential participants, hosting research activities or providing advice, an adequate budget must be included to compensate for their time and resources.

For further information on budgeting for involvement, please read the NIHR Payments Guidance for researchers and professionals.

Other direct costs

These are costs, not identified elsewhere, that are specifically attributed to the research. For example, costs associated with the use of research facilities, external consultancy costs, costs associated with inclusivity (which may include, but are not limited to justified translation of research participant material into other relevant languages), computer licensing, recruitment and advertising costs.

Please note that for organisations claiming indirect/overhead costs, costs such as recruitment of staff, and general training (e.g. in common IT packages) are costs that should be covered by the indirect costs element of the award being sought and should not appear in this section.

If external consultancy costs are included in this section they must be fully justified in the ‘Justification of Costs’ section. Please specify the hourly rate and the number of hours and note that consultants must not be people who are already employed by the applicant’s institution. If they are, any costs should be entered as direct costs in the 'Staff Costs' and 'Salary Costs' sections.

Research capacity building

Please include the studentship fees associated with the competitively recruited individual training posts, indicating in the description what level of qualification these fees relate to (including but not limited to MSc, MPhil, MRes, PhD, and any academic fees that may be associated with internships or postdoctoral positions).

We encourage programmes to ring-fence a maximum budget of £7,500 per individual whose health and care research career development will be supported, for training in technical research skills, personal development skills and conference attendance.

Dissemination Costs

Open access costs

Applicants should no longer include open access costs as part of their stage 2 detailed budget Research Costs.

From the 1st of June 2022 all eligible awards contracts issued across NIHR Programmes, NIHR Personal Awards and NIHR Global Health Research Portfolio will have an Open Access 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 in question.

Further information can be found by reading the Open Access Funding Guidance.

Other dissemination costs

Any large costs should be further detailed. 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.

Indirect costs/overheads

Indirect costs will be charged in proportion to the amount of research staff effort requested on the award.

They comprise:

• 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 bodies or other providers of NHS services indirect costs

NHS indirect costs cannot be claimed through NIHR/DHSC programme funding. NHS bodies or other providers of NHS services have been allocated NIHR Research Capability Funding (RCF) to contribute to the cost of hosting NIHR/DHSC-supported research. For more information, please visit the RCF webpage.

HEI indirect costs

Total HEI indirect costs must be fully justified. HEIs are permitted to claim estate and other indirect costs. These costs are calculated on the basis of TRAC methodology. Proposals from other types of institutions/organisations should leave this section blank.

• HEI indirect costs are based on the number of full-time equivalent research staff working on the research and the indirect/estate charges set by an institution.
• Where staff from more than one HEI are working on the research there may be different indirect/estate charges for each one. Please list each institution on a separate line.
• Please note HEI indirect costs cannot be claimed on shared staff costs.

The applicant(s) should consult their HEI finance departments for the appropriate figures to include in the estate charges and other indirect cost section.

Commercial/other partner organisation indirect costs

Commercial/other partner organisations can claim indirect costs which are the costs of resources used by the research that are shared by other activities. Please seek advice from your finance department about the appropriate cost for this section. Total Commercial/other partner organisation indirect costs must be fully justified.

NHS support and treatment costs (incl. excess treatment costs/savings)

Please be aware that the research award does NOT include NHS support and/or treatment Costs. These costs, including costs for Social Care research, are funded via Clinical Research Networks and should be detailed in the Schedule of Events Cost Attribution Tool (SoECAT) (see below for further details).

However, the committee will take NHS support and/or treatment costs into account when considering the value for money of the research. It is important that you consider these costs and discuss them with the NHS bodies or providers of NHS services involved in order to avoid any delay in commencing the research.

Applicants 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 (LCRN) for advice on NHS Support Costs. Further details about LCRN contacts are available online at ‘Clinical Research Network’.

When considered necessary by the LCRN AcoRD specialist, a Schedule of Events Cost Attribution Tool (SoECAT), detailing NHS support and/or Treatment Costs, needs to be completed. This should be downloaded and submittedand uploaded as part of the application.

Please be aware that if your planned project includes the recruitment of participants, your application should be accompanied with the Funder Export from the online SoECAT, obtainable via the NIHR Central Portfolio Management System (CPMS). This online version replaces the previous Excel version of the SoECAT, which will no longer be available for applications.

Upload a Schedule of Events Cost Attribution Template (SoECAT) form

Online SoECAT tool

In order to create a SoECAT, you will need to create an account in the Central Portfolio Management System (CPMS). After creating the account, you will need to login to CPMS to activate this account. If any assistance is required in creating the account, please refer to our CPMS user guide. Once your account has been created and is active, you can proceed.

Guidance for the completion of the SoECAT is present in the online tool to assist at each page and stage of the application process and further details can be found on the Online SoECAT Guidance page.
There is also an Online SoECAT Guidance Module which includes video tutorials and linked resources (an NIHR Learn account is required to access and enrol onto the module) and a helpful Study Representative - Online SoECAT Top Tips infographic.

NOTE:Please note that completion of the SoECAT may not be necessary when applying for funding to support: overarching programmes with no specific research study protocol, infrastructure, fellowships, anything where the grant is to be used for direct employment of a member of staff or purchase of an asset, and data or diagnostic reviews where recruitment data is not collected. Such applications should be submitted with an explanation added to the Justification of Costs section.
More information on the SoECAT form is available on the NIHR website: Online SoECAT guidance.

NHS support costs

These are the additional patient care costs associated with the research, which would end once the R&D activity in question has stopped, even if the patient care service involved continues to be provided. These might cover items such as extra patient tests, extra in-patient days and extra nursing attention. 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 the LCRN senior manager for advice on NHS support costs. Further details about LCRN contacts are available on the NIHR LCRN website.

NHS treatment costs

Please read the guidance on excess treatment costs Online SoECAT guidance prior to completing your application.

These are the patient care costs that would continue to be incurred if the patient care service in question continued to be provided after the R&D activity has stopped. In determining NHS treatment costs you must assume that the patient care service being assessed will continue even though there may be no plans for it to do so. Where patient care is being provided which differs from the normal, standard, treatment for that condition (either an experimental treatment or a service in a different location from where it would normally be given), the difference between the total treatment costs and the costs of the “usual standard care" (if any) constitutes excess treatment cost/saving, but is nonetheless part of the treatment cost, not an NHS support or research cost. These costs should be determined in conjunction with your NHS body or provider of NHS services and their commissioners.

Please note: Social care studies are eligible for Clinical Research Network (CRN) support, it does not just apply to NHS based research, and researchers should speak to the CRN and include support costs where relevant. For the purposes of social care studies ‘treatment costs’ should be interpreted as ‘intervention costs’ and should be included in the proposal when needed. Further guidance on support and ‘treatment’ costs can be found on the Online SoECAT guidance.

For further information, please see the attributing the costs of health and social care research and development (AcoRD) guidance.

Management and Governance

Is Clinical Trials Authorisation required?

Yes / No

Does your project require ethics approval?

Yes / No

If yes, has ethics approval already been obtained?

Yes / No

Uploads

Mandatory:

• A list of references cited in the application (maximum 3 pages A4).
• A completed Funder Export from the online Schedule of Events Cost Attribution Tool (SoECAT) or if this is not applicable an explanation added to the Justification of Costs section

If claiming RSS based CTU support or other CTU support, the following file is considered mandatory:

• CTU letter of support.

If applying following a Programme Development Grant, the following file is considered mandatory:

• NIHR Programme Development Grant Final Report.

The following file(s) are considered non-mandatory to submission; please number your files and attach:
Supporting documentation, including logic models, flow diagrams, pictures, charts, letters of support, papers in press etc. No more than five separate files are permitted. The total file size of all uploads should not exceed 6Mb (this includes the SoECAT form and Gantt Chart uploaded earlier in the form). Total file sizes larger than this may not be considered as part of the submission. All supporting documentation must be uploaded with a clear and concise filename description, preceded by a numbered ‘Appendix’ reference.

Administrative contact details

Please provide the details of an administrative lead as a secondary point of contact for any queries relating to the application, should it be supported.

NOTE: This person does not need to be a co-applicant.

Research and Development office contact details

Please provide the contact details and job title of a person in the R&D office so that we are able to notify them of the outcome of this application including any associated feedback.

NOTE: This person does not need to be included as a co-applicant.

Acknowledge, review and submit

Conflict checks

Please declare any conflicts or potential conflicts of interest that you or your co-applicants may have, including any facts that, should they come to light at a future date, could lead to a perception of bias. Include any relevant personal, non-personal and commercial interest that could be perceived as a conflict of interest. Examples include (this list is not all encompassing) secondary employment, consultancy, financial or commercial gain (pensions, shareholdings, directorships, voting rights), honoraria, etc. In a case of commercial sector involvement with the application or the study, please state clearly the relationship to ownership of data, access to data, and membership of project oversight groups.

Agreement to terms and conditions

As lead applicant, please tick the box to confirm that the information given on this form is correct and that you will be actively engaged in this research and responsible for its overall management. In addition, you will accept responsibility for ensuring that the host institution and interested parties are kept informed.

Ticking this box constitutes an electronic signature of the lead applicant with regard to this application.

Checklist of information to include when submitting a NIHR stage 2 research application

Applicants should click the check boxes to indicate that they have included the necessary information prior to submitting their application.

Action	Checkbox
Appropriate and relevant involvement of patients/service users, carers and the public	-
A good quality plain English summary	-
A clear description of team member roles and contribution	-
A clear scientific abstract	-
A clear description of the changes from first stage	-
A flow diagram illustrating the study design / flow of participants (document upload), if appropriate	-
A full and accurate detailed budget breakdown	-
A clear justification of costs / value for money	-
References (document upload)	-
A clear Detailed Research Plan outlining the study design, methods, dissemination etc.	-
A CTU letter of support if required (document upload)	-
Completed Schedule of Events Cost Attribution Tool if required (SoECAT)	-