Managing your NIHR Academy Award

Your contract of employment will be with the organisation hosting your award. For personal awards, your host organisation will need to enter into a contract with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) for your award. 

• Higher Education Institute standard contract
• NHS standard contract
• global health official development assistance (ODA) research contract

We grant awards based on the delivery of research and training as presented in your application. You may be able to adjust funded research and training plans. 

Email Academy Awards

The total value of your award was fixed at the point of contracting. You may be able to reallocate funds within your budget headings but you’ll need our approval before you make the change. However, you cannot interchange salary allowances and non-salary allowances.

We may be able to permit a change of host organisation in exceptional circumstances. A change of contracted host organisation will require a novation. This means the new host organisation must accept the terms of the existing contract in full. The new host organisation must employ you for the hours and duration of the full or remaining term of the award.

We can adjust awards to account for periods of statutory leave. If you experience illness, need family related leave or are experiencing other disruption to your award,  contact us as soon as possible to discuss. Please also notify your employer via their usual processes.

You should acknowledge NIHR funding in all of your outputs. We encourage you to use our “funded by NIHR” logo as appropriate. You can find acknowledgement statements, download our logo and access information on using our logo on our research outputs and publications guidance. You may wish to use our poster template. If your award does not fund research costs, please contact us for acknowledgement wording. 

Please notify our communications team of upcoming press or media activity. Our team should receive the notification at least three working days before you or your team reaches out to the media. To contact our communications team, email academy@nihr.ac.uk 

For most awards, you’ll need to submit a written progress report at least once a year. Your NIHR contract contains the specific requirements of your funding. Your host organisation(s) will need to submit an award specific financial report.

For most awards, you will be asked to report the impact of your award via annual progress reports and your final report, as well as through Researchfish. In addition to impact, for most awards we also want to know how your career has developed as a result of your award. This might include training, skills, knowledge and experience.

When populating your reports, it’s helpful for us if you can be as specific as possible about your personal role in collaborative work. Please supply working links to policy documents you have been cited in, key publications, documents and websites with relevant information regarding your impact, and anything else you deem appropriate.

You will maximise the impact of your award by planning in knowledge mobilisation.

Watch our animation that explains why reporting impact is important

Tips on using Researchfish

If you are required to submit to Researchfish, you’ll be asked to report every year of your award and for 5 years after your award finishes. Bear these points in mind when using the platform:

• to best capture the impact of your award, update Researchfish with your outputs and outcomes as and when they occur
• you’ll need to check you have fully answered all of the sections between February and March each year before you submit the report to share the data to us
• keep your email up to date on Researchfish, especially if you move organisations

Read more about reporting impact