An area of weakness identified by the Programme Grant Selection funding Panels to date has been the tendency for applications to be submitted at too early a stage in the development of a research programme.

The sole purpose of NIHR Programme Development Grants is to address this problem by providing funding of £20k – £100k (over a period of 6 − 18 months) to enable a research team to undertake preparatory work that will position them to submit a successful Programme Grant application in a subsequent funding competition.

Eligible uses of NIHR Programme Development Grant funding may include:

• Evidence synthesis that might include modelling
• Selection or development of interventions or measures of outcome
• Pilot/feasibility studies to determine recruitment and participant retention rates, inform sample sizes calculations, optimise delivery of the intervention, etc.
• Initiation and development of collaborations with methodological experts necessary to deliver the proposed research programme
• Convening meetings to plan programme strategy, develop protocols, foster collaborative working within the research team, etc.

Funding

Individual awards will be for a maximum of £100k over a period of up to 18 months. The amount of funding awarded will, however, be determined by the scale and nature of the preparatory work to be conducted.