NIHR Global Health Research Cohort Academic Development Award (GHR CADA) Round 1 (2022) - Chairs’ Report

Introduction

The NIHR Global Health Research Cohort Academic Development Award (GHR CADA) funds awards of up to £30,000 for GHR Programme Training Leads or Directors to deliver a tailored programme of activities to meet the academic training and career development needs of the cohort of NIHR GHR Academy Members in their NIHR GHR Programme awards and, where training needs align, with other NIHR GHR Programme awards. The scheme is designed to enhance the academic career development, support the development of new research or technical skills, and expand the networks of the cohorts.

NIHR GHR CADA Round 1 - Overview

The NIHR GHR CADA launched on 26th January 2022 and was closed to applications on 17th March 2022. The GHR Training Programme Selection Committee met on the 16th May 2022 to discuss the applications and to make recommendations for funding.

Five applications were received from across the NIHR GHR Programmes (Units, HPSR and RIGHT), with 40% of applicants including a named GHR Programme award as a collaborator on the application and 80% including a co-applicant (two of which (40%) were Early Career Researchers (ECRs)). Applications were received from individuals from a wide variety of professional backgrounds.  Applicants included plans for various training and development activities for the cohort, including training in clinical trials methodology, research skills, scientific writing, community engagement and involvement as well as providing networking opportunities. The applicants designed programmes of activities for ECRs from Africa, Asia, Europe and USA. Further details are provided in Annex A.

During the selection committee meeting, each application was discussed in ranked order based on the reviewers’ scores. The GHR Training Programme Selection Committee agreed that all five applications were fundable and recommended that all were awarded; the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) approved this recommendation.

NIHR GHR CADA Round 1 – Selection committee observations

The chair and selection committee members were pleased with the standard of applications received in this first round. A number of common themes emerged during the assessment of applications and a summary of these observations is detailed below. These observations may be of interest to future applicants.

The selection committee was extremely positive about the new CADA award, and the quality of applications received; they also acknowledged the benefits of the award in delivering training at the cohort level. The option for the GHR Programme Training Lead to include a GHR Academy Member as a co-applicant was positively received, and seen as a valuable career development opportunity for early career researchers.

Observations and Recommendations for NIHR Academy

The selection committee recommended including a ‘lay summary’ section in the application form to summarise in non-technical language the planned activities and how these will meet the career development needs of the ECRs involved. . A further recommendation was to allow applicants to include one figure or summary diagram to clearly show how the planned activities will meet the career development needs of the cohort, and what impact is anticipated.

Areas for applicant consideration

Co-applicants

The selection committee were pleased to see two applications had included ECRs as co-applicants, who had helped to plan and co-organise the activities, noting the career development opportunity that this provides for ECRs. Applicants should consider whether ECRs within their GHR Programme Award have the skills and expertise to support the planning and delivery of the programme of activities, and where appropriate include them as a co-applicant.

Completeness of application

The committee noted that in parts applications lacked detail about what exactly would be delivered and how this met the training needs of the cohort and linked back to the needs assessment. The selection committee would like to see applicants making clear linkages between proposed activities and identified career development needs.

Applicants are expected to provide the results of training needs assessments as part of their application and refer back to these in all parts of the application. In addition, applicants should make it clear that the proposed activities are not readily available in institutions or why they were not part of the overarching NIHR GHR Programme award proposals.

Applicants should consider appropriate use of acronyms and ensure they are spelled out where they are used.

Annex A

Table 1: Summary of NIHR GHR CADA Round 1 (2022) applications and awards

	Applications Received	Eligible applications	Fundable applications	Applications Approved for Funding
Round 1 (2022)	5	5	5*	5
Total	5	5	5	5

Table 2:  Summary of NIHR GHR CADA Round 1 applications received and approved for funding per individual NIHR GHR Programme

NIHR GHR Programme	Applied in Round 1	Approved for Funding in Round 1
NIHR GHR Unit	1	1
NIHR GHR Group	0	0
NIHR Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation (RIGHT)	2	2
NIHR GHR Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR)	2	2
Total	5	5

Table 3: GHR CADA applications with a collaborating NIHR GHR Programme award

NIHR GHR Programme Collaborator	Applied in Round 1	Approved for Funding in Round 1
With named collaborating GHR Programme	2	2
Without named collaborating  GHR Programme	3	2
Total	5	5

Table 4: GHR CADA applications with a Co-applicant

NIHR GHR Programme Co-applicant	Applied	Approved for Funding in Round 1
With Co-Applicant	4*	4
Without Co-Applicant	1	1
Total	5	5

*Of the 4 applications which included a co-applicant; 2 of the co-applicants were early career researchers (GHR Academy members), 2 were senior academics

Table 5: GHR CADA cohorts by geographical region

The table below describes the geographical regions and countries of the participants that will take part in the programme of activity in the application.

Geographical region	Number of applications including participants from the region	Countries included (number of applications)
Africa	4	Ethiopia (1), Ghana (1), Kenya (3), Malawi (2), Nigeria (1), Tanzania (2), Uganda (2), Zimbabwe (1)
Asia	3	India (2), Pakistan (1), Jordan (1)
Europe/USA	3	UK (3), Europe (1), USA (1)

Table 6: GHR CADA application activities

Activities included	Number of applications including the activity in their programme of activities
(Complex) health interventions/ clinical trials training	3
Research skills training (including statistics)	2
Scientific writing training	2
Community Engagement and Involvement/PPI training	1
Networking/collaboration platform	1