The online calendar of NIHR funding deadlines has been updated and can be found on the Research Design Service Funding Opportunities page at: www.rds-sw.nihr.ac.uk/funding.htm
Very Rare Diseases
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is inviting applications for research into interventions for Very Rare Diseases. The call will cover six NIHR-managed research programmes.
For the purpose of this call a very rare disease is one that affects less than 1 in 100,000 of the general population, particularly those whose specialist care is provided through centres funded by the National Specialised Commissioning Group (NSCG) and equivalent arrangements from April 2013. Applications exploring the organisation of super specialised services or their commissioning will be considered where these fit under the remit of participating programmes.
Applications that are multidisciplinary in nature are encouraged. Due to the rarity of the conditions innovative study designs or approaches to recruitment are also encouraged. Applications for the UK arm of multinational trials either led from the UK or as a participating country will be considered. The inclusion of patient views and experiences are considered important by each participating programme.
The participating programmes are:
Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Programme Open – Closes 23rd January 2013
Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) Programme Open – Closes 19th March 2013
Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme Open – Closes 16th January 2013
Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme Open – Closes 7th January 2013
Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Programme Open – Closes 18th February 2013
Health Services and Delivery Research (HS&DR) Programme Open – Closes 7th February 2013
Research proposals should be within the remit of the participating programmes and should relate to very rare diseases. Application forms will be available from participating programmes’ websites between September – December 2012. Completed forms must be submitted by the date specified on the relevant programmes’ website.
Please note that this call is specifically concerned with attracting applications for research into very rare diseases as defined above. Applications for research on rare diseases according to the EU definition of 5 in 10,000 of the general population are welcome as part of the normal business of participating NIHR programmes.
The funding arrangements for the six NIHR-managed programmes contributing to this call are described on their individual websites.
