NEW NIHR Research Funding Calls (Updated July 2024)

Research for Patient Benefit – Competition 55

Applications are invited for research proposals that are concerned with the day-to-day practice of health service staff, and that have the potential to have an impact on the health or well-being of patients and users of the NHS.

Closing Date for Submissions: 1300 on 6 November 2024

Programme Development Grants – Competition 40

Applications are invited for Programme Development Grant funding. Programme Development Grants are available for researchers to undertake preparatory work to develop a future programme of research and to develop and enhance the quality and value of an ongoing or recently completed Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) award.

Closing Date for Submissions: 1300 on 18 September 2024

24/13 Digital technology enabled interventions in Social Care

The HTA Programme is interested in proposals for the evaluation of a wide range of digital technologies for social care across both children and adult services, including, but not limited to:

• digital applications for promoting behaviour change to prevent deterioration of a specific long-term condition or improve general wellbeing
• technologies designed to improve the personal safety and/or well-being of people who draw on care and support services and carers, e.g. technologies aimed at preventing falls or alerting carers to a fall, geographical positioning systems (GPS), home monitoring systems
• digital memory aids, e.g. technologies to support the following advice or guidance from health and social care practitioners and/or organising social care related aspects of their lives
• digital interventions for loneliness or social isolation
• remote assessments (or other care planning processes) (child development, occupational, etc.)
• enablers of the adoption of digital technologies by citizens and their support networks, such as tools aimed at improving digital literacy and preventing digital exclusion among specific populations
• robotics for assisting simple tasks such as cognitive assistive robots, socially assistive robots

Digital technologies include a broad range of both hardware and electronic devices, such as smart watches; software, such as mobile applications, and internet delivered services such as online support groups

Opens 22 March 2024: Closing Date for Submissions: 1300 on 24 July 2024

24/14 Facilitated access to mutual aid for adults with problem alcohol and drug use

Research Question

What is the clinical and cost-effectiveness of facilitating access to mutual aid for people with problem alcohol and drug use in England?

Intervention

• A brief manualised Facilitating access to mutual aid (FAMA) intervention, which should be adapted from the Intensive Referral Intervention (for example, Timko et al 2006). Mutual aid is described in the government guidance on recovery support services as the social, emotional and informational support provided by, and to, members of a group at every stage of recovery. The most common mutual aid groups in England are Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Cocaine Anonymous (CA) and SMART Recovery.
• Applicants to define and justify the exact content and delivery, but it is intended that the intervention should be delivered: early in the treatment pathway; primarily one-to-one and face-to-face (although it could include some remote delivery); by specialist drug and alcohol staff as part of keywork.
• Applicants should also give consideration to how the intervention will be introduced to workers who will be delivering the intervention.

Opens 22 March 2024: Closing Date for Submissions: 1300 on 24 July 2024

24/28 Parenting Interventions

Research question(s)

• How do interventions which affect access, engagement and retention of disadvantaged parents in parenting interventions impact health and health inequalities?

Evidence shows that parenting interventions are effective and cost-effective at improving a range of wellbeing, behavioural and educational outcomes for children, irrespective of parents’ ethnicity or levels of deprivation. Evidence also suggests that ethnic minority and low-income parents have lower uptake and engagement with preventative interventions. The Public Health Research (PHR) Programme recognises the overall efficacy of parenting interventions, and the focus of this call is not about efficacy. The gap in the research on parenting interventions relates to issues of inequalities in access, engagement, retention and outcomes.

Research areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Evaluating strategies to identify parents who would most benefit from parenting interventions, including the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of assessment tools.
• Evaluating strategies to recruit and retain parents from socially deprived/ethnic minority backgrounds to parenting interventions. The Early Intervention Foundation include a list of potential strategies and considerations for intervention design in their review.
• Evaluating strategies to maximise engagement of parents from socially deprived/ethnic minority backgrounds in parenting interventions.
• Evaluations of interventions which lead to an increased understanding of the practical, organisational, social, economic, and cultural barriers.
• Evaluating interventions in the antenatal period and 0-2 years age range
• Evaluating interventions aimed at under-researched groups such as non-birthing parents, fathers, kinship and foster parents.
• Evaluating interventions delivered by the non-statutory sector.
• Evaluating interventions operating in a child protection context.

Opens 19 March 2024: Closing Date for Submissions: 1300 on 9 August 2024

24/29 The health of children and young people in contact with the criminal justice system

Research Question

• What interventions have an impact on the physical or mental health of children and young people in contact with the criminal justice system?

Children and young people (hereafter referred to simply as ‘children’) who come into contact with the criminal justice system (CJS) are one of the most marginalised and vulnerable population subgroups in the UK. There is no singular risk factor associated with offending behaviour in children, and no factors exist in isolation. Rather, risk factors interact, can be cumulative, and children in contact with the CJS are often subject to multiple and varied system failures and negative experiences – some of them traumatic. There is substantial evidence to show that children in contact with the CJS have poorer health outcomes than those in the general population (translating over time into shorter life expectancy), often due to multiple and complex unmet physical and mental health needs.

Suggested areas of research could include, but are not limited to, evaluation of:

• Interventions that address the multiple, interacting disadvantages that affect the most marginalised children in contact with the CJS, including trauma-informed interventions
• Interventions, including whole system approaches, aimed at preventing children from repeatedly coming into contact with the CJS (i.e. targeting those who have already been in contact with the CJS) for example as a result of a second or subsequent offence
• Interventions that include improved data linkage and/or multi-agency data sharing
• Interventions that enhance levels of education and training (and/or employment where appropriate) for children in contact with the CJS
• Interventions that focus on mental ill-health (including interventions aimed at reducing self-harm) or that focus on substance and alcohol misuse, among children in contact with the CJS
• Interventions addressing the needs of children who may be neurodivergent or who have a learning disability, and who are in contact with the CJS
• Interventions for children who may be at risk of offending/re-offending, including health economic models
• Interventions that focus on the physical health of children in contact with the CJS, including for example in relation to dental health, sexual health, smoking cessation, and uptake of screening (where relevant) and vaccinations
• Interventions addressing access (increased access and equity of access) to physical activity and/or sport for children in contact with the CJS
• Interventions that support young people’s transition into adulthood in the context of the CJS, including those transitioning into adult probation services
• Interventions which aim to teach or develop independent living and general life skills to children in contact with the CJS
• Peer or family support interventions aimed at improving health outcomes, such as interventions looking to build social capital or re-establish support networks for children in contact with the CJS
• Interventions seeking to provide continuity of care for children spanning criminal justice settings and post-release.

Opens 19 March 2024: Closing Date for Submissions: 1300 on 9 August 2024