Research Support Service

The NIHR Research Support Service (RSS) provides support to researchers to develop applications to national, peer-reviewed research programmes. This covers all NIHR programmes and UK Research Councils, as well as national health and care charities. 

The RSS supports translational, clinical and applied health, public health, and social care research. It can also support applications for fellowships and other personal awards. The RSS does not provide support to global health research, or research that involves discovery. It also cannot support research involving animals or animal tissues.

The service is delivered by eight ‘hubs’. Hubs are a partnership of research groups and Clinical Trials Units (CTUs) with expertise in applied health and care research.  There are also Specialist Centres for Public Health and Social Care, which provide more context-specific expertise. The Public Health Specialist Centres may support applications for local funding opportunities.

The RSS offers collaborative trial delivery through their network of CTUs, and can signpost users to non-RSS UKCRC-accredited CTUs. RSS staff can be collaborators in your research, but will provide advice irrespective of whether staff or partners are collaborators.

The RSS National Collaborative provides strategic leadership to the service and coordinates operational efficiencies. This is hosted by the University of Birmingham.

Where is the RSS located?

The RSS is a national service, and each hub and Specialist Centre is open to researchers based anywhere in England. The RSS can support researchers in the devolved nations if they are working in collaboration with English partners.

What support does the RSS offer researchers?

The RSS can help you to develop your research ideas into competitive funding applications.

All hubs and Specialist Centres can support researchers with advice on:

• finding funding sources
• refining research questions, aims and objectives
• developing appropriate methodological approaches
• planning projects, teams and budgets
• planning for implementation and impact
• writing techniques/pitching an application
• patient, public, service user and community involvement and engagement
• research design to maximise equality, diversity and inclusion

Other support includes advice on project delivery, research approval processes and obtaining ethics approval. The RSS can also provide signposting to other services.

Across the RSS, hubs have expertise to offer advice and support in:

• quantitative expertise, including the statistical aspects of study design, analysis, and reporting; randomised controlled trials (RCTs) including cluster designs and platform trials; and other designs, such as stepped wedge, Bayesian and adaptive approaches
• feasibility and pilot studies
• qualitative study design and analysis
• mixed methods design and analysis
• development, validation and adaptation of outcome measures
• research priority setting, stakeholder involvement and participatory research methods
• behavioural science/ health psychology
• epidemiology
• systematic scoping reviews, qualitative synthesis, systematic reviews and meta-analysis
• health service/implementation research
• expertise developing innovative PPIE approaches with researchers, patients, community organisations and the public
• co-production of interventions with PPIE and stakeholders
• equality, diversity and inclusion
• big data and record/data linkage
• health economics, early economic modelling and evaluation, outcome measurement and cost-effectiveness
• operational support, clinical trials management, and study delivery
• planning pathways to impact

How do I get support from the RSS?

Look through the summary of each hub or specialist centre to find the one that best meets your needs, independent of your location. Once you have decided on a hub or specialist centre, please contact them directly using the contact form linked on their hub page.

Please only contact one hub or specialist centre.

When should I contact the RSS?

Developing a funding application involves considerable planning, time and effort. To ensure the RSS can provide comprehensive support, initial contact should be as early as possible – ideally several months before the funder deadline. Requests for support made less than five working weeks before the submission deadline may influence the quality and nature of the support the RSS can offer.

Clinical Trials Unit support is complex and more likely to need a minimum of three months work up, each CTU has their own guidelines which should be referred to for confirmation.