A wide range of bodies fund health and social care research. It is vital to the success of your project that it is costed accurately. Your local research and development office can suggest suitable sources of funding, and advise you on costing your project. It is important to understand the distinctions between research costs, support costs and treatment costs and how they are provided.
Applicants must secure any project funding required from bodies outside the NHS before submitting the applications to review bodies for approvals. Otherwise, if funding has not been secured, and the funding body later requires changes to be made to the proposal, these would require further review by the review bodies.
As outlined above, funding for research can come a variety of sources, including:
- commercial funders, including industry and private companies
- non-commercial funders such as government departments, research councils, charities, National Institute of Health in USA (NIH) and the European Commission.
It is important that the various types of costs of research are appropriately attributed in order to ensure that the appropriate funding arrangements are put in place. For funding queries related to a specific area of the country, please see the links below:
Below are links to some possible sources of further information (note this is not an exhaustive list):
- Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) is the national membership organisation for medical and health research charities. AMRC members support over one-third of all UK publicly-funded medical research in the UK, with members investing over £1.2 billion in health research in the UK in 2012.
- Chief Scientist Office (CSO) offers a number of different funding streams to directly support health research in Scotland.
- Medical Research Council (MRC) funds research through a range of grants, calls, highlight notices, studentships and fellowships.
- National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funds a range of programmes addressing a broad range of health priorities. Funding is based on the quality and relevance of the research to personal social services, public health and the NHS.
- NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC) is part of the NIHR, manages a number of research programmes, including: Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation; Health Services and Delivery Research; Health Technology Assessment; Public Health Research; and Systematic Reviews.
- Health and Care Research Wales is the Welsh Government body whose goal is to fund research that will inform care and improve the health and wealth of the people of Wales.
- Public Health Agency – Health & Social Care Research and Development Directorate (HSC R&D) provides information about funding opportunities that are available to researchers working in Health & Social Care (HSC) Northern Ireland.
- UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) many different organisations fund health research in the UK. The UKCRC has developed a coherent approach to health research funding by providing a forum to coordinate the activities of funding bodies and by developing an evidence base to inform strategic planning.
- UK Research Office (UKRO) is the European office of the UK Research Councils. Activities include providing details on European Commission funding opportunities.