NIHR Investigators

NIHR Investigators are Faculty members who are leading and doing research. This includes all research staff working on a research project: lead researchers, other senior researchers and research assistants.

The main part of an NIHR Investigator's salary related to research is a "Research Cost". The main source of funding for their research related activities will be through funding for NIHR Projects, Programmes, Units or Centres or from the Department of Health's Policy Research Programme (PRP). They must be employed by an English NHS organisation, a university or a registered charity.

NIHR Investigators' salaries may at local discretion, be funded in part from NIHR Flexibility and Sustainability Funding. However, researchers whose only source of NIHR support is Flexibility and Sustainability Funding are not NIHR Investigators. This is because this funding is not awarded through open competition.

It will often be the case that the NIHR contribution comprises only one element of an Investigator's salary. Investigator's salaries may also be part funded from other sources including Research Councils, Research Charities or HEFCE, and from other sources of NHS funding, including patient care, and education and training.

The NIHR and PRP funding streams which confer NIHR Investigator status are those for NIHR Projects, NIHR Programmes, NIHR Units, NIHR Centres, NIHR Schools or from the PRP. These sources of funding include:

• Biomedical Research Centres
• Biomedical Research Units
• Clinical Trial Units
• Cochrane Review Groups
• Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care
• Department of Health Policy Research Programme
• Department of Health Policy Research Programme Research Units
• Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Programme
• Health Innovation Challenge Fund
• Health Technology Assessment Programme
• Hubs for Trials Methodology Research (HTMR)
• Invention for Innovation Programme including the former New and Emerging Applications of Technology Programme and the Health Technology Devices  Programme
• Methodology Research Programme (MRP)
• MRC-NIHR joint funding
• NHS Physical Environment Research and Development Programme
• NIHR Academic Units
• NIHR School for Primary Care Research
• NIHR School for Social Care Research
• Patient Research Cohorts Initiative
• Programme Grants for Applied Research
• Research Centres for Patient Safety & Service Quality
• Research for Innovation, Speculation and Creativity Programme
• Research for Patient Benefit Programme
• Service Delivery and Organisation Programme
• Technology Assessment Review Teams
• Wellcome Trust-NIHR joint funding.

Becoming an NIHR Investigator

Researchers automatically become NIHR Investigators by being members of a team whose application for NIHR or PRP research funding is successful. Investigator status is gained when the research contract is issued and research commences. For details of current calls for research please see Calls for proposals.

NIHR Faculty Membership Register