As detailed on the Undertaking Research at the Trust page, we can provide help and advice for all aspects of research design and delivery, as well as the process for providing capacity and capability for research being undertaken in the Trust.

Once you have a firm research protocol and a plan to deliver it, you will need to gain an idea of the cost of your project. All costs will need to be covered, including your own time if it is within your contracted hours with the Trust, and approved by the R&I Department. It is essential that you speak to the R&I team as soon as possible to ascertain your costs and what is recoverable by the funder(s) you have identified. A current list of grant calls and funding opportunities is available and the R&I department post weekly updates on their intranet page.

Costing a project can be a complicated process, especially if your project engages organisations outside of the Trust and often involves several stages and online submissions and signatures. It is therefore essential that you contact R&I as soon as possible as too short a timeframe to submission may lead to the Trust being unable to support your application. As a minimum the R&I Department will need to know:

  • Staff required
  • Any partner organisations and their contacts if available
  • Duration of study
  • Type of resource required (doctors, nurses, clinical research practitioners, administrators, equipment, etc)
  • Technical support (text messages, surveys, specialist software)
  • Any Excess Treatment Costs (calculated via the ACCORD process) using the Statement of Events Cost Attribution Tool (support on this can be provided by the R&I department or the CRN Early Contact Service)
  • PPIE costs
  • Travel, dissemination and publication costs
  • Monitoring and audit costs (along with other local R&I costs)

Depending on the complexity of your study there may also be costs required for the intervention, for randomisation of participants, for medical oversight and monitoring, laboratory costs... the list goes on. There will also certainly be restrictions on what the funder will and will not fund and therefore it is a good idea to speak to possible funders to gauge how applications may be received and also to gain valuable feedback should your first attempt be unsuccessful.

Please do not be put off by this seemingly daunting task, there is a wealth of support out there. The Research Design Service West Midlands and clinical research network Early Contact and Engagement Service via studysupport.crnwestmidlands@nihr.ac.uk can help to support researchers at all stages of preparing grant applications and their support is free of charge.

If you have any questions, please contact the Research and Innovation department on 01785 783180 or research@mpft.nhs.uk

 

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