25 July 2019, noon (Outline proposals)          27 September 2019, noon (invited full applications)     November 2019 (Interviews)

The Health Foundation Social and Economic Value of Health (SEVH) in a Place Research Programme

https://www.health.org.uk/funding-and-partnerships/programmes/the-social-and-economic-value-of-health?dm_i=4Y2%2C6BIZ3%2C3EXVMF%2COYSRS%2C1

Call opens 13 June 2019

An information call will be held on Tuesday 25 June 2019, from 14:00-15:00pm, please register your interest and joining instructions will be sent to you in advance of the call

Outline proposals closing date is noon on Thursday 25 July 2019

£1.5M is available to fund five projects of between £200,00 and £300,000 for a maximum duration of two years for research that will generate new knowledge on the ways in which the physical and mental health of a population shapes their social and economic outcomes

The basis of this call is the first stage identified in the scoping work: to establish relevant concepts, definitions and metrics.

We are specifically interested in concepts and metrics relating to two priority areas:

• understanding the relationship between a given population’s health and the health of individuals within that population
• establishing the definitions and metrics needed to examine the relationship between the health of a population in a place and the social and economic outcomes of that place.

The full call guidance is here: https://www.health.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-06/SEVHiaP%20Notes%20for%20applicants%20.pdf

FAQs are here: https://www.health.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-06/SEVHiaP%20FAQs.pdf

Wednesday 12 August 2019 (first of several submission dates in the next 12 months)

BBSRC Bioscience Big Ideas Pipeline

https://bbsrc.ukri.org/news/policy/2019/190611-n-bioscience-big-ideas-pipeline/

BBSRC invites you to participate in a ‘visioning exercise’ to help identify the next generation of potential research and innovation priorities.

It is not a call for proposals, rather it is seeking exciting ideas to inform their future research and innovation strategy which could, in turn, attract investment or lead to support for community activities.

A ‘big idea’ is expected to be distinctive and compelling and have the potential to create transformational change. These will be on a much larger scale than a single research grant.

To submit an idea please complete the form at the link above.

BBSRC is encouraging collaborative submissions from groups and networks, in addition to individual submissions so they recommend that you discuss your idea with a group of interested parties/stakeholders.

BBSRC may put you in contact with others who have submitted similar ideas in order to develop the idea(s) further, but will seek your permission to do so first.

This programme will run for approximately 12 months and they will consider submissions in several batches.

They have set a date of Wednesday 14 August 2019 as the cut off date for the first wave of submissions.

At the end of the year they will publish a summary of the big ideas.

Examples of the nature of the ideas that BBSRC would like to receive include (but are not limited to):

• A distinctive and well defined challenge requiring new impetus to tackle
• Discovery research areas that represent a potential step-change in knowledge but cannot be tackled through conventional approaches
• An idea that would be enabling (if successful) and would generate further breakthroughs and outputs in multiple other areas of science
• Building research community capability in emerging technologies, research areas, and disciplinary interfaces
• Ideas that require multi-disciplinary approaches or new ways of collaborative working to be delivered

Multidisciplinary ideas are encouraged but the ideas should demonstrate clear relevance to the advancement of bioscience research or its application

12 September 2019         19 August 2019 (Compulsory intention to submit)           Webinar in July

Pre-call announcement: Canada-UK Artificial Intelligence Initiative

https://mrc.ukri.org/funding/browse/canada-uk/artificial-intelligence-initiative/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

The Canadian agencies include the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR); the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC); and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
The four councils involved in this UKRI initiative include the AHRC; ESRC; EPSRC; and, the MRC.
The ESRC is coordinating this initiative.

This is a unique collaboration which will require each project to include a principal investigator (PI) based in Canada and a PI based in the UK who will share equally leadership and project management responsibilities.
The Canadian and UK applicants will develop a common research plan and jointly prepare the full proposal.
Proposals will be required to demonstrate a significant degree of, or novel approach to, interdisciplinarity with research that cuts across at least two of the following research domains:

• social sciences and humanities
• health and biomedical sciences
• natural sciences and engineering (including computational and/or mathematical sciences).

In addition to promoting interdisciplinary AI, this call will support the development of responsible AI while establishing new partnerships and enhancing infrastructure and training between researchers in Canada and the UK.
The outputs and outcomes of the research should allow for uptake by relevant stakeholders where possible.

The total amount available for this funding opportunity is approximately CAN $14M (£8 million), enough to fund approximately 10 projects.

• Canadian funding agencies: The maximum amount available for Canadian researchers is CAN $173,333 (£102,000) per year for up to three years, for a total of CAN $520,000 (£305,000) per project.
• UKRI: The maximum amount available for UK researchers is a total of £625,000 (C$1.1 million) per project at 100% full economic cost (fEC).

Note: Canadian applicants are only eligible to receive funding from the Canadian agencies and UK applicants are only eligible to receive funding from UKRI.

Full initiative details will be available in the coming weeks.
UK and Canada contacts for questions given on the website

28 August 2019, 1pm

NIHR / MRC Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME)

• 19/61 Mitigation of the adverse effects of health and social care interventions

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding-and-support/funding-opportunities/1961-mitigation-of-the-adverse-effects-of-health-and-social-care-interventions/11566

Applications are sought for research to evaluate interventions for the avoidance, management or amelioration of adverse effects experienced in the implementation of established health and social care interventions. Adverse effects associated with all types of intervention within the NHS and social care services, including adverse drug reactions, adverse surgical events and adverse effects of medical testing procedures are included within the remit of this call.

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Novel interventions to reduce adverse effects (e.g. to stop misprescribing)
• Novel interventions to identify patients at increased risk of adverse effects
• Studies to stratify patients to an established treatment that has very severe adverse effects
• Development of health technologies which promise an improved safety profile.
• Additive interventions which may improve the safety profile of existing technologies
• Pharmacogenomic strategies to mitigate the risks of exaggerated or diminished drug responses.

• 19/62 Epigenetics

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding-and-support/funding-opportunities/1962-epigenetics/11667

Applications are sought for research to evaluate the use of epigenetic biomarkers for the detection, diagnosis, or establishing the prognosis of a disease or condition.

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• evaluations of therapies and management strategies guided by assessment of epigenetic markers for the treatment of disease
• the use of epigenetic markers as a screening tool in a selected or general population

Clinical validation of existing biomarkers (i.e. studies of biomarkers that have already undergone initial validation and shown signal strength and specificity) is within the scope of this call but early validation and the discovery of novel biomarkers is excluded.

Applicants may wish to consider the role of epigenetic biomarkers within the context of a P4 (predictive, preventative, personalized and participatory) systems medicine approachi.

Applications for phase 2b studies of modest size and cost are encouraged.

Applicants are encouraged to consider opportunities to embed the testing of mechanistic hypotheses within the main study. Also of interest are standalone studies of the mechanisms underpinning interventions (investigational or control) used in existing CSO- and NIHR-funded trials, although applications in this area should refer to the EME Mechanisms of Action of Healthcare Interventions call.

Applications are expected to set out programmes of work which may contain distinct stages. It is expected that the initial stages of the study will, if successful, lead onto a full evaluative clinical study or trial, which is in the remit of the EME Programme. This study must also be included and clearly specified within the application. Clinical trials embedded within the programme of work must be large enough to detect a meaningful effect.

Webinars to support applications to the following funding opportunities:

• 19/21 Mechanisms of Action of Health Interventions
• 19/22 EME Tobacco Cessation, Control and Harm Reduction Interventions
• 19/23 Cannabis-based products for medicinal use
• 19/24 EME Researcher Led (including Brain Tumour highlight notice)
• 19/61 Mitigation of the adverse effects of health and social care interventions
• 19/62 Epigenetics

• Monday 3 June 2019: Time 10:00 am –11:00 am
• Monday 10 June 2019: Time 2:00 pm –3:00 pm

To register your interest in attending, please complete the webinar sign-up form:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding-and-support/funding-for-research-studies/funding-programmes/efficacy-and-mechanism-evaluation/eme-webinar-signup.htm

NIHR Global Health Policy and Systems Research programme

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding-and-support/global-health-research/programmes/globalhpsr.htm

The NIHR Global Health Policy and Systems Research (Global HPSR) programme aims to support research in global health policy and systems research which is directly and primarily of benefit to people in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). This will be driven by effective equitable partnerships between LMIC and UK researchers, who together will:

• engage stakeholders
• identify and address priorities for research in health policy and health systems, and
• develop plans for capacity strengthening and knowledge sharing

A series of three complementary research funding opportunities are planned.
These have been informed by stakeholder engagement, including the development of a global HPSR community of interest.

Development Awards

• Opening June 2019, up to 9 months, up to £100,000 per award
• To allow development of equitable partnerships between ODA-eligible LMIC researchers and UK institutions to: identify and engage relevant stakeholders (policy makers and LMIC communities); undertake a needs-assessment and identify local priorities for research, with the aim that Development Awards will support an application for future research funding.

Commissioned

• Opening September 2019 (tbc), with funding for up to 4 years and up to £4M per award
• A commissioned funding opportunity, which will be aligned with the WHO campaign to promote universal health coverage towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Researcher-led 

• Opening Sept 2020 (tbc), with funding for up to 4 years, between £2-4M per award
• This will be an open funding opportunity and will align with the end of the Development Awards (not restricted to Development Award holders)

All applications will require:

• two joint-lead applicants (LMIC and UK) with funding and contracting via the UK administering institution
• plans for engagement with key stakeholders such as policy makers, communities, patients and researchers, to facilitate locally relevant research priority setting, needs assessment and a strategy for appropriate research uptake and dissemination
• assessment of training and capability needs and how to best address them, particularly in low resourced settings.

Applications for the Commissioned and Researcher-led funding opportunities will be expected to consist of up to a maximum of 5 institutions in consortia that are able to support knowledge exchange, relevant capacity and capability development. These partnerships can be established as part of the Development Awards.

Applications will be assessed through open competition, with an international independent funding committee.

To be eligible to receive ODA funding, applications must demonstrate how they meet ODA compliance criteria and outline:

which LMIC(s) on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) list of ODA-eligible countries will directly benefit;

how the application is directly and primarily relevant to the development challenges of those countries; and

how the outcomes will promote the health and welfare of people in the country or countries on the DAC list.