Some of the innovative special initiatives in which we’ve been privileged to participate recently have taught us a lot about the wider support needed from funders to go alongside the money and about the networks, convening power and access to capabilities our position gives us.

We wish to maintain our dual role in providing funding for both academic and clinical research and high quality community-based initiatives within the scope of or charitable objectives. We are only a small team though (we try to keep our overheads low so that we can distribute as much of our available funding as possible) and this means we need to be practical about how much of this additional support we are realistically able to provide.

We have therefore decided to focus our resources for the next plan period on just two or three community-based programmes which have the potential for demonstrating good practice and contributing to achieving evidence-informed systemic change.

The first of these is an exciting £1M England-wide programme to promote young people’s engagement with care homes for older people through My Home Life’s Care Home Friends & Neighbours framework, and we will be administering grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund.  We have become a "match funder" with the National Lottery Community Fund (enabling us to double our community support budget) to enable us to do this.

The programme was formally launched in early 2020 and two grants were awarded to the pilot areas – The Linking Network in Bradford and Alive Activities in Bristol. Since then, grants have been awarded to nine more areas and will be starting in April 2021. You can read about all of the projects on the Intergenerational Linking webpage.

Why the #iwill programme?

Firstly, the #iwill Campaign aims to form a habit for life in young people to volunteer and become involved in community action.  There has been a lot of emphasis of late in the research on the benefits to older people of volunteering. Impact on the physical health of older people receives particular attention, as it does in research into the effects on mental health and wellbeing. Several studies suggest that volunteering can help protect against cognitive ageing, all of which are entirely consistent with our objectives.  So, by supporting today’s young people to develop such a habit, we aim to give them the tools to a better chance of a healthier later life.

Secondly, it provides the opportunity to support a fantastic organisation called My Home Life, which promotes quality of life and delivers positive change in care homes for older people, to make available the successfully piloted Care Home Friends and Neighbours scheme more widely across England.  This aims to make it easier for care homes to open their doors and develop relationships with their local communities and help residents to feel that they belong.

Our other community-based programmes

We will also continue to support the Impact Agewell programme in Northern Ireland as it transitions to becoming fully commissioned and funded by the local health board.

We’ll be announcing our other programmes as they come on stream.  We will be providing opportunities for community organisations to apply in partnership with universities to some of our themed research programmes. Please check register for updates or check the Apply for Funding section for open calls.

For the moment, any of our successful community-based project or building grants award recipients whose grant was approved after 31 March 2017, may be able to access small grants of up to £5k from our remaining Capability Grants fund.  Please contact sarah.allport@dunhillmedical.org.uk to discuss your needs.

Where can I find funding for my community project now ?

You may wish to take a look at GrantNav from 360 Giving, which collects data from over 100 charitable funders, as a starting place to research potential alternative supporters for your community project.

The Trust's charitable objectives are in the broad area of understanding the mechanisms of ageing and improving health and social care for older people.  For each plan period, however, we publish a more focused set of priorities and call documents which provide more detail.  Please check the Apply for Funding section for open calls.

We don’t fund:

• Sponsorship of individuals.
• Organisations based outside the UK, or whose work primarily benefits people outside the UK.
• Research via a third party (such as a fundraising charity supporting research for which the funds have not yet been raised/committed.
• Proposals relating to the research or treatment of cancer.

We always aim to be clear in our call documentation the topics we are seeking to address so please always firstly check we are open to applications and secondly, read the call description carefully.

The following is general advice only.  You should check the call documentation for the scheme for which you are applying carefully as it will set out eligible costs.

Where the application process is in two stages, please note that costs can only increase by up to 10% from outline stage to full application.

Our guidelines reflect the AMRC's position statement on supporting research in universities. UK Universities receive funding through the Charities element of the Quality-Related (“QR”) Funding distributed by the Higher Education Funding Council (or equivalent body in the devolved nations) as a contribution towards the full economic costs of their grant-funded projects.  You should not therefore include costs which the Research Councils generally refer to as Indirect or Directly Allocated costs, except in specific cases (more detailed guidance is given below). A grant awarded by the Dunhill Medical Trust will qualify for support in this way.

Proposals for funding should detail carefully all of the relevant directly incurred costs, with reference to the following guidance.

 Eligible staff costs 

• We will meet directly incurred salary costs, such as salaries of research assistants, whose time can be supported by a full audit trail. The level of salary requested should be fully justified in the case for support. Salary costs should include any increments to which an individual is entitled.
• We may provide a portion of the directly allocated salary costs of Principal Investigators (lead applicants) and/or Co-Investigators (co-applicants) in some cases (please check the full call documentation for details).
• We will not meet any portion of the salary costs of any other academic (lecturer or equivalent), clinical or allied health professional (of equivalent status) or other equivalent employees, unless there is a clear and direct research-related contribution to the project (see first bullet point).
• We will not contribute towards the Apprenticeship levy.
• Clinical Trial Unit (CTU) Staff: we may provide a reasonable contribution towards CTU staff participating in the research, providing appropriate justification is given. Please see the section below for more details.

It is expected that Research Assistants and other staff directly employed on a project:

• Will normally be employees of the organisation hosting the project (i.e. the organisation employing the PI).
• May be employed by other eligible organisations, where their involvement is necessary to fulfil a well-defined purpose, such as provision of specialist analytical services.
• Exceptionally, these staff may work for other organisations, or as independent specialists, where their involvement is necessary to fulfil a well-defined purpose (such as specialist consultancy advice).

Eligible non-staff costs

• We will meet approved directly incurred non-staff costs in full (i.e. costs directly attributable to the project), including:
  • travel and subsistence costs
  • small pieces of equipment costing up to £10,000
  • materials and consumables
• We will meet justified payments for patient, carer and public involvement (PPI) at INVOLVE rates
• We may meet some directly allocated costs with appropriate justification (e.g. the costs of using research facilities such as imaging scanners, infrastructure technician costs etc.)
• We will not meet overhead costs (typically those identified by Research Councils as Directly Allocated Costs, Indirect Costs and Estates Costs) for research institutions. However, where research grants include community-based organisations as co-applicants, costs for the community organisation’s contribution to the project will normally be met at their full economic cost. Please check the full call documentation for details.

Guidance on specific non-staff cost items:

• Travel and subsistence costs for Principal Investigators (lead applicants), Co-Investigators (co-applicants) and staff assigned to the project, where these are required by the nature of the work. These will normally be met and should be based on the most suitable and economical form of travel.
• Conference costs: The costs of attendance at conferences as speakers or to present a poster by members of the project team to disseminate the findings from the grant may be applied for, subject to suitable justification. The costs for attending an academic conference as a delegate will not be met.
• Requests for project-specific items of equipment costing up to £10k may be met but should be fully justified. For requests between £10k and £100k, we will expect a detailed case to be provided and at least a 50% contribution towards the total cost of the equipment from the host institution and/or other funders. Suppliers’ quotations will also be required.
• We would normally expect the host institution to provide access to major equipment, but where specific circumstances require substantial usage and either the purchase of a major item of equipment specifically for the project, or a contribution to the use of major equipment is requested, a detailed case should be provided, with the University contributing at least 50% of the costs.
• The cost of materials and consumables required to carry out the proposed research will be met but should be justified with special regard to those categories of overhead costs which DMT will not meet. Estimated figures for consumables/materials are not acceptable and must be itemised.
• Non-UK costs (e.g. for specialist tests or assays) may be met, on condition that full justification is provided. It will however be the responsibility of the host institution to reimburse the non-UK institution for carrying out such tests.
• Computers and other IT equipment dedicated to the project may be met, on condition that full justification is provided.
• Data storage, archiving and management costs may be met, on condition that they are reasonable and proportionate in the context of the project.
• Recruitment costs: we will pay a maximum of £500 towards recruitment costs for staff being supported by the grant.
• Publication and open data costs: these may be included in applications but should be fully justified and comply with DMTs open access policy.

Can I request a contribution towards NHS resources?

Applications that include NHS resources will need to adhere to the Department of Health AcoRD guidance. As an AMRC member charity, Trust would expect any research costs identified as ‘Part B’ (e.g. recruitment of participants or data collection) that are carried out by existing staff employed by the NHS, NIHR Clinical Research Network (NIHR CRN) or other clinical organisation to be paid by the Department of Health through local networks or the NHS Trust (Guidance FAQ 6 and 7). Any Part B costs included in an application will be automatically struck out and applicants should therefore pay particular attention to attributing costs appropriately (consulting their local CRN prior to submitting an application where necessary).

Excess Treatment Costs

Studies taking place in England

From 1 October 2018 the way in which Excess treatment Costs (RTCs) are assessed and paid is changing. The process will now be managed by the NIHR Local Clinical Research Networks (LCRNs) on behalf of their region’s Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). In order to assess applications that include ETCs, the Health Regulatory Authority (HRA) have mandated that researchers will be required to complete a new form known as a ‘Schedule of Events Cost Attribution Template (SoECAT)’ for clinical research. This schedule will form part of the IRAS application process and it will not be possible for researchers to apply for ethical approval for studies that include ETCs if it has not been completed.

Researchers whose study includes ETCs and who have been invited to submit a full application will need to complete a SoECAT and submit it to the AcoRD Specialist for your region. Once the specialist has authorised your costs, the authorised version must be uploaded to your DMT application using the file upload function.

To help researchers the NIHR have produced a dedicated web page, where researchers can download guidance and the SoECAT. Researchers should also consult the NIHR AcoRD web page for guidance on attributing costs and this page also contains a link to the regional AcoRD specialists

Although the SoECAT is only applicable to full applications, applicants submitting an outline application to DMT which includes ETCs are urged to look at the advice provided by NIHR and to contact their regions AcoRD specialist to determine the likely turnaround time for their SoECAT, so that they are aware of the timescales involved if invited to submit a full application.

If a researcher is concerned that their SoECAT will not be authorised in time for DMTs submission deadline, they are strongly advised to contact the Trust immediately.

Studies taking place in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales

There is no change in the way in which Excess Treatment Costs (ETCs) are assessed and paid. However, applicants are advised, if they have not already done so, to discuss their project with the relevant body (see below). Where possible, confirmation that the ETCs have been reviewed and considered acceptable, should be uploaded as a supporting document. Check the links below for guidance.

Northern Ireland 

Scotland 

Wales  

Broadly, applications will be reviewed against our grant-making policy and Research Funding Strategy to assess whether they meet the our eligibility criteria and strategic priorities. 

In two-stage processes, the initial outline or expression of interest will be eligibility checked, scored and ranked by the Trust’s experienced grants team against a set of criteria published in the call documentation. All applications invited to a second stage will be subject to rigorous peer review, then scored (again against a set of criteria published in the call documentation) and ranked by the Research Grants Committee of experienced researchers and all decisions reported to the Board of Trustees.

The Committee has delegated authority from the Board to make funding decisions within the agreed funding envelope. On occasion, a decision may be referred back to the Board if it is felt that the project risks compromising the reputation of the Trust.

You should note that we receive many more applications than we can possibly fund and even if an application meets all of the criteria above, may still fall below the cut-off for funding.  

We consult a very wide range of referees, both from within the UK and internationally. Referees are identified by a number of methods, including suggestions made by academic members of the Research Grants Committee or by the wide range of academics and researchers known to the Trust. In most cases, however, literature searches are carried out using a number of online publication databases including Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC), MedLine/PubMed (the US National Library of Medicine’s bibliographic database), Elsevier’s SciVal tool and Dimensions from Digital Science to ensure that the most appropriate expert opinion is being sought. Applicants are also permitted to nominate referees themselves (although the Trust may not necessarily follow up the suggestions offered).

 As each funding call made under our new strategic plan will be unique, there is no ‘standard’ application form. You will need to register for an account on our Grants Management System and then select the scheme for which you are applying.  The online application form will only appear within the Portal when the scheme is open to applications so do check current deadlines for opening and closing dates.  We will make downloadable copies of application forms available to help you plan your application – but do please note that we will only accept submissions via the Grants Management System during the published application periods.

Our Research Grants Committee members have put together their “top ten” tips on writing a good application…

1. Your application will be looked at by several people: peer reviewers, other specialists, as well as non-specialists. Craft it so it can be understood by all these readers – the detail must be accurate, but make the main messages stand out for the non-specialist glancing through the application.
2. Remember you know much more about your planned project than the reviewer. Don’t leave things in your head that need to be explained in the application – asking a critical friend to review the final draft can be useful. 
3. Be explicit about who will benefit, how, and why. Explain why the research is needed what impact will it have.  The “pathways to impact” section is very important. Even if work is more “early stage”, there should be a clear pathway for what this work might lead to that ultimately improves the health and well-being of older people.
4. Always provide an analytical plan (e.g., but not exclusively, a power calculation), based on solid evidence from the literature and/or feasibility data.
5. Be realistic about what you can achieve with your resources, both in terms of the funding you request and the tasks you hope to achieve. Make sure that what you plan to do is feasible. In developing your application, focus on work that answers your core questions/objectives, which should be clearly specified and achievable in the time/resources available. Applications can fall down by having too broad a scope leading to concerns about feasibility.
6. Be clear about how your proposed project fits with what is already known and how it will be a useful addition. Why does this particular project need to be done by this particular team at this particular time? Make clear what the gap in the literature is and how you intend to fill it (watch Dragons’ Den for examples…)
7. For research that involves human participants (including samples extracted from human participants in the course of the study, or data originally collected from older people) make sure you have clear plans for public involvement, ideally that should include the development of your protocol e.g. reviewing your plain language summary.
8. Write clearly and make sure your message comes across credibly. Tell a convincing story. Take a look at our strategic priorities and write in language that we will understand.  You can find lots of help on writing a good lay summary via INVOLVE’s Make it Clear campaign.
9. It’s not a time to be shy – shine!  We want to be sure that you can deliver.
10. And last but not least, allow yourself plenty of time, everything takes longer than you think. Remember that you’ll need input from your finance colleagues and from your head of department or Dean. They will all need to create accounts on the Grants Management Portal and “sign off” on your application before you can submit.  Check the deadlines and work back from there.

No. Evidence of HRA approval or a Home Office Licence will need to be provided prior to you starting your project and any grant offer will be conditional upon proof of ethical approval, research sponsorship arrangements, etc. It is not expected that these will be in place during the application process, though.

You can see examples of our funded projects in the Success stories section of our website (although please bear in mind that some of these examples are for grants awarded under the old schemes). We also publish a full list of grants awarded each year in our Annual Report & Accounts and you can search publications arising from our funded grants in Europe PMC.

In line with our grant-making policy, we will only support the use of protected animals in research where no viable alternative exists and applicants are required to comply with guidance published by the National Centre for the Refinement, Replacement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs). Where an applicant intends to use animals in the proposed research, they will be required to complete a detailed section of the application form if invited to full application.

We generally make two calls each year and within these, there may be a range of funding mechanisms on offer.  We also periodically collaborate with other organisations to make funding available. Please check the Apply for funding section of the web site for details of open calls and deadlines. 

We use an online application system (Grants Management Portal) and you will need to register for an account. We are also an ORCID member organisation.  In common with a number of other major funders, we now require all applicants for research grants to provide an ORCID iD when completing an application form in our Grants Management Portal. Applicants who don’t have an ORCID iD can register for one and complete the education, employment, funding and publications (“works”) sections of their ORCID profile.  This will auto-populate the relevant sections of our application form.

Online application forms will only appear within the Portal when the scheme is open to applications so do check current deadlines for opening and closing dates.

We will only accept submissions via the Grants Management System during the published application periods.

If you need help with registering on the Grants Management System, please email admin@dunhillmedical.org.uk and our Grants Officers will be able to assist you.

We require all lead applicants for Research Project Grants to provide an ORCID iD when completing an application form in our Grants Management Portal. Applicants who don’t have an ORCID iD can register for one.

Find out more.

Through ORCID, researchers can allow funders, publishers and research organisations to access the information in their ORCID profile during grant and manuscript submission. In the future, we’ll be able to automatically capture research-related information linked to individuals, to simplify and speed up grant application and reporting processes.

Unfortunately not.  Our Research Funding Strategy (which may be downloaded from the How we support you - Resources section of our website) identifies the Trust’s priority areas for support and the call documentation will set out available funding mechanisms, to enable you to decide which of your projects best fits these.

Principal Investigators – PI – (Lead Applicants) should be:

• Academics; or
• Clinicians (normally at consultant level or equivalent); or
• Allied health professionals (normally at post-doctoral level or with equivalent research experience), or
• other appropriately qualified professionals with a strong involvement in the health of older people (normally at senior scientist level, or equivalent) who are employees of an eligible research organisation.

Lead applicants for whom this is a first grant as Principal Investigator will not be precluded, indeed, the Trust wishes to encourage the development of research capacity by providing opportunities for career development.  We would, however, expect to see a more experienced researcher as a Co-Investigator with a clear plan for mentoring and support and for the applicant to have a letter of support from the host institution covering the period of the grant. 

Co-Investigators – CoI – (co-applicants) are expected to make a substantial and defined contribution to the research.  You will be required to state the contribution of the CoI to the project in the application form. Depending on the scheme to which you wish to apply, co-applicants might come from both within and beyond academia and could include PPI representatives – please see the relevant call documentation for details.

Research Assistants may be named as CoIs if they have made a significant contribution to the proposal, and they will be employed for a significant proportion of their time on the project (normally at least 50%).

Lay co-applicants should have appropriate and directly relevant expertise and should be spending a substantive amount of time on the project and not merely fulfilling an advisory role.

We will publish the timetable with each detailed call for proposals.

If you intend to carry out the research in a Clinical Trials Unit (CTU), you will need to complete a detailed section in the application form, if invited to full application, setting out all costs applied for (both staff and non-staff), with detailed justification for each cost making up the overall contribution being applied for. Any ineligible costs will be automatically struck out and applicants should ensure that any Part B AcoRD costs are not included (see the answer to the question on eligible costs).

No. All successful research applicants need to provide evidence of the acceptance of the proposed sponsor to undertake this responsibility before a research grant can be confirmed, or provide a nil return stating that the object of the research does not fall within NHS research governance requirements.

The Dunhill Medical Trust is a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) non-commercial Partner. This means the studies we fund are automatically eligible for NIHR support. That’s great news for our researchers, because this support is free and it can help to improve the delivery of your study in the NHS.

Established by the Department of Health, the NIHR:

• funds high quality research to improve health
• trains and supports health researchers
• provides world-class research facilities
• works with the life sciences industry and charities to benefit all
• involves patients and the public at every step.

The NIHR Study Support Service

Regardless of the size of your study, where it’s based (as long as it is in England) and the specialty, you can access the same set of NIHR support services. There are six services to make the most of:

• Early contact and engagement​ – To make the greatest impact on study delivery, engage with the NIHR CRN from the outset and gain access to free support that provides benefits throughout the full life-cycle of your study.
• Early Feedback​ – ​Access NHS clinical experts across all therapeutic specialties to advise on the feasibility and deliverability of your study in the NHS.
• Site Identification​ – Liaise with your Local Clinical Research Network to help identify sites for your study​ from over 240+ NHS organisations and 10,000+ General Practices in England.
• Optimising delivery​ – The NIHR CRN assessment informs and enables the type of support your study will need
• Effective study set-up​ – Benefit from a national study-wide action plan for streamlined study set-up across all NHS sites supporting your study.
• Performance monitoring – Proactive study-wide performance monitoring helps your study to meet its recruitment targets within planned timescales.

To find out more contact the NIHR on:
t: ​0113 343 4555
e: ​supportmystudy@nihr.ac.uk
w: ​www.supportmystudy.nihr.ac.uk

Yes, as a member of a consortium of biomedical and health research funders, we contribute to the funding of Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC). You can view it here.

In line with its Open Access Policy, the Trust will provide a contribution towards the valid costs of open access fees levied by publishers who support the open access model, but demand payment to allow manuscripts to be made available on Europe PMC within 6 months of the official date of publication.

When publishing papers arising from our funded grants, grant holders must also ensure that the Trust is correctly acknowledged.

As described in our Terms and Conditions for Research Grants, in certain circumstances, we may make a grant offer to support research conditional upon securing an Intellectual Property Agreement (sample at this link) for the sharing of any commercial revenues that may arise as a result of the work it has funded.

Researchfish is an online platform developed specifically for collecting research outcomes.

Details of how the Trust uses Researchfish and what this means for our grant-holders. 

No.  The Trust does not receive or seek funds from any external body and promotes the highest ethical practices in scientific and medical research, and fully complies with the Joint Protocol of Cancer Research and Universities UK on Tobacco Industry Funding to Universities (2004).  Please read about our history.