We are running this funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.
Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
To apply:
You can only apply for this funding opportunity if we have invited you to do so following a successful stage one application. The start application link will be provided via email.
- Confirm you are the project lead.
- Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org
Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service.
- Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the ‘How to apply’ section on this Funding finder page.
- Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
- Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.
Watch our research office webinars about the new UKRI Funding Service.
Deadline
We must receive your application by 8 November 2023 by 4.00pm UK time.
You will not be able to apply after this time.
Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.
Following the close of the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.
Personal data
Processing personal data
MRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your funding service account and the registration of your funding applications.
We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.
Publication of outcomes
MRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at .
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
Summary
Word count: 550
In plain English, provide a summary of the need you are seeking to address, your proposed solution, the rationale for why your proposed solution is likely to meet the targeted need, and your development plan.
We may make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, so make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:
- opinion-formers
- policymakers
- the public
- the wider research community
Guidance for writing a summary
Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:
- context
- the challenge the project addresses
- aims and objectives
- potential applications and benefits
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
- project lead (PL)
- project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
- project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
- researcher co-lead (RcL)
- specialist
- grant manager
- professional enabling staff
- research and innovation associate
- technician
- visiting researcher
Only list one individual as project lead.
Find out more about UKRI’s new grant roles.
Core questions
Related applications
Word count: 2,000
Provide a response to feedback from your stage one Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS) application or previous stage two DPFS application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Ensure you describe:
- how this application differs from the previous application
- how previous feedback has been considered and addressed
Please identify, if applicable, if your application is a resubmission to DPFS, including any invitations from us permitting your resubmission and previous reference number.
Opportunity and market
Word count: 1,500
What is the opportunity or challenge, you are seeking to address?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Ensure you describe:
- the health or clinical need you are seeking to address
- how your work could lead to the development of a new or improved prototype, product, service or technology
- how meeting this need could significantly reduce disease burden or alleviate an important clinical or translational bottleneck
- the competing solutions and their status, including whether similar or complementary research is being taken elsewhere
- the key competitive advantages of your proposed solution
- the potential market for your proposed solution, quantify this in terms of the target product profile, patient numbers and financial parameters
Building on your stage one application, you should also describe in detail:
- the timeliness of your approach
- the end users of your proposed solution, such as clinicians, primary care staff, technical specialists
- any engagement with end users, patients, carers or the wider public in the development of the project
- any further needs that could be addressed by your proposed solution or components of it, such as use as a platform technology
Scientific background and current stage of development
Word count: 2,500
What is the background to this application and evidence to support the proposed solution?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Ensure that you provide:
- a detailed description of the current stage of development
- an overview of the rationale and scientific background of your application
- updated information about your previous or current funding (if applicable) that has enabled and informed the proposed work, include any previous UKRI grant references. If you will have any funding concurrent to this project, explain any overlap and how that funding will support the proposed work
- in the case of applications involving institutes, units or centres with existing core funding, including those funded by UKRI and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) such as Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs), describe how the proposed work and resources requested builds on, but is distinct from, core funded programmes of research
In this section, you must also provide supporting data (including a small selection of figures, tables and images where relevant) to demonstrate the current development stage of your project and proof-of-concept to support your application.
If applicable, include any relevant figures:
- provide only a small selection of images that complement the written content in a section
- include within the image itself only text that is an integral part of it
- include a brief description of the image within the ‘Alternative description’ text field, so that screen reader software can describe the image to meet accessibility requirements
- include all other text associated with the description of the image, such as the figure number, figure title and figure legend, within the narrative text so that it can be read by screen readers and contribute to the word count of a section
Small molecule supplementary information
Word count: 1,500
If you are requesting funding for a hit to lead, lead optimisation or candidate selection project, please provide structures.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If your application is not about hit-to-lead and lead optimisation, enter ‘N/A’ in the text box, mark this section as complete and move to the next question.
Download and complete the DPFS small molecule supplementary information form DPFS small molecule supplementary information form (DOCX, 48KB), then paste the table into the text box.
Using the following headings, ensure that you provide:
Target Product Profile (TPP) or Key Target Compound Parameters of the proposed Investigational New Drug (IND):
- target name
- mechanism of action, such as agonist, antagonist
- route of administration, such as oral, IV, topical
- duration of Treatment, such as acute or chronic
- dosage regimen, such as twice daily
Structure and Data
- provide structures for the most promising chemical series being actively developed. Failure to include chemical structures may negatively impact the ability to assess the suitability or strengths of your proposed chemistry plan.
- using the table as a template, summarise the available data in the same column for each series. Data are requested for any available assays for the lead molecule shown and the range seen within the chemical series, including (but not limited to):
- biological assays
- physicochemical properties
- liabilities and development risks for up to two chemotypes or chemical series
Project Tractability
- summarise the main structure activity/property relationships for each chemical series
- highlight the key challenges to optimisation of the series towards the TPP and outline how these will be addressed
- describe the biological assays and models to be used in the project including their duration and throughput where relevant
- explain how risk associated with the translation between in vivo assays, in vivo models, and activity in humans will be minimised
Development plan and route to patient benefit
Word count: 1,000
What is the proposed approach for further development, and how will the project progress the innovation or technology towards achieving market or health or patient benefits?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Using the following headings, ensure you describe in detail:
Current development plan
- how the proposed work will enable its development
- the project’s primary objectives
- the project endpoint that would indicate that there is a reasonable chance of attracting onward investment
- the expertise or any consultancy required to deliver the proposed work
- how the proposed work will inform or deploy the product or technology using the most appropriate route to market or patient benefit
Exit strategy
- what further support you may need, following this funding, to deliver your product or technology, such as access to further funding, networks, partnerships, private investment and skills
- criteria that would need to be met to access the further support
- if you are ultimately seeking to develop a commercial product, the potential market value and how this will be realised such as business development plans
- any engagement taken place or planned with potential downstream funders, partners or regulators, outlining who they are and the status of discussions
- the plans and strategy for further development, outlining the planned route to achieving patient benefits following the end of the DPFS project
Approach
Word count: 3,500
How are you going to deliver your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a project plan with robust experimental design and risk management to support your development.
Project plan
Provide a detailed project workplan which should include:
- project specific deliverables
- a minimum of two key progression milestones (one being the project end)
- project’s starting point and approaches proposed to deliver the planned objectives
- the overall timeframe of the project
- the resourcing necessary to deliver the proposed work
- the project management requirements, including the commitment and involvement from your:
- research office
- translational research office, your technology transfer office or both (include key contact and their positions)
- any regulatory approvals required. If you have consulted with the relevant regulatory body or experts, please summarise the outcome of the discussions
To support your project plan, you must also embed a Gantt chart in the text box that includes:
- project tasks (these being short, achievable and measurable activities) with, where relevant, the party responsible for delivering the task and dependency between tasks
- milestones which are major specifically-timed ‘Go/No-go’ decision points
You should check the readability of your embedded ‘Gantt chart’ using the ‘read view’ on the Funding Service. Sizes of images can be adjusted when editing within the text box.
Methodology and experimental design
As part of your methodology and experimental design, ensure that you describe:
- the use of animals or patients, including justification for why particular animal models or clinical populations have been chosen, following the MRC embedding diversity in research design policy
- if applicable, show how you will use both sexes in research involving animals and tissues and cells. If you are not proposing to do this, a strong justification is required
- any consultation with a statistician or methodology hub to the development of the proposal
- the access you will have to statistical support during the project
- the statistical analysis plans, the proposed sample sizes in sufficient detail for the replication of any power calculation
- the anticipated effects sizes and variability
- potential sources of bias and describe the strategies that will be adopted to minimise their effects
- for clinical studies, the recruitment and retention strategy
Please refer to the MRC guidance for applicants, section 2.2.3.5 ‘Reproducibility and statistical design’, for further information.
Use the ‘Research involving the use of animals’ section to provide information on the rationale for using animals, choice of species, welfare and procedure severity.
The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research have developed a free online tool to guide researchers through the design of their experiments. It helps to ensure that researchers use the minimum number of animals consistent with their scientific objectives, methods to reduce subjective bias, and appropriate statistical analysis.
Risk management
Describe the key risks to the project and your risk management plan, including:
- how likely the risks are to occur
- what their impact would be on the success and deliverability of the project
- how these risks will be managed, by whom and related escalation or mitigations procedures
You may use a risk table if preferred.
Environment, infrastructure and equipment
Describe how your, and if applicable your team’s, research environment (in terms of the place and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work
Demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposed work, including:
- specialist equipment or infrastructure required to deliver the project objectives
- proposed use of existing joint research facilities
- proposed use of existing clinical infrastructure, for example the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre Network, NIHR biomedical research centres, NIHR clinical research facilities, patient cohorts
- if not already in place, explain how you will ensure this infrastructure is accessible by the project start date
We suggest you structure your response using the following headings, with approximate word counts for each:
- project plan: 1,500 words
- methodology and experimental design: 1,000 words
- risk management: 500 words
- environment, infrastructure and equipment: 500 words
Do not use the project plan to include information which should be detailed in the other sections of your application.
Milestones
Word count: 1,500
Provide details of your project milestones.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide at least two key progression milestones for your project, that:
- delineate the proposed work into costed project phases with clear ‘Go/No-go’ decision points
- provides the success criteria that will be used for each milestone, with target and acceptable thresholds
Download and complete the following milestone template (DOCX, 52KB) and copy and paste into the text box. You may add as many milestones as needed for your project.
Milestones must be SMART, that is: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-framed:
- detail robust ‘Go/No-go’ criteria (failure to meet these will result in early termination of the project)
- for all projects, it is advisable to structure the project so that the critical questions are addressed as early as possible in the plan
Success criteria should be based on project outputs that, at the given point, need to be achieved in order to justify further continuation of the studies. Success criteria should align to project aims and objectives; success criteria for the final milestone should reflect what success for the funded aspect of the project would equate to.
For each success criterion, please specify a quantified target value that you will seek to attain and a quantified acceptable value, which, if achieved, would support project progression.
For clinical studies, this should include a summary of:
- study design
- study participants
- study endpoints
- dose (when applicable)
- analysis plans
Do not include project management meetings or other process-related tasks as milestone success criteria.
Your estimate of the milestone criteria being met should assume that the preceding milestone was achieved.
For the final milestone, the criteria should reflect outcomes representing successful completion of the project.
Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word count: 1,500
Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:
- the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
- the relevant experience of research translation
- the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work
- the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
- contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community
The word count for this section is 1,500 words, 1,000 words to be used for R4RI modules and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.
Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you and, if relevant, your team (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.
Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed. Use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI. You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings:
- contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge
- the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships
- contributions to the wider research and innovation community
- contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit
Additions
Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences, or outputs, but you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).
Also include, where relevant, any other information of relevance to the proposal, for example previous experience of research translation.
Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.
UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the Funding Service.
For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.
References
Word count: 1,000
List the references you have used to support your application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Include all references in this section, not in the rest of the application questions.
You should not include any other information in this section.
Ensure your application is a self-contained description. You can provide hyperlinks to relevant publications or online resources. However, assessors are not obliged to access the information they lead to or consider it in their assessment of your application. You must not include links to web resources in order to extend your application.
If linking to web resources, to maintain the information’s integrity, include persistent identifiers (such as digital object identifiers) where possible.
Intellectual Property (IP) management and dissemination of project outcomes
Word count: 1,500
Attachment: International Search Report (5 pages)
What IP will be generated and how it would be managed during the project?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If the project is not generating any new IP, please enter ‘N/A’ in the section and move on.
IP is a collective term for all intangible assets such as data, clinical trial results, software, know-how, materials, inventions, methods, designs and the associated intellectual property rights (including patents, copyright and trademarks).
The generation of protectable intellectual property is not an essential requirement for DPFS. Projects that will not generate patentable materials but that will nevertheless have the potential to provide health benefits are accepted on an equal basis. However, ownership and management of IP must be consistent with our funding requirements.
Projects with no plausible route to exploitation and ultimate health benefit or impact are extremely unlikely to be supportable.
You should use the following headings where applicable:
IP generation and management
- describe any new intellectual property or knowledge that the project is expected to generate
- explain how any intellectual assets generated will be managed throughout the project to enable further development and ensure future success
- detail the organisations or individuals who will own any arising IP and any live, pending or envisioned agreements governing ownership or exploitation of that IP
Prior art
- list all existing technologies and IP that will be developed or utilised as part of your DPFS project. Please include patent numbers, patent claim coverage, ownership and status where relevant
- provide a summary of the most relevant prior art, with details on the database searched, dates of the searches and the search terms. You may upload a summary of international search report (up to five A4 pages) to support your application
- describe the potential impact of prior art on the strategy for protection of IP, including any disclosure of background IP by the applicants or a third party
Freedom to operate
- explain if the applicants have freedom to operate for this project, for future development work, or for clinical use. If access is required, what IP does the project need access to for future development
- if access to background IP is required, detail the organisations or individuals that hold the relevant background IP rights. If this background IP is held by a third party (or a non-academic applicant), has access been agreed? If not, why do you believe you will be able to access the required IP on reasonable terms
Conflict of interest and management
- if any of the academic applicants have an interest in the commercial owners of background technologies or IP, such as shareholding options or consultancy fee, and what is the nature of their interest and how are conflicts of interest being managed
Project partners
Word count: 1,000
Provide details of any project partners’ contributions, and letters or emails of support from each named partner.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Download and complete the Project partner contributions template (DOCX, 52KB).
Each letter or email you provide should:
- confirm the partner’s commitment to the project
- clearly explain the value, relevance, and possible benefits of the work to them
- describe any additional value that they bring to the project
Save letters or emails of support from each partner in a single PDF no bigger than 8MB. Unless specially requested, please do not include any personal data within the attachment.
For the file name, use the unique funding service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Project partner’.
If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the application will be rejected.
The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply. If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Ensure you have prior agreement from project partners so that, if you are offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the contributions template.
For audit purposes, we require formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
Do not provide letters of support from host and project co-leads’ research organisations.
Industry Collaboration Framework (ICF)
Word count: 1,500
Does your application include industry project partners?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If industry collaboration does not apply to any of your project partners, or you do not have any project partners, simply add ‘N/A’ into the text box.
If your research project involves collaboration between an academic organisation and an industry or company, you are likely to need to follow the industry collaboration framework and answer this question, check using the ICF decision tree.
By ‘industry or company’ we mean an enterprise that puts goods or services on a market and whose commercial activities are greater than 20% of their overall annual capacity.
The assessors are looking for information relating to the nature, goals and conditions of the collaboration and any restrictions or rights to the project results that could be claimed by the project partner.
By ‘industry or company’ we mean an enterprise that puts goods or services on a market and whose commercial activities are greater than 20% of their overall annual capacity.
Find out more about ICF, including:
- collaboration agreements
- definitions of basic or applied research
- internationally based companies
- subsidy control
- Intellectual property (IP) arrangements
- fully flexible and gated contributions
- the ICF assessment criteria
In addition to the project partner information completed in the previous section, confirm your answers to the ICF questions in the text box, repeat this process for each ICF project partner:
- Name the industry or company project partner considered under ICF.
- Indicate whether your application is either basic research or applied research.
- Explain why, in the absence of the requested UKRI funding, the collaboration and the planned research could not be undertaken.
- State whether your application is under the category of either fully flexible contribution or gated contribution (based on the IP sharing arrangements with the ICF partner).
- Outline the pre-existing IP (‘background IP’) that each project partner (including the academic partner) will bring to the collaborative research project and the terms under which project partners may access these assets.
- Outline the IP that is expected to be developed during the collaborative research project (‘foreground IP’) and briefly outline how it will be managed, including:
- which project partners will own this IP
- what rights project partners will have to use academically-generated foreground IP during and after the research project, for internal research and development or for commercial purposes
- any rights of the academic partner to commercialise the foreground IP (including foreground IP generated by project partners)
- Outline any restrictions to dissemination of the project results, including the rights of the project partner to:
- review, approve or delay publications (including the time period associated with such rights)
- request or require the removal of any information
- Declare any conflicts of interest held by the applicants in relation to the project partners and describe how they will be managed.
- If applicable, justify collaborating with an overseas industry or company under ICF.
Failure to provide the information requested for industry partners under ICF could result in your application being rejected.
You are recommended to discuss the goals and conditions of any collaboration with an industry or company project partner with your university technology transfer or contracts office before applying.
Data management and sharing
Word count: 1,500
How will you manage and share data collected or acquired through the proposed research?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a data management plan which should clearly detail how you will comply with MRC’s published data management and sharing policies, which includes detailed guidance notes.
Provide your response following the MRC data management plan template.
The length of your plan will vary depending on the type of study being undertaken:
- population cohorts; longitudinal studies; genetic, omics and imaging data; biobanks, and other collections that are potentially a rich resource for the wider research community: maximum of 1,500 words
- all other research, less complex, the plan may be as short as 500 words
Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)
Word count: 500
What are the ethical or RRI implications and issues relating to the proposed work? If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, explain why.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated:
- the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations
- how you will manage these considerations
Consider the MRC guidance on ethics and approvals.
Genetic and biological risk
Word count: 700
Does your proposed research involve any genetic or biological risk?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
In respect of animals, plants or microbes, are you proposing to:
- use genetic modification as an experimental tool, like studying gene function in a genetically modified organism
- release genetically modified organisms
- ultimately develop commercial and industrial genetically modified outcomes
If yes, provide the name of any required approving body and state if approval is already in place. If it is not, provide an indicative timeframe for obtaining the required approval.
Identify the organism or organisms as a plant, animal or microbe and specify the species and which of the three categories the research relates to.
Identify the genetic and biological risks resulting from the proposed research, their implications, and any mitigation you plan on taking. Assessors will want to know you have considered the risks and their implications to justify that any identified risks do not outweigh any benefits of the proposed research.
If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Research involving the use of animals
Word count: 10
Does your proposed research involve the use of vertebrate animals or other organisms covered by the Animals Scientific Procedures Act?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are proposing research that requires using animals, download and complete the Animals Scientific Procedures Act template (DOCX, 74KB), which contains all the questions relating to research using vertebrate animals or other Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 regulated organisms.
Save it as a PDF. The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply. If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Conducting research with animals overseas
Word count: 10
Will any of the proposed animal research be conducted overseas?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are proposing to conduct overseas research, it must be conducted in accordance with welfare standards consistent with those in the UK, as in Responsibility in the use of animals in bioscience research, page 14.
Ensure all named applicants in the UK and overseas are aware of this requirement. Provide a statement to confirm that:
- all named applicants are aware of the requirements and have agreed to abide by them
- this overseas research will be conducted in accordance with welfare standards consistent with the principles of UK legislation
- the expectation set out in Responsibility in the use of animals in bioscience research will be applied and maintained
- appropriate national and institutional approvals are in place.
Overseas studies proposing to use non-human primates, cats, dogs, equines or pigs will be assessed during NC3Rs review of research applications. Provide the required information by completing the template from the question ‘Research involving the use of animals’.
For studies involving other species, select, download, and complete the relevant Word checklist or checklists from this list:
Save as a PDF. If you use more than one checklist, save it as a single PDF.
The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply. If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Research involving human participation
Word count: 700
Will the project involve the use of human subjects or their personal information?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are proposing research that requires the involvement of human subjects, provide the name of any required approving body and whether approval is already in place.
Justify the number and the diversity of the participants involved, as well as any procedures.
Provide details of any areas of substantial or moderate severity of impact.
If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Research involving human tissues or biological samples
Word count: 700
Does your proposed research involve the use of human tissues, or biological samples?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are proposing work that involves human tissues or biological samples, provide the name of any required approving body and whether approval is already in place.
Justify the use of human tissue or biological samples specifying the nature and quantity of the material to be used and its source.
If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Resources and cost justification
Word limit: 1,200
What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Justify the application’s more costly resources, in particular:
- project staff
- significant travel for field work or collaboration (but not regular travel between collaborating organisations or to conferences)
- any equipment that will cost more than £10,000
- any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
- all facilities and infrastructure costs
- all resources that have been costed as ‘exceptions’
- support for public and patient involvement and engagement
- support for preserving, long-term storage, or sharing of data
- support for international co-leads, demonstrating this is within the 30% costs cap for co-leads from developed countries, India and China
- NHS research costs, when they are associated with NHS studies
- animal costs, such as numbers that need to be bred or maintained and to maintain high welfare standards
- any work to be outsourced
For outsourcing work:
We recognise that in some instances it may be appropriate to outsource elements of the proposed DPFS project. If that is the case in this application, please provide the following information:
- the scope of the outsourced activity – what is being undertaken and what will be delivered?
- the relevance of the outsourced activity to the application
- why the outsourced activity cannot be undertaken in-house, for example, considerations around required quality and timescale
- why this provider is the most appropriate
- the cost(s) of the outsourced activity and the tendering process that will be followed
- information on any conflicts of interest (potential or actual) between the parties. If any conflicts are highlighted, then a description of how this will be managed appropriately
Assessors are not looking for detailed costs or a line-by-line breakdown of all project resources. Overall, they want you to demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work:
- are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
- represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
- maximise potential outcomes and impacts
Clinical research using NHS resources
Word count: 250
Will your research involve participants from the NHS or health and social care duty of care?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If not, enter ‘N/A’ into the text box
Researchers applying for clinical research in the NHS, public health or social care need to complete a Schedule of Events Cost Attribution Tool (SoECAT) to be eligible for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) portfolio. This is the route through which support and excess treatment costs are provided in England.
You must answer ‘Yes’ and complete and upload a SoECAT if you are applying for clinical research funding, and:
- you will carry out your research in the UK
- it is intended for the NIHR CRN portfolio; this may include studies in a social care or public health setting
- the research requires approval by Health Research Authority (England) or its equivalents in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales
- your research will use NHS resources
You must complete a SoECAT even if you do not think your clinical research will involve excess treatment costs (ETCs).
See MRC guidance 3.5.1 on who needs to complete a SoECAT.
If you are applying for clinical research in the NHS, public health or social care and do not think you need to complete a SoECAT, answer ‘Yes’ and explain why a SoECAT is not necessary.
We want to know that you have taken the appropriate steps for the full costs of your research to be attributed, calculated and paid.
We want to see the expected total resources required for your project, such as Excess Treatment Costs (ETCs), to consider if these are appropriate.
How to complete a SoECAT
SoECAT guidance can be found on the NIHR website.
These are the steps you need to take:
- Contact an Attributing the costs of health and social care Research and Development (AcoRD) specialist as early as possible in the application process.
- Complete an online SoECAT. Excel versions of the form have been discontinued. If you do not have an account for NIHR’s Central Portfolio Management System (CPMS) you will need create and activate one. See the user guide for instructions.
- Request authorisation of your SoECAT.
- Once authorised covert the ‘summary’ page from the ‘Funder Export’ as a PDF and upload it to your application.
Applications that require a SoECAT but have not attached the SoECAT funder export summary may be rejected.
Contact support@funding-service.ukri.org if you have questions about the UKRI aspects of this process or have concerns that your SoECAT may not be authorised in time for the application deadline.
