RDSYH Public Involvement in Grant Applications Funding Award

REPORT OF FUNDING CALL 3

Background and process

The RDSYH Public Involvement in Grant Applications Funding Awards are available to researchers in the RDSYH region working in health and health related social care, to support the involvement of the public in developing grant applications for projects that will form part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Portfolio. Awards of up to £500 are available. Four calls are held each financial year, and the RDSYH funds up to five awards per call, on a competitive basis. A sub-group of the RDSYH’s Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Forum adjudicates on the applications received per call, and then ranks them if more applications are received than there is funding available. The PPI Management Group then reviews and approves the specific amount of funding requested for the top ranked applications.

Applications received in response to Call 3

Ten applications were received in response to Call 3, and the RDSYH funded 6 of these applications. The total amount of funding allocated at Call 3 was £2,196.

Summary of the five successful applications to Call 3

Lead applicant / Employer / PPI funding allocated / Grant being applied for
Dr Heather Elphick / Sheffield Children’s Hospital / £180 / Research for Patient Beneift (RfPB)
Dr S Julious / University of Sheffield / £300 / HTA Clinical Evaluation and Trials
Dr Mahesh Jayaram / Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust / £486 / RfPB
Dr EJ Minton / Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust / £500 / RfPB
Dr E Scott / University of Leeds / £330 / RfPB
Dr A.G. Zermansky / University of Leeds / £400 / Health Services Research

Characteristics of successful and unsuccessful applications

Successful applications had the following characteristics:

·  A clear descripton of the grant application being planned, with the likely impact on patients and the NHS well justified

·  A good mix of clinical and methodological co-applicants involved in the development of the grant

·  Full details were provided of the specific contributions that patients and the public will be asked to make during the development of the grant (e.g. commenting on the choice of outcomes and outcome measures, method and timing of participant recruitment etc)

·  Costings were detailed and fully justified

·  Consideration was given to issues of burden and fatigue – i.e. the method and length of involvement activities were appropriate to the type(s) of patients and members of the public that the applicant intends to involve in the development of the grant

Unsuccessful applications had the following characteristics:

·  Insufficient detail provided of the grant application being planned

·  No named co-applicants, suggesting that a team has not yet been assembled to develop the grant

·  Poor attention to detail – numerous typos, use of jargon and evidence that the application had not been proof-read prior to submission

·  Incomplete, inaccurate or unjustified costings. For example, some applications included a costing for venue hire within the lead applicant’s host institution, without any justification of why a charge for room hire would be levied

·  Failure to convince the reviewers of the potential success of the future grant, or the research experience of the applicants.

·  Lack of detail regarding how PPI would form a part of the research assuming the grant was successfully awarded

Development of the application form for Call 4

It was agreed at the last meeting of the PPI Management Group to ask for more information from applicants in question 3 of the application form. Applicants to Call 4 will need to provide detail on:

·  The value of the proposed research to the NHS and to patients

·  How the proposed research will build on existing knowledge and contribute to the evidence base

·  Whether or not the applicant has made, or plans to make, contact with the Research Design Service for Yorkshire and Humber for methodological advice during the development of your grant application

Dr Jonathan Boote

Research Fellow, NIHR Research Design Service for Yorkshire and the Humber

26th October 2010

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