Call 2 – Consortium

1. What are UKPRP Consortia?

UKPRP Consortia are large interdisciplinary groups that collaborate closely with and/or include a range of relevant research users (e.g. policy makers, practitioners, civil society groups, industry, the public etc.) to co-produce research evidence on innovative strategies for the primary prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The research should be targeted at the upstream influences on NCDs, take a complex systems approach and be aligned to the objectives of the UKPRP. Consortia should foster interdisciplinarity, ensuring that the mix of disciplines engaged are appropriate to the research questions being addressed. The disciplines may well include those not traditionally engaged in population health research: for example, engineers, geographers, architects, designers, systems scientists, transport planners, lawyers and linguists. Proposals could be led by researchers from these disciplines and/or be in partnership with disciplines typically involved in population health research but should be co-produced with users. Interdisciplinary research on NCD prevention challenges is one of several factors that will help bring about transformational change in the health of the public.

Consortia should also include mechanisms for knowledge transfer and exchange and for influencing policy and practice, building on strong links to research users. Industry partner(s) could also be involved in a consortium depending on the nature of the research being undertaken. Each consortium will need strong leadership, have a governance structure for decision making, be well managed, and have mechanisms in place to foster linkages between components of the consortium, including users.

Structure

A consortium comprises a core of interdisciplinary researchers, led by a Research Director, but with linkages that provide the resource, data and advice needed to undertake the proposed research, and ensure that research questions and approaches have relevance to users. The possible components of a consortium include:

Core of multidisciplinary expertise (public health, social sciences, engineering, physical sciences and economics);
Industry (where appropriate to the planned research);
Third sector/civil society groups, including NGOs;
Other public sector, Local Authorities;
Data provider (e.g. cohort and administrative data);
Policy interface, policy units, governments;
Public involvement.

A consortium does not necessarily need to include every component in this list – for example, each consortium need not include an industry partner or all the disciplines listed; the configuration should be relevant to the research questions being asked. Each consortium will need to cement relationships with users and recognise that user engagement might evolve as new opportunities emerge.

Knowledge transfer and exchange will be an integral aspect of each UKPRP consortium for exchanging expertise, to enable the research evidence to influence policy and practice, and to foster the development of long-lasting relationships between researchers and users. Each Research Director will need to identify and implement mechanisms appropriate to their consortium for undertaking knowledge transfer and exchange. Examples of this include recruiting a full-time Knowledge Broker or through part-time secondments from user organisations embedded in a consortium. Recruiting a knowledge broker is one approach to knowledge transfer and exchange, and applicants are encouraged to consider knowledge brokering as a function of the consortium when identifying appropriate mechanisms.

Research

The research will be co-produced with users such as local and national government, civil society groups, health professionals, industry (where appropriate), the public etc. An ambitious five-year research programme is expected, which may be organised in work packages, that align under an overarching challenge. Some work packages could be shorter-term and support developmental work, e.g. small scale, pilot/proof of principle, or multidisciplinary high-risk projects: projects which will strengthen a consortium’s portfolio of research.

Leadership and Management

Each consortium will:

have strong scientific leadership provided by a Research Director who will identify and reach out to new potential partners and users. They should be able to bring together senior researchers from different disciplines under a shared vision.
be well managed via an operations officer or project manager. This person should be able to coordinate scientific advisory groups, produce scientific reports, manage the funds and interface with other academic institutions and users, including public sector, civil society, or industry where appropriate.
undertake knowledge brokering to develop linkages between the components of a consortium, including users, and facilitate knowledge transfer and exchange with policy and practice to deliver impact of the research evidence. Knowledge brokering will also support between-consortia activity.

2. Consortium Award Application Process

There will be a two-stage process for applications for UKPRP Consortium Awards under the second funding round; outline application and consortium development period, and the full application stage. Further details of these stages can be found below.

Outline Application and Consortium Development Period

(i) A detailed outline application for a Consortium Award.

Applicants are required to submit a detailed outline proposal through the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system by 16:00 (GMT) on 14 November 2019. The accompanying application guidance (PDF, 182KB) provides details on the expected content for each section in Je-S and the Case for Support form which must be uploaded as an attachment in Je-S. Applicants should take careful note of the vision, objectives and rationale for the UKPRP. Applications need to be guided by the vision and focus described therein. The purpose of the outline application is to ascertain the potential of the planned consortium to fulfil the UKPRP objectives. You should refer to the Frequently Asked Questions document (PDF, 185KB) which provides answers to common queries.

(ii) Consortium development period.

The UKPRP will support the development of research consortia and the preparation of full applications by providing a Consortium Development Grant (CDG). Each successful outline applicant will receive a CDG, which is a fixed-term (six month) award of up to £50k. This is to enable the final assembly of a multidisciplinary group of researchers and users and further enhancement of the plan of investigation in response to feedback from the UKPRP’s Expert Review Group that will evaluate outline applications. Applicants will need justify how they intend to use the CDG.

Full application for UKPRP Consortium Awards

(iii) Guidance for the full application will be made available to successful outline applicants.

All full proposals must be completed and submitted through the Je-S system. All applications need to be submitted through the lead Research Organisation (RO) which in turn must be Je-S registered. The Research Director along with members of the consortium will be interviewed as part of the assessment of the full proposal. Applicants will be provided with written feedback from the peer review of full applications ahead of their interview.

3. Funding Available

Two calls for consortia were planned at the outset of this initiative, where the UKPRP funders envisaged supporting two or three consortia per funding round. Details of the consortia and networks funded are available under What we fund. The scope of this second call is intended to complement the initial portfolio of UKPRP consortia and networks.

Consortium Development Grant (CDG)

Applicants whose outline proposal is selected for progressing towards the full application stage will receive a CDG. The CDG is a fixed-term (six month) award of up to £50k to enable the final assembly of an interdisciplinary group of researchers or non-academic stakeholders (users, including industry, where appropriate) and further enhancement of the plan of investigation in response to feedback from the Expert Review Group that will evaluate outline applications. Applicants will need to specify and justify how the CGD will be used. Funds can be used for:

travel and subsistence enabling existing or potential members of the consortium to meet to exchange ideas and expertise. This may include visits by or to experts overseas.
costs involved in running activities such as networking events, expert working groups and workshops.
costs to enable the engagement of users.
bringing together members of the consortium to prepare the full application.

The CDG cannot be used for salaries for staff (including administrative) or for buying out the time of researchers to prepare the full application.

During the consortium development period, applicants will be required to attend a Joint Applicant Meeting (JAM) which aims to bring together all successful outline applicants to discuss key areas they will need to develop in their application.

The outcome of the CDG period should be a cohesive research grouping with the disciplines appropriate to the research questions and with almost all of the links needed to initiate a major research programme. At the end of the CDG period, research plans and work-packages should be well defined with clear methodology, including a theory of change, although some flexibility should be retained by the consortium to adapt to new challenges/needs. It is important to note that the CDG will not provide enough resource or time for significant networking across diverse disciplines or non-academic partners from scratch. If your aim is to better connect and develop linkages across a range of disciplines, the UKPRP Network Award should be considered.

Full Consortium Award

The scale and duration of funding is £4-7 million over 5 years. Applications outside of this range will be considered although, as with all applications, they should represent good value for money. Applications at the lower end of this funding range are encouraged but they must reflect ambitious research programmes that meet the UKPRP’s objectives.

Funding for each consortium is intended to support research programmes or work-packages that are aligned to the main challenge for the consortium. There would be scope for limited feasibility work. Details of what the UKPRP Consortium Award will support are set out below. Applicants are encouraged to secure co-funding from other sources and the outline Case for Support form requests information on the applicant’s plans for this.

Staff

The Research Director can request funds to cover their salary costs in proportion to the time spent on directing the consortium. Co-Investigators can request funds for their salary costs in proportion to their time spent on the new research generated by the consortium.
Support for consortium management (e.g. an operations officer or project manager) and mechanisms for knowledge brokering.
Buying out the time of users where it can be justified, for example, a Local Authority partner, a Director of Public Health, or a member of their team, or from a civil society group. Guidance for costing users’ time is available in the Consortium Award application guidance (PDF, 182KB).
Research staff (e.g. Post-doctoral Research Assistants and collaborator’s time) on a case by case basis.
Researchers from overseas institutions may be included in a proposal as a Co-Investigator where this adds value to the research. Applicants will need to justify why they are not working with a UK collaborator who could provide the same expertise/materials.
The consortium award will not provide funds for training or studentships although we hope that students and Early Career Researchers become involved in UKPRP consortia and benefit from interacting with them.

Research and administrative running costs

The majority of the research will be in programmes or work-packages and in addition to research staff, grants can provide consumables, travel and subsistence and any other costs usually under ‘Directly Incurred’ headings over the five-year period of the award.
Reasonable costs for monitoring and pathways to impact of consortium outputs can also be included.

Intervention costs

Costs for interventions are:

research costs relating to developing or adapting (e.g. scaling up) an intervention to answer research questions. These costs end when the research project is completed; and
delivery costs which remain after completing the research project and relate to implementing an intervention in normal practice.

The UKPRP funders will consider contributing to costs for developing and evaluating interventions provided there is evidence of a partnership between academics and users and that applications specify plans for the long-term sustainability of the NCD prevention approach beyond the research project, which the UKPRP will not fund. Applications should therefore specify what users will do to support continued delivery of the intervention(s).

For the outline application, the intervention costs may be estimated but the full application will need to itemise and quantify each element of the components of known intervention costs.

Applicants who are unclear about whether or not the UKPRP would accommodate the costs associated with their proposed interventions should email the UKPRP Secretariat to discuss their plans.

Additional funding and support available

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is one of the UKPRP funders. The NIHR has a Clinical Research Network (CRN) made up of 15 Local Clinical Research Networks (LCRNs) that cover the length and breadth of England. These local networks coordinate and support the delivery of research in the NHS and across the wider health and social care environment, in England. This means that the CRN is now able to support a wide range of population health and prevention research, including studies that use many different methods and take place across a range of settings. Details of the range of support available and contacts for each of the LCRNs are set out on the NIHR website. During the CDG period we encourage applicants to contact a LCRN early on so the LCRN can advise what services they may be able to provide to support the success of your proposed research if it receives UKPRP funding.

Similar support is available in Scotland through the NHS Research Scotland Clinical Research Networks and Specialty Groups; in Wales through Health and Care Research Wales (HCRW); and in Northern Ireland through the Northern Ireland Clinical Research Network (NICRN). In addition, support for recruitment to health research studies in Scotland is available through the Scottish Health Research Register (SHARE) – a Scottish register of over 250,000 people who are interested in participating in health research studies and have agreed to searches of data in their medical records to see if they match study inclusion and exclusion criteria and to be contacted about such studies.

A Research Director’s discretionary fund may be built into a Consortium Award. This will support reactive work to respond to new opportunities / challenges that arise during the period of the award and which are aligned to the consortium’s mission. The fund will be capped at £50k per annum and will enable a Research Director to move funds between programmes. Applicants will need to bid for this funding in their full application. Details of the Research Director’s discretionary fund will be provided with instructions to successful outline applicants who are invited to submit full proposals. In the full application, the Research Director will need to explain how the fund will be used and the governance arrangements for its dispersal.

The UKPRP will also hold a central fund to support innovation within/between the different consortia and networks and for dealing with specific opportunities requiring financial support that require a rapid response during the lifetime of the award.

4. Assessment Process and Criteria

Applications will be assessed by an Expert Review Group (ERG) comprised of senior independent academics and user representatives, from the UK and overseas. The ERG’s expertise will reflect the breadth of disciplines involved in consortia. The ERG will feedback to the applicants and the funders, and might advise on how to better mould and/or rationalise the bids especially where approaches to making linkages could be stronger.

Details of successful outline proposals will be published on websites, including the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Gateway to Research, to provide an opportunity for additional groups with complementary skills, expertise or resources to contact Research Directors. Each UKPRP consortium should be open to changing their membership during the consortium development phase.