Southampton Clinical Research Institute

Funding applications and costs

Since April 2007, the Government has insisted that all research must at the very least be cost neutral to the NHS. This means that all research involving patients and NHS resources, including the WTCRF, has to be fully funded and include all elements of study costs (space, people, direct and indirect resources). The NHS no longer receives central funding that can be used to support "own account" research.

All the costs of conducting a study need to be included in grant applications. There are two main types of costs to consider:

  • Costs of research, eg. drugs, additional tests, staff, equipment and facilities
  • service support costs- these are the costs to the NHS of the infrastructure that supports research (previously known as "support for science"). Examples include use of pathology, radiology and other support services. NHS National tariffs for service support costs are in development so that there is more consistency from centre to centre.

Sudies that qualify for the NIHR portfolio will receive reimbursement from the Deptartment of Health for service support costs. This is why it is vitally important that all NHS costs are identified in grant applications.

The SCRI employs people to help you with this complex work. Please remember that it will take time to work out exactly what you need. To ensure the maximum benefit to you please make sure you do not leave it to the last minute to start to work out the costings, which can take three weeks or more to plan. Neither UHS nor the University of Southampton are able to sign off grants for applications that have not been fully costed according to the latest regulations.

Useful contacts:

Further information on the latest grants available from:
RDFunding
NIHR

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