NIHR Challenge: Maternity Inequalities Frequently Asked Questions

Please note the deadline for submissions is 22 May 2024. 

This page will regularly be updated as more Frequently Asked Questions arise. 

Where can I find the application form?

The application is currently on the Research Management System (RMS). An account must be created to access it. Alternatively, we have provided a template application form. Please note that the application form must be submitted via the RMS.

Where can I find a recording of the webinar? 

A webinar was held on 18 March 2024 from 14.00 to 15.00. The recording is now available.

If you would like access to the slides, please email nihrchallenge@nihr.ac.uk 

Collaboration

• We are keen to be involved in the consortium but are not a university! How can we find out which universities are applying for the consortium and be linked into them so that we may play a supporting role?

• How would local authorities/smaller charities/industry partner/participatory/lived experience researcher (non academic) go about applying to this? Would it be via an academic collaboration?

• As an NHS organisation interested and ideally suited to join a consortium do we need to wait to be approached by an interested HEI or is there a way we can express an interest?

• If you are a collaborator with an applicant of an unsuccessful bid, would you still be eligible to take part in the consortium if suitable research projects are taken forward.

• Academic institutions are encouraged to apply as leads of collaborations of new, emerging or less established organisations, along with relevant practice and third-sector organisations, although it is not mandatory. It will be important to address areas of greatest need and draw organisations from these areas into the consortium.

There are three ways through which organisations can participate in the NIHR Challenge consortium work if they haven’t yet established collaboration with HEI. Firstly, organisations seeking collaboration with HEI are encouraged to directly engage with them to initiate collaboration if they already have identified potential partners.

For those seeking collaborators, the NIHR provides an opportunity for organisations to express interest in collaboration. Interested organisations should contact us directly at nihrchallenge@nihr.ac.uk to gain access to the collaboration platform. Please note that NIHR does not facilitate negotiations to establish collaboration.

Lastly, organisations might still have an opportunity to join the consortium at Stage 2, should the consortium require additional expertise. This decision will hinge on the results of Stage 1. Nevertheless, this process will unlikely be an open call akin Stage 1, instead it will focus on addressing specific expertise gaps.

• Do collaborators have to have a track record in research, or can it be new teams?

New collaborations can be established for the purpose of the membership of the consortium. Your application should explain the rationale for the collaboration and how it would contribute to the success of the consortium against the selection criteria given in the guidance document.

• If, say, 10 organisations apply at stage one, each with several collaborators, will the final 2-4 members of the collaboration be selected from this pool (which may be, say, 20+ organisations some of whom are already linked)?

• I see 2-4 members for the submission. Please are you able to clarify if it is OK for more than 4 organisations to come together for Stage 1?

• Can the application include academics from different Universities?

• Could you say more about what constitutes a "small collaboration with other organisations (approximately 2-4 members in total)"; could this, for example, be a pair of Universities with 2 other organisations?

Applications will be led by academic institution that can be in collaboration with other Universities,
NHS organisations, charities, local authorities etc. Lead organisation will have to plan the composition of collaboration carefully as we are limiting these to 4.

• Does the application include suggested projects or is it suggesting collaborations of teams in a certain settings / populations?

Stage 1 assessment is focused on the selection of the organisations/collaborations for the membership of the NIHR Challenge consortium. Selected members of the consortium will develop and undertake research and capacity building activity over the next five year period. Please refer to the application form template available on our website.

• Can one of the organisations participating in a collaboration with the lead organisation submitting a bid to the Challenge competition be either an umbrella organisation of several hospitals or a part of a network of organisations?

Given the limited number of organisations invited to apply within each collaboration, we suggest you consider highlighting your affiliation with the network/umbrella organisation in the application rather than submitting an application on behalf of the entire network. The network could also be brought in later as an external member if deemed appropriate by the Consortium.

Multiple applicants from the same HEI

• Could you clarify the overall aim? Is it that you are wanting to bring together a group of collaborations to create a consortium that will work together to do research together or alongside each other?

• Applications are capped to one application per university but does the capping apply for leading a bid only or does it prevent a university collaborating on bids led by other institutions if its leading one?

• Is it appropriate to have more than one application from a single university where the applications cover different areas of focus?

• Could two groups of researchers from the same organisation be part of two collaborations?

• Are multiple applications from different parts of the same university allowed?

• Could one institution join more than one consortium application?

• Could you lead an application and also join another organisation on their application, or is it generally better for one organisation to just be involved in one application?

Only one bid is allowed from each organisation whether as lead or collaborator. The focus of this call is collaboration, aiming to unite relevant organisations, individuals and communities to conduct research that addresses maternal inequalities. Submitting multiple bids from one institution would be counterproductive to this ethos and may imply lack of consensus within the institution to collaborate and the selection committee would unlikely view them as potential collaborative members of a consortium.

The exact programme of work will be decided after the consortium members have been chosen, and we would therefore be anticipating any successful institutions to involve the most appropriate expertise from within their collaboration to deliver the agreed programme of work. A successful application would need to show innovative and different ideas to tackle maternity inequalities and expertise within the wider collaborative group to deliver them.

• Can an individual from a single university be involved in different bids?

It's the organisations themselves that become members of the consortium, while individuals contribute their expertise to research teams. Generally, individuals with one affiliation should not be involved in multiple bids because joining with an affiliation of one university implies commitment of this University to one collaboration and precludes joining another simultaneously as only one bid per organisation is allowed.

Consortium membership

• How many organisations are you expecting to select after Stage 1?

• Is four the absolute maximum number for member organisations?

• How many smaller collaborations are you expecting to be selected for the consortium?

While we haven’t predetermined the exact number of consortium members, we anticipate that it will likely exceed 4. The selection committee will take these decisions in the context of the profiles of all the applicants and their alignment with the NIHR Challenge objectives.

Applicant eligibility

• Is Scotland or other devolved administration involvement allowed?

• Does the lead university have to be a UK-based university, or can it be from any country / from any high-income country, etc.?

This funding opportunity is open to eligible organisations from across the UK, including devolved administration.

• What happens in situations where an organisation applies but the expert within that organisation moves to a different organisation? Does the person/ applicant stay involved, or is it the organisation?

It is an organisation that becomes a member of the consortium with individuals forming a
research team with suitable experience. If the expert moved to an organisation that is not part
of the collaboration that was invited to become a member of the consortium, unfortunately they
will not be able to contribute anymore.

• Do all partners register or just the lead partner register interest naming the other partners?

The application is submitted by the lead organisation that proposes itself as a member of the
consortium or is leading a collaboration.

Researchers

• Can the research team consist of more than the 5 key researchers at Stage 1? If so, can we name these researchers in the application, and will there be an opportunity to cost in their time at Stage 2 (if successful at Stage 1)

• Do the 5 key researchers all have to be from the same organisation or can we have key researchers from each of the 2-4 organisations that will make up the research team submitting a Stage 1 application?

There should be five key researchers listed from your proposed research team from across all collaboration members, if you are applying as a collaboration. We encourage, where possible, inclusion of a named researcher considered to be emerging leaders and the support senior colleagues will provide to this person. From successful applications, one of the key researchers has an opportunity to nominate themselves for a co-lead position within the consortium at a later stage.

We want to capture the breadth and depth of the research teams within institutions through the application. In order to understand the capacity of the wider team we would expect you to describe the skills, expertise and leadership of the team members in the question titled 'Researchers' in Section 4. This question gives you 2,750 words to describe the role of the 5 key researchers as well as the wider team that would be involved as a consortium member.

• Is it needed that all team members have experience specifically in maternity inequalities, or is it ok to have an interdisciplinary team with various backgrounds to achieve the objectives?

• What is meant by under-represented disciplines, please? Do underrepresented disciplines also include midwifery and nursing, etc.?

It is not mandatory for all team members to have specific experience in maternity inequalities. We encourage an interdisciplinary approach to address this issue, aiming to bring diverse perspectives into proposing innovative solutions. We are interested in exploring maternity inequalities from less obvious angles, hence encouraging engineering, sociology, health economics, public health, psychology or nursing as examples of under-represented disciplines in the field.

In the application we aim to capture the breadth and depth of research teams within institutions. While we expect you to describe the skills, expertise and leadership of the five key researchers in section 4 “Researchers” question, we also encourage you to highlight the unique expertise relevant to maternity inequalities research and capacity building that your proposed team will bring to the NIHR Challenge consortium.

Co-leads selection

• How many "Consortium Co-Leads" do you envisage?

• What FTE do you expect will be required for co-leads?

• Are co-leads expected to come from the same organisation?

• Are you planning to have 1xco-lead for research and 1xco-lead for capacity building?

• Will the consortium leads come from the successful stage 1 applications or will that be an open call?

• Will there be a lead organisation to oversee the entire consortium, and if so will be the institutions of the co-leads who are selected

Each successful application selected to join the consortium will be invited to nominate one candidate for a co-lead. Co-leads will be from different organisations within the consortium. The organisation where the lead/ co-leads are based will be ultimately responsible for the delivery of the work and act as contractor/host. The commitment for the co-lead role is expected to be 1-2 days per week. Depending on the size of the consortium there may be more than one co-lead. Once the lead and co-leads have been selected they will convene the executive group that is likely to be composed of 1-2 members from each successful application. The group’s role will be to generate the management approach the consortium will take to meet the overarching objectives of the One NIHR Challenge.

• For the rising leader, can this be someone at Lecturer level or is it expected to be at a higher level?

We don't have specific seniority requirements for the rising leader, as long as there is strong evidence that they are at the forefront of their field, their ability to influence practice and others listed in the guidance. Please ensure that if proposing rising leaders as key researchers there should be evidence for arrangements for senior support for this person.

Research Capacity

• In the section on research capacity, it asks for evidence of research capacity development impact including career progression data - can you provide more detail on what type of data is needed here and is it for all career levels?

We would be looking for both written and statistical data to evidence that individuals are being supported by an organisation to become independent researchers and in progressing to the next step/stage of their academic/practitioner-academic career; including broader academic career development support.

Selection Panel

• What will be the selection Committee?

The members of the Selection Committee have not yet been confirmed. 

Costings

• By what mechanism will the final budget be agreed?

The final budget will be determined through the development, costing and approval of the specific projects, guiding the allocation of funds.

• Would the co-leads be expected to distribute the £50m to the collaborating partners?

Co-leads will be expected to distribute the funding across collaborators in line with the nature of the research to be undertaken.

• What proportion of the consortium budget do you expect to be allocated to partner organisations outside of the consortium?

It’s likely that a small proportion of the consortium budget will be allocated to partner organisations outside of the consortium. These allocations are anticipated to address gaps in experience rather than being directed towards new members.

• Please can you clarify 'continuation of funding over the five years contract will depend upon satisfactory performance'. Does this mean there is a situation in which the funding could be withdrawn within the 5 years or does it mean that the funding could be extended beyond 5 years if the consortium performs well?

We will carefully monitor the progress of the research and collaborate closely with the teams to address any shortcomings, should they arise.

• This is often vital to enable participation from smaller orgs. Will non-HEI partners (eg NHS, charities) be funded at 100% without overheads?

If you are another partner organisation (e.g. charity or NGO), direct costs and other partner organisations' indirect costs will be considered. 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.

• Please can you clarify what is meant by 'funding for research projects will be up to 80% fEC funding and will be negotiated at stage 2', how likely is it that the funding will be less than 80% fEC?

We cannot provide any further clarification at this stage, but it is likely that as per standard arrangement 80% of fEC will be paid.

• Please can you clarify 'estates are out of scope of this award' does this refer to estates such as laboratory refurbishment or estate

Yes, estates costs are to cover the facility-related costs of conducting the research and refer to expenses related to buildings and premises, including capital (depreciation), maintenance, utilities costs, cleaning, etc. These costs are indeed out of scope for this award.

• Funding for research projects will be up to 80% FEC. Funding for capacity building will be up to 80% including FEC if proposing any PhD or Post-doctoral awards. If proposing any studentships or pre-doctoral level awards, funding will be at 100% of direct costs but no FEC.Can you also define ‘studentships’ in the below guidance as opposed to PhDs being funded at 80% FEC?

A PhD studentship is a funded award which includes funding for the individual’s full standard PhD tuition fees and also a maintenance ‘stipend’ to cover the individual's living expenses (funding will be at 100% of direct costs but no FEC). A PhD/doctoral fellowship is fully funded and includes the individual's current salary for the duration of the fellowship, in addition to the costs for the approved research project, conference attendance and the costs of a suitable training and development plan (funding will be up to 80% including FEC if proposing any PhD awards).

When looking at PhD funding, careful consideration should be given to stipends vs fellowships taking into account the funding available to those undertaking a stipend and likely career stage, attractiveness etc.

Application Process 

• What to do if an organisation does not come up automatically on the Research Management System?

This means that the organisation is not yet registered in our system and we need to add it manually. Please send the full organisation name and the company house number.to nihrchallenge@nihr.ac.uk so we can add them. Please note, it can take up to 48 hours to register an organisation, therefore we recommend requesting this with plenty of time. We cannot guarantee that late requests will be actioned before the call close.

• Can schematics be added to the application?

Schematics, tables, illustrations, graphs, and other types of graphics can be embedded to clarify the Research Strategy and Research Capacity Development but they should not clutter the central narrative. Images do not count towards the overall word count but inclusion of them to overcome word limits is not permitted.