Health Determinant Research Collaboration (HDRC) Stage 2 Guidance notes

Published: 25 January 2023

Version: 1.2 June 23

These guidance notes are for applicants who have been invited to submit a HDRC Stage 2 application via the REsearch Awards Lifecycle Management System (REALMS).

Applicants should consider these guidance notes for completing a Stage 2 application in conjunction with the HDRC-Specification Document providing the background, rationale, eligibility criteria, specification, success criteria and assessment process for the HDRCs.

The ‘Add New Ticket’ button towards the top of the screen can be used to raise a support ticket if you have any questions relating to the call or completion of the online application form.

This guidance should be used by applicants who have been shortlisted at the Expression of Interest (EoI) Stage 1 and asked to submit a Stage 2 application.

Some fields in the online Stage 2 application form will be automatically populated with content input to the EoI form. This content is editable and should be updated in line with any changes made to the application following feedback from the funding committee at the EoI Stage 1.

Please regularly press the ‘Save Draft’ button, found towards the bottom of the screen to save your progress.

In some parts this form will refer to ‘research’ as it is generally used for funding research projects. However, for this scheme the form is being used for applying for research funding to build research capacity and capability. It is important that this guidance under each section is read and taken into consideration along with the HDRC-Specification document.

Please note, HDRCs are a UK-wide initiative open to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The term ‘local authority’ has been used consistently as ‘shorthand’ in this document, and the HDRC initiative is open to local government organisations throughout the UK.

Summary information

Contracting organisation

Please give details of the organisation who will be the contractor (the local authority who will sign and hold the contract for the HDRC) if the application is successful. Please note that we usually expect the Lead Applicant’s contracting organisation (substantive employer) to act as the contractor. Your primary organisation will be shown by default. If this is not the contracting organisation, search for the correct contracting organisation by typing the name of the organisation in the search box. If the organisation you require does not appear in the search box, you can request to ‘Add New Contracting Organisation’. Please ensure this is the correct legal name for the contracting organisation that should be used in any research contract with DHSC if your application is successful. Please also bear in mind that:

The contractor is expected to respond to annual financial reconciliation exercises, provide the final financial reconciliation statement for the project and to provide ad hoc requests for financial information during the lifetime of the contract. In the unlikely event that a request is made for the contractor to differ from the Lead applicants contracting (host) organisation, the suggested contractor must be able to fulfil these expectations and to do so in the usual timeframes.
In the same way, the contractor is expected to respond to any queries relating to Intellectual Property, commercialisation and benefit realisation.

If you have any queries, please contact nets-finance@nihr.ac.uk before submitting your application.

Research title (Limit: 300 characters)

Please add the title of your HDRC. The HDRC title should include the location. Any abbreviations should be defined.

Research type

Please select ‘Primary Research’ from the drop-down list.

Start month

Note this will be from first of the month regardless of whether this is a working day or not. Please put 1st December.

Start year

Please put 2023.

Research duration (months)

This opportunity is for a 60 month (5 year) contract. Please put 60 months.

End date

This field will automatically populate once you have saved the research duration information.

Total research costs

These figures are automatically populated from the detailed budget section.

Previous submission - Has this application, or a similar application previously been submitted to this or any other funding body within the last 3 years?

Please select yes/no as appropriate. If you have selected ‘Yes’, please select 'Previous Submissions’ ‘+’ button and then select either submitted to ‘NETS Programmes’ or ‘Other Funder’.

If you have selected ‘NETS Programmes’, search for the relevant application(s) and complete the necessary information.

If you have selected ‘Other Funder’, please complete the necessary information and then submit once finished.

Delivery team (Termed as Research Team on the form)

By delivery team we mean the team that will deliver the HDRC upon a successful outcome. We appreciate that not every individual that will be costed to the HDRC will be named at this point, but where they are, we would like to know who they are and what time commitment they will dedicate to the HDRC. Where specific individuals are not yet known we ask that the posts, responsibilities and the time commitments are detailed in the Detailed Business Plan, the uploaded organogram and in the relevant finance sections of the form.

Lead Applicant background details

At Stage 2 we ask that the lead applicant or the joint lead applicant is, where possible, the future HDRC Director. If the Director is not known at this stage and will be appointed upon a successful outcome, we ask that a senior representative of the contracting organisation who will act as the interim HDRC Director (for example: Chief Exec, Leader, Chair of Health and Wellbeing Board, Director of Public Health) is listed as the lead or joint lead applicant. This is to provide accountability, commitment and sign up to the delivery of the HDRC should the bid be successful. In brief there are two options:

Where the existing lead applicant is not the future HDRC Director and is not senior enough to be held accountable for the delivery, you will need to add either the future HDRC Director or a senior representative of the contracting local authority organisation as joint lead applicant.
Where the lead applicant is the future HDRC Director or is a senior representative from the contracting local authority organisation, there is no action required. In this scenario the joint lead applicant function can be used for another purpose, such as having an HEI joint lead or another lead from the local authority.

Contact Profile

Information on your name, degrees and professional qualifications, main and other affiliated organisations and contact details will be automatically populated from your contact profile. Update your contact profile to complete any missing information or make any updates here – you can do this via the ‘My Profile’ icon on your home page whilst in the application form by first clicking the ‘Update’ button alongside your details in the Research Team section and then clicking on the ‘Update Contact Profile’ button.

ORCiD ID

ORCiD provides a persistent digital identifier for individual researchers.

Please note: You (and the joint lead applicant – if included) are required to obtain a free unique ORCiD ID number and update your REALMS user contact profile with this before you can submit your application. By clicking the link ‘Create or connect your ORCiD ID’ within the ‘ORCID’ section of your user profile you will be taken to the ORCiD website where you will need to register or sign in. Once logged in to ORCiD and following acceptance of T&Cs, you will need to click on the ‘Continue to import your ORCID Data’ button which will update your profile with your ORCiD ID number, along with other associated ORCiD data (e.g. any publications and grants you have allowed ORCiD to make visible to the public or trusted parties). Grants and Publications drawn from ORCiD in this way will be available for you to use in populating the relevant sections of your application. The ORCiD ID number is a mandatory requirement.

Equality and diversity reporting system (EDRS)

NIHR is committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in research and asks applicants to provide Equality and Diversity Monitoring Information (age, sex, ethnicity and race, and disability). By answering these Equality and Diversity Monitoring Information questions, you will help us to better understand the different groups of people that apply to us for funding and their experiences of the funding process – particularly the groups protected by UK equality legislation. Although it is mandatory to answer these questions, it is possible to select “prefer not to say” as a response. However, the more information you provide, the more effective our monitoring will be. This information will not be used to make decisions about funding.

Delivery team (Termed ‘Research Team’ in the form)

By HDRC delivery team we mean the team that will deliver the HDRC if the bid is successful. We appreciate that some posts will only be recruited to once you know of the success of your application. Where specific individuals are not yet known we ask that the posts, their responsibilities and the time commitment are detailed in the Detailed Business Plan, the uploaded organogram and in the relevant finance sections of the form.

NOTE the Joint Lead Applicant, Co-applicants and Administrative contacts are all required to be invited (if not already invited at EoI stage) and accept their participation in a Stage 2 application. The ‘Update’ button can be used to access the Applicant Details Form for each applicant and update the details of each user's involvement in this application. Different types of applicants can be added [e.g. Co-applicant / Co-applicant PPI (Patient and Public Involvement)].

The Applicant Details Form for all applicants must be in ‘Submitted’ status in order to submit your application.

Delivery team – Lead Applicant ‘update'

Click the ‘Update’ button to the right of your Lead Applicant information to add the information regarding your role on the application.

Role (limit: 200 characters)

Specify the Lead Applicant's role in the HDRC. Enter the role that you will be undertaking in the HDRC e.g. Bid writer, Director, Centre management etc.

% Full-time equivalent (FTE) commitment

This refers to the percentage of your time that you will commit to the HDRC. If you will not be costed to the HDRC please still give the %FTE that you will dedicate to the HDRC if appropriate and in the detailed budget section, enter no cost. This is so it is clear what time commitment is being given even if the time is not costed to the HDRC.

Organisation

Select your primary organisation for the purpose of this application. Your main organisation and any other affiliated organisations that you have already added will be listed by default. Select your primary organisation for the purpose of this application. If the correct organisation is not listed, this can be added by using the ‘Update contact profile’ button towards the top of the page and adding a new organisation (to do this click on ‘Other Organisation’ in the left hand selection bar). Department – Select the primary department affiliated with.

Department (Limit: 100 characters)

Select your department for the purpose of this application.

Application Research Background

Recent relevant publications

For this funding opportunity, we do not require you to add any publications in this section. Please click the button to enter the information, in the next window there is a small box which can be ticked to say that you don’t have any publications to list. Once complete click ‘Save selected Publications’.

Research grants held

Please click the button to enter the information, in the next window there is a small box which can be ticked to say that you don’t have any publications to list. We do not require you to add any grants in this section.

Once all information has been entered and saved, click the ‘Complete’ button.

Joint lead applicant

As above, at Stage 2 we ask that the lead applicant or the joint lead applicant is where possible the future HDRC Director. If the Director is not known at this stage and will be appointed upon a successful outcome, we ask that a senior representative of the contracting organisation (for example: Chief Exec, Leader, Chair of Health and Wellbeing Board, Director of Public Health) is listed as the lead or joint lead applicant. This is to provide accountability, commitment and sign up to the delivery of the HDRC should the bid be successful. In brief there are two options:

Where the existing lead applicant is not the future HDRC Director and is not senior enough to be held accountable, you will need to add either the future HDRC Director or a senior representative of the contracting organisation as joint lead applicant.
Where the lead applicant is the future HDRC Director or if they are a senior representative from the contracting organisation, there is no action required. In this scenario the joint lead applicant function can be used for another purpose, such as having an HEI joint lead or another local authority.

Select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to indicate whether this application involves a joint lead applicant, and where appropriate use the envelope icon to add a joint lead applicant to your application and complete the necessary information. Once complete click the ‘Invite’ button. Once the joint lead applicant has accepted their invitation they will appear in the 'Co-applicant' list, and their information can be edited as necessary. The joint lead applicant will be prompted to complete their publications and grants, please inform them to do the following. Please click the button to enter the information, in the next window there is a small box which can be ticked to say that you don’t have any publications to list. Once complete click ‘Save selected Publications’.

Co-applicants (Delivery Team)

Co-applicants are those individuals with responsibility for the day-to-day management and delivery of the HDRC. Co-applicants are considered part of the project team and are expected to share responsibility for its successful delivery. Collaborators / partners normally provide specific expertise but do not share in the responsibility for the delivery of the HDRC.

Where individuals that will be costed to the delivery of the HDRC are known, please add them and their FTE% here. Please do not add those that have been involved in the development of the bid but will not be involved in delivery of the HDRC. If co-applicants will be involved in delivery of teh HDRC but not costed to the HDRC, please give the %FTE that they will dedicate to the HDRC and then in the detailed budget section, enter zero cost. Information regarding the team that have worked up the bid should be provided as an upload as part of the Detailed Business Plan.

Use the ‘Add / Edit Co-Applicants’ button to add a co-applicant(s) to your application and complete the necessary information. Once complete click the ‘Invite’ button. Once a co-applicant has accepted their invitation they will appear in the 'Research Team' list, and their information can be edited as necessary. Where appropriate, co-applicants will need to complete their publications and grants information in their ‘Applicant Detail Form’. The co-applicant should click the ‘Open’ button under ‘Recent Relevant Publications‘ to enter the information, in the next window there is a small box which can be ticked to say that they don’t have any publications to list. Once complete click ‘Save selected Publications’.

Do not include collaborators/ partners in this part of the form, they should be mentioned (if necessary) in the 'Detailed Business Plan' (upload document) and provide letters of support.

Signatories

Please note that signatories are no longer a requirement of a Stage 2 application submission. However, if your research proposal is recommended for funding you will be required to add the relevant signatories and obtain their approvals shortly after receiving your funding recommendation outcome letter as part of the project start-up and contracting process (approximately 2-3 weeks after the funding assessment committee date). The signatories that will be required at this stage are as follows: Director of Finance and Head of Department or Senior Manager or equivalent.

Administrative contact details

This facility allows you to provide an alternative contact(s) who will also have access to the application but will not be able to submit it when complete. The Lead Applicant must submit the completed application and will still receive all emails automatically generated through the system.

If you wish to include an administrative contact, use the envelope icon below to enter the administrative contact's details, and invite them to participate in this application.

Application details

Summary of application (Termed as Scientific abstract on the form) (Limit: 3,500 characters)

The summary of application should be a clear and concise summary of the 'Detailed Business Plan’, with a character limit of 3,500 characters (one side of A4 maximum). You may wish to come back to this section once your ‘Detailed Business Plan’ has been developed. This information will appear on the NIHR Funding and Awards website if the bid is funded. The following is a list of potential elements/headings that you might want to include.

Summary of the vision for the HDRC
Brief background
Aims and objectives
Key deliverables
Collaborations/ partnerships
Timeline and milestones for delivery
Anticipated impact and dissemination

Plain English summary (Limit: 3,500 characters)

A plain English summary is a clear explanation of your HDRC proposal which will be similar, but not exactly the same as the previous section ‘summary of proposal’ (termed scientific proposal on the application form). The information provided at Stage 1 EoI will be pulled through to this section and is editable. You may wish to come back to this section once your ‘Detailed Business Plan’ has been developed. A good quality plain English summary providing an easy to read overview will help:

Those carrying out the review (reviewers and committee members) to have a better understanding of your proposal
Inform others about the work of your HDRC such as members of the public, other local authority professionals, policy makers and the media
The funders to publicise the research that they fund.

If it is felt that your plain English summary is not clear and of a good quality, then you may be required to amend it prior to final funding approval.

It is helpful to involve elected members/ members of the public in developing a plain English summary.

Content

When writing your summary consider including the following information where appropriate:

Background to the HDRC
HDRC Vision
Aim(s) of the HDRC
Business Plan
Public and community involvement
Timelines and milestones for delivery
Anticipated impact and dissemination

Further guidance on writing a plain English summary is available on the NIHR website. Please use a readability checker to ensure appropriate language and structure has been used.

Changes from first stage (Limit: 6,000 characters)

Please list the feedback received at the EoI stage and under separate headings indicate what has changed as a result.

Please describe and explain the reasons for any additional changes that have been made since the Stage 1 EoI application e.g. in light of new changes at the Local Authority

Public involvement (PPI)

Please describe how any decision makers including elected members, statutory partners, community groups and the public have been involved in developing this proposal (Limit: 3,500 characters)

You should describe who has been involved and why this is appropriate, what role(s) they played, and what influence or change has happened as result of their involvement.

Please describe the ways in which decision makers including elected members, statutory partners, community groups and the public will be actively involved throughout the proposed HDRC, including any training and support provided (Limit: 3,500 characters)

Public Involvement approach, management and support

Explain why your approach to public and community involvement is appropriate for this proposal. In your description you will need to say who will be involved and why.
Please use this opportunity to describe how you plan to manage and coordinate the public and community involvement activities in your HDRC.
Describe how you will support and enable service users, decision makers including elected members, statutory partners, the public and members of relevant communities to contribute the HDRC.
We would also encourage you to outline plans for the capturing, evaluating and reporting the impact of public involvement activities. HDRCs will be required to report on PPI activities throughout the lifespan and monitoring of the HDRC.

You can find further resources to support the design of your PPI on the NIHR website. This includes standards for public involvement in research, guidance for researchers on PPI and guidance on Payment and recognition for PPI, which includes a budgeting guide. The NIHR Research Design Service provide advice on developing research applications including involving patients and the public and the James Lind Alliance has a step-by-step guide on involvement in research identification and priority setting. These resources are focused on public involvement in research projects but will have some relevance to public involvement within the HDRCs.

Detailed budget

Organisations for budget

Use the ‘Add Organisations’ and ‘+’ button to select and add the organisations who will be responsible for budget items, receive funding and add them to your application. We expect the HDRC budget to be held with a local authority.

Application budget

This section should provide a breakdown of costs associated with the HDRC as described in the application. Please note that costs for HDRCs are to support the establishment of/strengthening of the infrastructure, capability and capacity for research in local authorities and not to support research costs per se.

The information entered in this section should provide a breakdown of the total funds requested support the HDRC and should be based on current prices. These costs will be used to assess value for money, which is an important selection criterion.

It is in the best interest to undertake a thorough, realistic and accurate costing. Where an Expression of Interest application has been submitted and this is the full Stage 2 application, the Funding Committee will pay close attention to any material increase in costs. You must provide a clear and full justification for all costs. You must also ensure that you include all costs including those required to secure good management and governance.
Costs must be provided at current prices. Whilst allowances for incremental increases should be included on the form, nationally or locally agreed pay increases should be excluded. In times of significant inflation, an adjustment will be made at the discretion of the Department of Health and Social Care.
Years should be calculated starting from the anticipated start date of the HDRC. For HDRCs, start date is anticipated to be 01 December 2023 then its second year starts 01 December 2024 etc.
When costs have been entered for year 1, it is possible to copy these costs to subsequent years, and they can then be edited if needed.
Further itemisation of costs and methods of calculation may be requested to support the application at a later date.
Payments will be made to the contracted organisation only and the contracted organisation will be responsible for passing on any money due to their partner organisation(s).
Payments are not able to be made in advance of need and, if funded, your payments will be made in accordance with your application budget. Please therefore ensure that your planned costs are included in the budget year in which they are most likely to be incurred.
Appropriate sub-contracts/ partnership agreements must be put in place for any element of the HDRC activities which are to be paid to another organisation.
NHS Support Costs are not supported by the HDRC funding opportunity.
All applications are expected to have appropriate input from collaborating organisations (i.e. higher education institutions and other partner organisations) into the finance section of the application form.
Please note that whilst the applicable percentages will be used to calculate the maximum award payable, the programme reserves the right to award less than this maximum where it is considered appropriate.

Costs for un-named HDRC delivery team members (termed co-applicants in the form)

If you need to provide costs for more than one unnamed individual it is important to name them as ‘TBA 1’, ‘TBA 2’ etc. not just ‘TBA’, or use the expected job title, otherwise their costs will not appear in the PDF version of the form.

Contributions and joint funding

Contributions from other organisations and proposals for joint funding with another organisation can be recorded as such in the ‘Contributions’ tab. If you are considering applying for a joint funding arrangement, please get in touch to discuss this. If any joint funding is proposed please email the HDRC Team at hdrc@nihr.ac.uk as early as possible to alert them to this

Information on different types of organisations

Local authorities (LAs)

Up to 100% of direct costs incurred will be funded, based on costs identified through ‘Attributing the costs of health and social care Research and Development’ (AcoRD).

HDRC funding can cover legitimate and reasonable, local authority indirect costs within the local authority (for example, premises, HR, finance). Indirect costs should be charged in proportion to the amount of staff effort requested on the funding application form. The NIHR reserves the right to set limits on indirect costs charged.

Existing local authority employee time can be bought back.

Higher education institutions (HEIs)

Higher education institutions (HEIs) should determine the full economic cost (FEC) of their involvement using the transparent approach to costing (TRAC) methodology. For HEIs, up to 80% of FEC will be paid, provided that TRAC methodology has been used.

NHS bodies and other providers of NHS services in England

We do not anticipate there being any costs for NHS providers within the HDRC application. For applications where the contractor is an NHS body or provider of NHS services in England, up to 100% of direct costs will be paid based on Research costs identified through ‘Attributing the costs of health and social care Research and Development’ (AcoRD).

Other partner organisations

If you are a commercial organisation/consultancy, please fill in direct costs and commercial indirect costs. Indirect costs should be charged in proportion to the amount of research staff effort requested on the funding application form. Up to 100% of costs will be paid.
If you are an ‘other partner’ organisation (e.g. charity or NGO), please fill in direct costs and other partner organisations indirect costs. Indirect costs should be charged in proportion to the amount of research staff effort requested on the funding application form. Up to 100% of costs will be paid.

Direct costs

These are costs that are specific to the HDRC costs, which will be incurred by the LA/HEI in carrying out the proposed work of the HDRC, charged as the amount actually spent and can be supported by an audit record. They should comprise:

I) Posts and salaries

This section presents an overview of salary and associated on-costs for the members of the HDRC delivery team including normal salary increments broken down individually.

Please include all members of staff working on the HDRC by clicking ‘add a new staff member’ salaries’ or editing a current one. If there are any members) whose costs are not being claimed you should still include their details within this section, but don’t include any actual costs. Where members are already in receipt of NIHR funding for any part of their salaries (e.g. NIHR Fellowships), these should not be additionally charged to the project. Where members are already receiving salaries funded by NIHR, these should be declared in the application by selecting ‘Yes’ in the ‘Other NIHR Salary’ drop-down list - please note that the NIHR will not fund more than 100% of anyone’s time across multiple NIHR projects/awards and this fact will be checked prior to contracting. If you are unsure about this requirement or have any questions, please contact the appropriate NIHR research funding programme. In the case of HDRC please contact hdrc@nihr.ac.uk

The Apprenticeship Levy can be included in the salary costs where relevant.

The annual costs of each member contributing to the HDRC delivery needs to be calculated by specifying the %FTE and number of months. Use current rates of pay and build in any known annual increments (again at current rates). You will not be able to claim for pay awards retrospectively, once your research is underway.

Please ensure that you check that the ‘Cost Type’ box reflects the organisation which correctly describes the employing organisation for a member of staff (e.g. HEI, NHS, Commercial, Other), for local authorities please select ‘Other’, as this impacts on the level of funding provided. Staff employed by a Higher Education Institution (HEI) are funded at 80% of cost and staff employed by local authorities, NHS, commercial or other partner organisation at up to 100% of cost.

II) Travel, subsistence and dissemination costs

This section includes journey costs, subsistence and dissemination costs, including conference fees and open access publication costs. Where applicable, you will need to include the travel and subsistence costs of your oversight/advisory board. It is anticipated that many of these meetings will currently be virtual and some may be face to face, where this provides added value. Travel and subsistence costs relating to dissemination should also be included here, as should costs relating to overseas travel.

Journey costs- Enter the total cost of transport for all journeys for destination/purpose. If travel is by car, apply your institution’s mileage rates (however this should not exceed HMRC approved mileage allowance payments, which is 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and 25p thereafter). Travel by the most economic means possible is encouraged. NIHR programmes do not usually fund first class travel.

Subsistence - Subsistence covers accommodation (if necessary) and meals associated with the travel, excluding any alcoholic beverages.

Dissemination costs

Conferences – a statement naming the conference or purpose of travel and the benefit to HDRC must also be made; failure to adequately justify your attendance at a conference, will mean the programme will not fund this cost. For research of up to five years, the programme will usually fund up to a maximum of two individuals to attend one international conference attendance, or one individual to attend two international conferences.
Open Access Costs - During the course of your project and throughout review and publishing phase you may choose to submit an article based on your research to an Open Access publication. Depending on the publication you may be subject to an article processing charge (APC). APC rates vary but are usually within the range of £300 and £3000. Open Access publications usually list their APC rates on their websites. Where possible you should include an estimate for any APC in your funding application, since NIHR expects that APCs will be covered by the funding award.
Other Dissemination Costs -Any large costs should be further detailed with a breakdown of constituent parts or a timescale profile of the costs. Meetings to share best practice, training events and events to disseminate research findings must be run at the lowest possible cost with minimal catering. ‘Conferences’ which are described as such are not eligible for funding.

III) Equipment

Essential items of equipment plus maintenance and related costs not included as part of estates (for HEIs) should be input in this section. These can be lease or purchase costs. The purchase cost of pieces of equipment, valued up to £5,000 excluding VAT, will be considered.

Pieces of equipment costing more than £5,000 to purchase will usually need to be leased. Where applicants are leasing equipment with a purchase price of more than £5,000, a comparison of leasing verses purchasing costs must be provided in the ‘Justification of Costs’ section.

Items of equipment valued at £250 or more must be itemised separately; however, grouping same type equipment is permitted. Costs of computers are normally restricted to a maximum of £1,000 each to include VAT and any associated software. If the purchasing organisation is unable to reclaim/ recover the VAT on any piece of equipment, then it should be included in the stated cost. A statement of justification must be included, in the relevant ‘Justification of Costs’ section for any purchase above this limit.

IV) Consumables

This section includes non-reusable items specific to the HDRC. Please itemise and describe the requirements fully (e.g. postage, stationery, photocopying). These items should be HDRC specific, not just general office costs which should be covered by indirect costs.

V) Patient and public involvement

Please itemise and describe fully the costs associated with Patient and Public Involvement. These are likely to include individual travel, out of pocket expenses, payment for time and any relevant training and support costs. Costs related to study participants should not be itemised here.

If voluntary, charity or community groups are supporting the HDRC via activities such as facilitating contact with potential participants, contracting activities or providing advice, an adequate budget must be included to compensate for their time and resources.

For more information on budgeting for involvement, please read the NIHR Payments Guidance for researchers and professionals.

VI) Other direct costs

These are costs, not identified elsewhere, that are specifically attributed to the HDRC. For example, costs associated with the use of facilities, external consultancy costs, training costs, costs associated with inclusivity (which may include, but are not limited to justified translation of material into other relevant languages), computer licensing, recruitment and advertising costs. Please note that for organisations claiming indirect/overhead costs, costs such as recruitment of staff, and general training (e.g. in common IT packages) are costs that should be covered by the indirect costs element of the award being sought and should not appear in this section.

If external consultancy costs are included in this section, they must be fully justified in the ‘Justification of Costs’ section. Please specify the hourly rate and the number of hours and note that consultants must not be people who are already employed by the applicant’s institution. If they are, any costs should be entered as direct costs in ‘Posts and Salaries’ section.

Indirect costs/overheads

Indirect costs are similar to overheads, they will be attributable to items which support the HDRC but are not directly incurred as part of the work of the HDRC. The HDRC funding scheme will fund legitimate and reasonable indirect costs for local authorities. These may include a proportion of the costs of accommodation in the organisation, used for the HDRCs work, and an appropriate proportion of HR, payroll, and finance costs.

For HEIs, Indirect costs are usually included as part of the calculation of FEC, and like direct costs should be included at 100% but will be funded at 80%.

Commercial/Other member organisations’ indirect costs , as described above, can be included.

All indirect costs need to demonstrate value for money. The NIHR reserves the right to set limits on indirect costs charged. Indirect costs will be charged in proportion to the amount of staff effort requested on the award. Commercial/Other Partner Organisations should calculate them, using their own cost rates.

They comprise:

General office and basic laboratory consumables
Premises costs
Library services/learning resources
Typing/secretarial
Finance, HR, public relations and departmental services
Usage costs of major facilities
Central and distributed computing
Charge out rates for shared space/equipment
Cost of capital employed

NHS bodies or other providers of NHS services indirect costs

NHS indirect costs cannot be claimed through NIHR/DHSC programme funding. NHS Bodies or other providers of NHS services have been allocated NIHR Research Capability Funding (RCF) to contribute to the cost of hosting NIHR/DHSC-supported research.

LA indirect costs

LA can claim indirect costs which are the costs of resources used by the HDRC that are shared by other activities. Please seek advice from your finance department about the appropriate cost for this section.

HEI indirect costs

Total HEI indirect costs must be fully justified. HEIs are permitted to claim estate and other indirect costs. These costs are calculated on the basis of TRAC methodology. Proposals from other types of institutions/organisations should leave this section blank.

HEI indirect costs are based on the number of full-time equivalent research staff working on the HDRC and the indirect/estates charges set by an institution. Please note HEI indirect costs cannot be claimed on shared staff costs. Where staff from more than one HEI are working on the HDRC there may be different indirect/estates charges for each one. Please list each institution on a separate line.
The applicant(s) should consult their HEI Finance Department for the appropriate figures to include in the estate charges and other indirect cost sections.

Other partner organisation indirect costs

Other Partner Organisations can claim indirect costs which are the costs of resources used by the research that are shared by other activities. Please seek advice from your finance department about the appropriate cost for this section.

Other Partner Organisation indirect costs must be fully justified.

Ineligible Costs

The funding is not intended to meet local authority intervention costs associated with the research programme of the HDRC.

Justification of costs (Limit: 8,000 characters)

Please provide a breakdown of costs associated with establishing and implementing the HDRC. This should include the following costs: staff costs, travel and subsistence, dissemination costs, equipment (including lease versus purchase costs), consumables, public involvement (PPI) and any other direct costs. For help with estimating public involvement costs please see the NIHR Payments Guidance for researchers and professionals.
When justifying staff costs you should also provide the % amount of time input of each member of staff and link this to the specific area/work package/theme of the proposed study where this input will be taking place.
You should indicate here how the HDRC will benefit public health and the local authority. For example, where appropriate, describe how the HDRC and an embedded culture of evidence-based decision making across the local authority will lead to likely cost savings or benefits in terms of the wider determinants of health for service users and communities.
You should describe the value for money of the conduct of the proposed research.
Please provide a breakdown of the costs associated with the HDRC and its business plan and provide justification for the resources required.
Uploads

Uploads

Any additional, non-requested, documents will not be considered by the funding committee during its review. However, there may be other requested documents e.g. cover letter, collaborative/ partnership documents, dictated by the specification of the call.

To upload a document, click on the icon next to the relevant upload type. All required uploads must be added for you to be able to submit your application.

Only the following document types can be uploaded: .doc, .docx & .pdf. If you upload a Word document the system will create a PDF version of it and both versions will be displayed below. Any other document types will need to be converted to PDF format before uploading. If you wish to remove or replace any specific documents all versions of that document will need to be deleted

Attachment 1: Detailed Business plan (Termed Detailed Research Plan on the form)

It is mandatory to upload and submit a detailed business plan, which is a full account of the proposed plan for the HDRC. Broadly, the detailed plan should follow the following format:

Use Arial font size 11
Not exceed 20 A4 pages
Have a header containing your allocated project reference number if known
Have a footer showing your page numbers
Be converted to a .PDF version before uploading it

Using the following headers/guidance/questions below and the HDRC-Specification Document, please clearly describe your approach and plan to establishing and delivering a successful HDRC. As this is the main part of your application which will be considered by the reviewing committee, you should ensure that the information is accurate, succinct and clearly laid out.

Full title of HDRC (Limit: 300 characters)

Please provide the title of the HDRC. This should be the same title as above. Any abbreviations should be defined.

Background and rationale

This section should include a description of the local context and current local authority environment. What infrastructure for Research & Development and capacity and capability already exist? How will the HDRC add value to existing local authority research infrastructure/ systems (if there is any)? The key areas, barriers that the HDRC is aiming to tackle and how the infrastructure provided by the HDRC will support these.

Delivery plan - describe your approach to implementing and delivering an HDRC.

Using the HDRC-Specification Document and your Expression of Interest feedback as support, please provide a clear business plan, explaining your approach to implementing and delivering an HDRC. Questions to consider and address in this section include:

Overarching vision, aims and objectives:

Provide a clear vision of the HDRC and what ‘success’ would look like throughout its initial 5 year life course.
What are the HDRCs aims and objectives and how will these be achieved?

Culture

How will the HDRC strive to embed a sustained culture of research and evidence within the host local authority?
How are the wider determinants of health integral to the HDRC vision?
How will the HDRC’s focus on the wider determinants of health aim to address the health inequalities of the local population and the most disadvantaged communities?
How will success be measured?

Collaborations

Describe your collaboration/ partners with relevant stakeholders such as the Higher Education Sector. How will these evolve and develop over the 5 year contract?
How will collaborations /partners with relevant stakeholders such as the Higher Education Sector function be strengthened?
How will success be measured, what milestones will be put in place?
Explain how these collaborations will strengthen the sustained culture of research and evidence within the host local authority.
Generalisability and transferability, and active learning – how will the HDRC ensure active learning within and beyond the local authority/ies. The effective dissemination on generalisable and transferable findings, processes, learning will be key to the HDRCs success.

Leadership and staffing structures

Describe the leadership and staffing structure for the HDRC. How is the leadership structure embedded within the local authorities existing structures?
Describe how the leadership and staffing structure will support the HDRCs deliverables, aims and objectives.
Provide a detailed organogram with posts, responsibilities and %FTE to demonstrate how the HDRC staffing, and leadership interacts with existing local authority structures.

Resource, Capacity and public involvement

Describe how the HDRC will enable research capacity building within the host local authority? What research capacity and capacity building functions will the HDRC undertake?
Describe how public and community involvement will be embedded within the HDRC’s strategy.
Provide a clear and ambitious dissemination strategy that will reach decision makers and the public within the local authority area.
Applicants may like to include how there can be shared learning and scalability of the work establishing their HDRC to other local authorities.

Governance and management structures

Please clearly describe your management and governance structure.
A governance/ management structure should be uploaded to support this section to demonstrate how the HDRC staffing, and leadership interacts with existing local authority structures.
What governance structures will be put in place? Consider the roles of the day-to-day management of the HDRC and any oversight/advisory boards.
Please state how and by whom the HDRC will be managed, referring to the roles of specific applicants as appropriate. Effective project management will be essential to ensure the work of the HDRC is completed within the planned time frame. Applicants will need to appoint a centre/project manager to support the delivery of the HDRC.
It is expected that all HDRCs will have an oversight/advisory board. The oversight/ advisory board could be part of the existing local authority management/ governance structure.
NIHR do not require proposed oversight/advisory board membership lists at this stage, but an indication of members who are likely to be proposed should be included.

Justification of costs

Please justify the costs requested and how they will be spent to achieve the aims and objectives of the HDRC.
Sustainability – how will the HDRC aim to become a sustainable (people, research, funding and culture) entity post the initial 5 year funding?

Implementation, Milestones, KPIs & stop/go criteria

Please provide a Gantt chart to help articulate your implementation plan, milestones.
Provide a written summary of your success criteria, we recognise that the criteria for future years will be likely to evolve over time but require a starting point.
Depending on the development stage of the research infrastructure within your local authority, we would expect the leadership staff (including Director) to have been in post for at least 3 months prior to the 12 months point. We would expect there to be MoU’s/ agreements negotiated and in place with higher education institution/s early in the HDRC delivery plan.
We would suggest you include a plan for a built-in evaluation of your HDRC.
Final outputs will be expected at the end of the contract and should be planned for.

Socioeconomic position and health inequalities:

Addressing health inequalities and EDI are central to NIHR’s strategy. The application should, therefore, include information about how health inequalities and EDI will be addressed and supported. Applicants should demonstrate how addressing inequalities and EDI will be embedded throughout the proposed HDRC life cycle and in its success criteria.
Applicants should consider how the infrastructure of the HDRC will be established/strengthened to ensure that for future research every person eligible to take part in research will be able to be offered the same opportunity to take part regardless of:
- Age
- Disability
- Sex
- Gender reassignment
- Sexual orientation
- Socioeconomic status
- Marriage and civil partnership status
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Ethnicity - see the toolkit for increasing participation of ethnically diverse groups in health and care research and the INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework.
- Religion or belief
- Access to health or social care
- Geographical location

Applicants need to explain who they are planning to collaborate with to ensure inclusivity of the work of the HDRC. Costs associated with inclusivity, which may include, but are not limited to translation of materials into other relevant languages, are justified and where appropriate should be included in the detailed budget section under ‘Other Direct Costs’.

Please see the NIHR INCLUDE Guidance for more information about how to include under- served groups effectively: NIHR INCLUDE Guidance (General) and NIHR INCLUDE Guidance (COVID-19 specific).

Other helpful links: Diversity and Inclusion and Promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in research.

Applicants should demonstrate how these factors have been considered and addressed in their proposal.

Dissemination, Outputs and anticipated impact

The purpose of this section is for applicants to describe the planned outputs of the HDRC, how these will be communicated and to who, and how the HDRC will lead to short and longer- term impacts. Dissemination of the impact of the HDRC to key stakeholders, the public and end users will be a key function of the HDRC.

NIHR acknowledge that defining impact can be challenging and pathways to impact are complex with many steps beyond your control. NIHR therefore defines impact broadly as the contribution, effect on, or benefit that excellent research makes to the functions of the local authority, to knowledge, people, health and health inequalities, the NHS, health and care services, society, the economy and policy. We wish to understand the ways in which the proposed HDRC will change culture, activity, attitudes, awareness, behaviour, capacity, opportunity, performance, decision-making, practice or processes. Impact can also result from new understanding that benefits individuals, population, organisations, communities, constituencies or the nation.

NIHR understands that the impact of any initiative may take time to be realised and will likely involve other stakeholders. The NIHR also recognises it may be difficult to provide definitive answers or guarantees on longer term impacts. However, applicants are invited to consider various aspects of pathways below and how the likelihood of impact can be maximised. This includes considering what outputs are produced, how these can be best connected to the health and/or social care environment, what efforts and investment are likely to be needed beyond the project, what barriers are likely to be encountered and what impacts the research is seeking to achieve.

What do you intend to produce?

Where known, please provide brief details of each anticipated output. NB the term ‘outputs’ refers to any tangible product of the HDRC. Outputs can include but are not limited to:

Conference presentation or other workshop events
Publications (academic or otherwise)
Guidelines (clinical, service or otherwise)
Briefing papers

How will you inform and engage elected members, local authority staff and the wider population about the work of the HDRC?

Describe who you need to communicate with and your plans for engaging relevant audiences and identifying research topics within the LA. For impact, it is unlikely that simply making outputs available will be sufficient. Please consider and outline the active approach you will take to engaging key parties or identify the process you will use to identify them and formulate an engagement plan. Link to NIHR Dissemination guidance: How to disseminate your research: Getting your message heard - and used.

How will your outputs enter society as a whole?

Where possible consider how the work will be able to be adopted and implemented longer term. Describe who is needed to take it forward and the relationship you currently (or propose to) have with these parties.

What other funding or support will be sought if this HDRC is successful (e.g. From NIHR, other Government departments, charity or industry)?

Consider what investment or support may be needed throughout and at the end to maximise impact.

What are the possible barriers for long-term impact?

Describe the difficulties which may be faced in generating impact from your HDRC These may be difficulties you will face yourself, or challenges faced by others

Will the proposed HDRC use data, technology, materials or other inventions that are subject to any form of intellectual property protection (e.g. copyright, design rights, patents) or rights owned by another organisation(s)? If yes, provide brief details including how such third-party IP will be accessed (e.g. collaboration agreement).

What do you think the impact of your HDRC will be?

Describe the impacts you aim to achieve as a direct result of the HDRC and those which are anticipated longer term. Please consider how any smaller, more immediate effects may mature over time into larger scale or more significant effects, and the steps by which this may be achieved. As far as possible, indicate anticipated timescales for these benefits. Impacts may include but are not restricted to:

changes in the process of decision making in local authorities
changes to public health services
change to public health policy or policies in other sectors
public wellbeing, health and health inequalities

Project timetable

Please provide a concise summary of the proposed delivery plan (project plan) for the HDRC, detailing the timescale of all key stages, their expected durations, and the timing of key milestones throughout the project including the production of any outputs.

Please ensure your timings (e.g. time allowed for governance approval, any recruitment and establishing new roles, training) are realistic.

This timetable will be an important aspect of the monitoring framework during the life of the HDRC.

A Gantt chart to support this section can be uploaded

If your application is successful, you will be required to submit progress reports. Where appropriate, these progress reports will be based on the proposed timeline and milestones.

Approach to Collaborative Working

Provide details of any arrangements for joint working between the local authority and other collaborating/partnering organisations as appropriate. You should set out how applicants in different organisations will communicate and monitor progress of the project.

Consider the current data management systems. Will data sharing agreements between the collaborating/partnering organisations be required? If so, how will these be managed?

Safeguarding and ethics

Outline any safeguarding and ethical /regulatory issues, and arrangements for handling them.

Expertise

Outline the contribution each member of the HDRC delivery team will make and the contribution that collaborators/partners are intended to make. In addition, please give details of supervision arrangements for junior staff involved.

You should outline staff numbers and grades, timescales, equipment purchases, etc. that you are requesting funding for. If you propose to purchase expensive equipment, justify fully why you are not proposing to lease it, since this is the DHSC/NIHR preferred option.

Please also provide details of collaborators/partners and how they have aided the development of the proposal. Letters of support from collaborators should be provided as uploads.

Please also provide some detail on who has put this application together, what role have they taken and what organisation are they from. This could be an annex to the main bid or a separate upload. (max 1 side A4).

Attachment 2: Governance and Management structure, Organogram and Gantt Chart (referred to as Flow Diagram upload in the REALMS system) - Mandatory

Please upload diagrams of your governance and management structure, an organogram and a Gantt chart as a combined .PDF file (maximum of 3 sides of A4 in total).

Attachment 3: Logic Model - Mandatory

Where appropriate please supply a logic model or equivalent (single-side of A4).

Attachment 4: References (maximum 3 pages of A4)

List all references cited in the full project description, using either the Vancouver or Harvard referencing conventions, and include the DOI of the main related publication.

Attachment 5: Letters of support (Collaborator)

Please upload any letters of support from collaborators or partners. Assurance that the application has the support of the contracting local authority. This should be at least a letter from the Chief Executive of the Local Authority and an elected member (either leader of the council or the health portfolio holder or the chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board). Please also include any other letters of support, as necessary.

Acknowledgements and conflicts

Potential conflicts

Please declare any conflicts or potential conflicts of interest that you or your co-applicants may have in undertaking this research, including any relevant, non-personal & commercial interest that could be perceived as a conflict of interest. The ICMJE criteria for conflict management can be used as a guide. If in doubt, you should err on the side of disclosure.

Agreement to terms and conditions

I have read and understood the terms on which I have been nominated as lead applicant for this proposal along with the associated documentation and accept this role.

Read the terms and conditions.

Equality and Diversity Monitoring Information

Checklist of information to include when submitting a NIHR stage 2 research application

As a guide, applicants should ensure they have included the necessary information prior to submitting their application.

Appropriate and relevant involvement of the public
A good quality plain English Summary
A clear description of team member roles and contribution
A clear summary
A clear description of the changes from Stage 1 EoI stage (if applicable)
A full and accurate detailed budget breakdown
A clear justification of costs/value for money
A clear detailed Business Plan (Detailed Business Plan) (document upload)
Governance and management structure, Organogram and Gantt chart) (maximum 3 sides of A4 - document upload)
Logic model or equivalent (document upload)
References (maximum 3 sides of A4 - document upload)
The support and agreement from the necessary supporting roles/signatories

Contents