Introduction
The NIHR Academy launched the first round of Development and Skills Enhancement Award (DSE) Award as part of the newly restructured NIHR Fellowship Programme, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care.
The new NIHR Fellowship Programme supports individuals with the potential and on a trajectory to become future leaders in NIHR research. The programme has been designed to support people at various points in their development to become leading researchers; from initial pre-doctoral training right through to senior post-doctoral research. Four different types of Fellowship are available:
- Pre-doctoral Fellowship
- Doctoral Fellowship
- Advanced Fellowship
- Development and Skills Enhancement Award
The DSE Award is a post-doctoral level award aimed at supporting NIHR Academy Members to gain specific skills and experience to support the next phase of their research career. The award supports a mixture of applications in areas of strategic importance and researcher led applications.
Strategic Themes
We have a number of strategic areas which we are keen to develop expertise in, although all applicants do not necessarily need to target these areas. If you are proposing training which fits within one or more of these themes you should indicate this on the application form.
These themes are:
- Health data science
- Clinical Trials
- Entrepreneurship and working with industry
The Development and Skills Enhancement (DSE) Award is launched three times a year in May, September and January.
Development and Skills Enhancement (DSE) Award Round 1 Competition (May 2019)
The first DSE Award launched on 8th May 2019 and closed on 31 July 2019. The numbers of applications received and awards made are detailed in Annex A. Following the close of competition, the NIHR Academy checked all applications for eligibility and to identify applications clearly outside of NIHR remit. All eligible applications were then assessed by 3 individual Selection Committee members.
The Funding Recommendation meeting took place on 26 September 2019 to discuss the Round 1 applications and make recommendations for funding. Each application was discussed in order based on the reviewer’s scores. Following review of the indicative budget for the programme, the NIHR Academy recommended that all 7 fundable applications are funded. All 7 applications were approved for funding by the Department of Health and Social Care.
Development and Skills Enhancement (DSE) Award Round 1 Panel Observations
During the Funding Recommendation meeting a number of observations were made from the selection committee regarding the applications.
Candidates should clearly outline their planned career trajectory
Applicants are advised to clearly describe the relevant academic and research skills and experience they have developed to date. In addition to supporting the Selection Committees assessment of the applicant’s applied health research career potential, this detail contextualises the training and development proposal and supports the justification provided for the training proposed.
Individuals applying for the DSE Award should describe the impact this award will have on their future career, including reasons for undertaking this award and where the applicant sees their career going as result of doing completing this award. Specifically, how will the proposed training and development enhance your chances of achieving you career goals.
Proposed training and development could be improved by including more detail, particularly how the training and development will add to the award and career plans.
Applicants must detail in their application how the proposed training plan will support their development in applied health and social care research, how it might meet their unique training needs and how the training plan will support the development of a competitive DSE Award application.
The training may include, but is not limited to:
- Formal courses
- Training in specialist skills and research methodologies
- Placements with other research groups or centres
- Leadership training
- Conference attendance
- Research visits*
- Patient and Public Involvement
*Research visits should be substantial enough to be valuable, and the justification for a research visit should be clearly articulated within the Training and Development plan.
Successful applicants had multiple supervisors/mentors
The panel will assess the appropriateness of the proposed academic supervision. Where formal supervision may not be appropriate, NIHR Academy believe that the applicant will benefit from research support or mentorship.
The individual(s) who provide research support may or may not be based in your host organisation. They should, however, have a clear understanding of the research process, the demands your chosen area of training and development are likely to place on you, and your particular strengths and weaknesses. Research support is referred to in the literature as ‘mentorship’ and there are numerous models to be found that could be employed.
Outputs from the award should be made clearer
Although we expect a wide range of outputs from the DSE award. We expect the applicant to clearly detail what outputs are expected from the award. These outputs don’t necessarily have to be typical academic outputs such as publications and conferences presentations, but can be outputs such as skills gained and collaborations made.
Clarity of matched funding
The Host Organisation should detail the level of matched funding being committed to this award and where less than 50% of the total cost of the award, the Host Organisation should provide a rationale and justification for this.
Useful Resource for Prospective Applicants
The Round 1 (2019) NIHR Development and Skills Enhancement (DSE) Award Guidance Notes are available from the NIHR Programmes webpages. These provide full details of the DSE Award scheme, including the eligibility requirements, the funding available, the required employment arrangements and the assessment criteria used by the DSE Selection Committee when reviewing applications. The Applicant Guidance Notes should be read in full before starting an application
Please note – Updated Guidance Notes will be published with the launch of the Round 2 competition. Applicants must ensure that they are referring to the most recent Applicant Guidance Notes when making an application.
The NIHR Development and Skills Enhancement Award Frequently Asked Questions answers common questions from prospective applicants.
The Building a Research Career Handbook has been designed to support aspiring clinical academics and their managers to make the most of the funding opportunities available and to help clinicians who are interested in becoming involved in research but do not know where to begin.
Current and Previous NIHR training award holders are listed on the NIHR webpages and may be a useful resource for prospective applicants wishing to link in with other nonmedical clinical academics.
Annex A
Development and Skills Enhancement Award Round 1 Summary
| Applications | Numbers |
|---|---|
|
Applied |
14 |
|
Eligible |
14 |
|
Recommended for Funding |
7 |
|
Awarded |
7 |
|
Applied |
14 |
Strategic Themes
| Strategic Themes | Applied | Awarded |
|---|---|---|
|
Health Data Science |
7 |
4 |
|
Clinical Trials |
4 |
2 |
|
Entrepreneurship and Working with Industry |
0 |
0 |
|
Researcher Led |
3 |
1 |
|
Applied |
14 |
5 |