The NIHR Schools for Primary Care Research (SPCR), Public Health Research (SPHR) and Social Care Research (SSCR) (“three Schools”) have joined together in a unique collaboration between leading academic centres in England to collaborate on a programme of work on Mental Health, led by the SPCR and funded through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
A key aspect of the Three NIHR Research Schools Mental Health Programme is building research capacity; to develop a critical mass of mental health research in underserved communities it is essential to build strong capacity with the expertise and local knowledge needed to make an impact.
Applications are open for high-quality applications from individuals who have a commitment to developing the evidence base to improve mental health and wellbeing in underserved populations.
The NIHR Schools for Primary Care Research (SPCR), Public Health Research (SPHR) and Social Care Research (SSCR) (“three Schools”) have joined together in a unique collaboration between leading academic centres in England to collaborate on a programme of work on Mental Health, led by the SPCR and funded through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR):
Improving mental health and wellbeing in underserved populations through collaborative research
At least one in four people experience mental health problems, many of whom never access care and treatment. There are also large numbers of people with learning disability (prevalence c.2%) and autism (prevalence c.1%). Mental health problems, learning disabilities and autism generate challenges for individuals with these conditions, their families and the wider society, with often quite high utilisation of health, social care and other services. Those challenges are seen across the life course. The impacts of mental health problems on individuals and the wider societal and economic consequences are multiple and vast and include above-average rates of concurrent physical illnesses, shortened life expectancy, social exclusion, socioeconomic disadvantage, and the need for health and welfare support. Despite the high prevalence, many people do not receive the support they need and there are significant inequalities in access. These underserved groups include, but are not limited to, people with learning disabilities, parts of the autistic and neurodiverse community, people from Black and other ethnic minority backgrounds.
A key aspect of the Three NIHR Research Schools Mental Health Programme is building research capacity; to develop a critical mass of mental health research in underserved communities it is essential to build strong capacity with the expertise and local knowledge needed to make an impact.
Funds are available to individuals already working in primary care, public health or social care in research, education or practice or people with research expertise in an aligned sector, topic area or discipline who wish to bring their skills and experience to primary care, public health or social care. We are keen to support professionals working in practice who wish to develop their research capacity, as well as individuals who are already in research careers. We are seeking high-quality applications from individuals who have a commitment to developing the evidence base to improve mental health and wellbeing in underserved populations.
For this call, we would particularly welcome applications looking at conditions in the following Health Research Classification System (HRCS) ‘mental health’ categories:
Funding
Costs for the applicant’s salary, training (formal or short) courses and events, direct costs linked to the proposal are eligible. Supervision costs are ineligible.
It is for the applicant and relevant host organisation to determine whether to apply overheads. NIHR schools will only fund up to 30% of staff costs as overheads. These will be included as part of the budget requested. Funding will be paid to the host organisation. A contract for successful awards will be issued to the main host institution for the award based on standard NIHR SPCR terms. Awards may start from 1 April 2022 onwards.
Awards can be of any duration but must not extend beyond 31 March 2024.
Selection criteria
Applications will be reviewed using the following criteria:
All applications will be initially assessed to ensure that they are within the remit of this call, meet required criteria and that the form has been fully completed. Applications successfully passing this triage will be assessed by members of the schools who have a role in career development and capacity building and will be reviewed by the Three NIHR Research Schools Steering Group.
Applications should be emailed to e.g.fletcher@keele.ac.uk by 16 December 2021.
Applicants will be informed of the outcome by the end of January 2022.
