Call for Outline Research Proposals: Three Schools' Dementia Research Programme

We are seeking to commission high-quality studies with the potential to improve the lives of people living with or at risk of dementia, family and other carers in England (directly or indirectly), to start from February 2025.

The core aim of this Programme is to carry out high-quality internationally leading research to produce new knowledge (including, where appropriate, reviews and syntheses of existing evidence) to improve the lives of people with, or at risk of developing, dementia, their families and other carers.

The three Schools are committed to commissioning primary and secondary research across the spectrum of dementia-related practice, across different groups, settings and using a range of methodologies. Research could involve any aspect of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, support or care, and related health and social care services. All applications must demonstrate relevance for, and potential to improve, dementia-related practice and outcomes for people in England.

Funding of research through this Programme requires collaboration between at least two members of different NIHR Schools. The Principal Investigator should be based in one of the core member university groups of the three NIHR Schools. Collaborators from outside the three Schools are allowed.

Proposals in response to this Call may be developmental applications for longer-term plans for dementia research.

Applicants are advised to review Annex A of the Three Schools’ Dementia Research Programme of Work.

Applicants may wish to utilise the support available through NIHR for developing their proposal and, if needed, delivery of the research.

Encouraging and supporting new and developing principal investigators

We welcome proposals that encourage new and developing dementia researchers to lead studies, as well as proposals led by practice researchers, professionals (including GPs, managers and commissioners), and people living with dementia and/or carers, as well as researchers.

Research proposals will need to meet our selection criteria and new/developing principal investigators should demonstrate appropriate methodological understanding/support and strong organisational support for their proposal.

Proposals will be assessed against the following criteria:

• methodological excellence;
• collaboration across the Three Schools;
• potential to have an impact on the lives of people living with dementia and their carers;
• feasibility;
• originality;
• relevance to dementia-related practice;
• value for money;
• strength of the research team;
• contribution to the coherence of this Programme and to the work of the three Schools more broadly;
• clearly defined and costed plans for involvement, well-defined pathways to impact (through engagement and dissemination, for example) and being as inclusive as possible of research participants;
• clearly defined and costed plans for meeting research ethics and governance requirements.

Duration

For the first round of commissioning successful proposals can start from February 2025 but must commence no later than 1 June 2025.

Proposals can be between 12 and 47 months, although shorter durations as appropriate to the research are acceptable. All research projects must be completed by 31 December 2028.

Funding available

The Three School’s Dementia Research Programme has a total budget of £2.2 million allocated for this call and expects to commission a range of projects within this budget.

The maximum budget for each proposal is £500,000.

This Programme does not provide full economic costs. Universities, other HEIs and other applicants can request up to 30% of salary costs in overheads. All other costs can be included as direct costs for proposals as far as possible and fully justified.

This is a two-stage call.

Outline proposals received by Monday 23 September 2024 will be reviewed by a Commissioning Panel.

Outline proposals that are within the remit of the Three Schools’ Dementia Research Programme and meet required selection criteria set out above will be provided with feedback by 16 October 2024 and invited to submit a full proposal. **Please do not amend any aspect of the proposal form template**

Full proposals submitted by 20 November 2024 will be considered by the Programme’s Commissioning Panel with relevant peer-review processes implemented.

Decisions and feedback are expected to be sent out by late January 2025. Should further clarification be required for proposals recommended for funding, applicants will be provided with time to respond to the Panel’s queries in January/February 2025, with a view to finalising projects for contracting processes soon after.

Contractual arrangements

Research agreements will be between LSE on behalf of the three NIHR Schools and the host organisation. The NIHR Three Schools’ Dementia Research Programme’s terms and conditions will apply.

Successful applicants will be required to provide evidence of their organisation’s employer’s liability and professional indemnity insurance and a letter from their project sponsor as part of the contractual process.

Ethics

Applicants are required to demonstrate they have fully considered potential ethical issues and ethics approval processes relevant to their proposal. This includes a realistic timetable for any necessary ethical approvals to ensure a prompt start and end to the proposed project. Full details are required in the application.

Research funded by this Programme falls under the scope of the UK Policy Framework for Health and Social Care Research and, as such, plans for ethics and governance approval need to be in line with its requirements.

Where ethics approval is required for any/all activities within the proposal, please be aware that we can only release funding for those activities once ethics approval has been provided by an appropriate research ethics committee. Funding can be released for activities not requiring ethics approval where these are stand-alone activities (such as secondary data analysis) with independent outputs. Funding cannot be provided for preparatory activities for ethics applications.

Data

We are committed to making data as openly available as possible, and for data to be re-used and archived where appropriate. All proposals will be required to demonstrate they have fully considered potential data management and archiving possibilities in their proposals. Specific arrangements will form part of research study agreements.

Application process

Outline proposals should be submitted using the “Outline Proposals” form using this link by 16.00 on Monday 23 September 2024.

Full proposal documents and guidance will be made available shortly, and will be due by 16.00 on Wednesday 20 November 2024.

Approvals

Submission of an Outline Proposal should have approval of the relevant NIHR School Director where the lead applicant is a member.

Future calls

A further call for proposals may be launched in summer 2025, subject to funding.