Career Development Awards (CDA)
Open
Open
Read the SSCR Career Development Award guidance as a .pdf
The School for Social Care Research (SSCR) has been awarded £6m to implement and conduct capacity-building activities between 2024 and 2029. We are pleased to invite applications to career development funding for individuals who are committed to developing the evidence base for social care in England.
Key funding information:
• This opportunity is open to a wide range of individuals working in social care research, education or practice at any career stage. We want to support career pathways that develop existing social care researchers, and support moves between practice and academia, and between disciplines.
• Applicants are required to outline plans for proposed career development with clear commitment to establishing or consolidating a long-term career in social care-related research or as a practitioner-researcher, and demonstrate fit with the remit of the SSCR Programme.
• Funding between £20,000 – £75,000 for activity lasting between 12 to 24 months is available. Successful awards will commence in summer 2025.
• Applicants are strongly encouraged to read the funding guidance in full before completing their applications. The costings template can be downloaded via the Downloads section on this page.
• Applications must be endorsed and signed by the applicant, line manager, career development supporter and an administrative/financial authority for the host organistation.
• Completed application forms, CV, Gantt chart and costing template should be sent to sscr-training@york.ac.uk before the deadline of 5pm, Friday 14th February 2025 to be considered.
• Queries and requests for assistance in developing links with existing SSCR members can be directed to SSCR Capacity Building Coordinator via sscr-training@york.ac.uk.
The NIHR School for Social Care Research (SSCR) is dedicated to improving the evidence base of social care practice in England.
Social care is vital for preserving independence, enhancing the quality of life, wellbeing, and end of life care, but it remains under-supported by evidence and the infrastructure to produce and implement that evidence. Building an affordable, high-quality, and sustainable adult social care system that meets people’s needs requires a strong evidence base to understand what works best, for whom and when.
As part of the programme’s commitment to developing research capacity in social care, we are seeking applications for individual social care Career Development Awards. The SSCR Programme has been granted £6m to implement and conduct capacity-building activities 2024 to 2029; individuals who are committed to developing an evidence base and improving social care research in England are invited to apply.
We are inviting applications from individuals who are committed to developing the evidence base to improve social care practice in England. This opportunity is open to a wide range of people and you are welcome to apply if:
Career trajectories in social care research vary from individual to individual. We want to support pathways that develop existing social care researchers, and support moves between practice and academic settings, and and moves between disciplines. Applicants are invited to describe and justify the most pertinent pathway for them.
Support for successful award holders will be provided by the School’s dedicated Capacity Building team, which may include access to mentoring, training, peer support networks, and invitations to Career Development events with opportunities to present.
Awards may cover bespoke components of the following nature:
It is important to note that these awards are designed for individual career development and are not suitable for funding substantive research projects or to buy-out time solely to write applications. The awards are established to support broader career development activities, such as building a research team, establishing a network, collecting preliminary data or evidence synthesis which may also contribute to a bid or fellowship development.
All applicants must have a contract of employment with an organisation which is able to act as host for the award for the duration of the award. Pre- doctoral applications are welcome and PhD students are eligible to apply if they have submitted their thesis and have an employment contract with the host organisation for the duration of the CDA.
It is expected that the applicant will have connections to relevant and robust academic support for social care research; this may or may not be through existing relationships with SSCR members however we encourage all applicants to explore future relationships within the SSCR core membership within their award if they do not have current links.
Applications will also need to:
Successful award holders will be required to produce a detailed training and development plan within four months of the award start date. All award holders are expected to attend the annual SSCR Conference where they will be required to present a poster of their work. In line with the SSCR’s commitment to capacity building, successful award holders are also expected to engage with the School’s cohort of awardholders and alumni.
Other deliverables outlined in proposals will be reflected in individual Award Letters. Awards will be monitored annually at minimum but monitoring will be adapted to award aims and length.
The SSCR Programme expects to commission a range of applications and awards between £20,000 – £75,000 are available. All applications will be expected to demonstrate value for money and should be costed accordingly. Staff and non-staff costs will be funded at 100%, with an overhead rate of 30% applied to staff costs at Higher Education Institutions. Costs for the applicant’s salary, training (formal or short) courses and events, direct costs linked to the Career Development Award are eligible. The Programme does not fund supervision costs. The Programme will not fund international travel or international conference attendance, except in very exceptional circumstances and accompanied by a sufficiently robust rationale.
Please cost your application using the costing template provided. A full justification of resources is required as part of the application.
Career Development Awards are expected to start mid-2025 (no later than 1st August), and to last between 12-24 months. The duration of the award should reflect the nature of the development plan and be fully justified. There is some flexibility with start date and duration. Applications that will not start within this timeframe should apply for the next call which will be announced in 2025.
If you would like assistance to explore links with SSCR to develop your application, please email the School Capacity Building Coordinator, Sophie Caswell-Jones via sscr-training@york.ac.uk with a brief outline of your proposed topics and we will do our best to link you up with an appropriate member from the School.
Frequently asked questions can be found below. We will continue to add FAQs as they arise so please check back for updates. If you have a query that isn’t resolved here, please email sscr-training@york.ac.uk.
Yes, if your employer can confirm in writing that they are committed to extending your contract to the end of your award date. It’s important to note that funding cannot be distributed to an individual and awards must be managed by an overarching organisation.
This is possible in principle but will need to be discussed with SSCR prior to the move. The support within any new host organisation will need to be discussed and SSCR will require written assurance from your new line manager that they would continue to support you during your award period.
Yes. The application includes a short section for your line manager to give their approval and confirm how they plan to support you and your links to the SSCR during your award period.
No. We request a CV (maximum 4 pages) and your application includes a section for a short personal statement, but a covering letter is not required and will not be factored into the reviewers’ decisions.
No. While we welcome applications that include partners, only one individual can be named as the main recipient of this award.
We are open to funding a broad range of development pathways and encourage applicants to outline and justify the best types of activity for their career needs. While we’re keen to see individualised plans please ensure that your award activity is feasible within the time and resources available.
Support can come in lots of different forms, such as a mentoring arrangement , opportunities to speak about your awards in meetings, a bespoke package of regular supervision/mentorship meetings to ensure things are on track, or facilitation of broader academic or practice networks.
When we review applications, we want to see that the applicant has the time and ability to undertake the work and won’t be left to get on with things without support from those committed to help them. We want to ensure that you can carry out the activities you plan to and having a strong support system helps you to achieve this.
We’re looking for applications that are best-suited for the career paths of the applicant, and sometimes this includes activity that other people may have also carried out. The important thing is that your proposal is feasible, clearly articulated in the context of your future career plans and well-justified.
We’re expecting to fund around 5 awards in this round, depending on requested funding.
No. We’re interested in supporting applicants from a range of disciplines and are interested in what people bring to social care research.
Not necessarily, but we do expect applicants to have clearly defined deliverables they can accomplish by the end of their award.
Please send your completed application and supporting documents to sscr-training@york.ac.uk before the deadline of 5pm, Friday 14th February 2025. Please note the application must be endorsed and signed by the applicant, line manager, career development supporter and an administrative/financial authority for the host organisation. Applications that do not include a CV, Gantt chart and costings template will be considered as incomplete.
We expect to receive more applications than we can fund. All applications will be reviewed by a panel comprised of academic, practice and public members. Following the panel, unsuccessful applicants will receive constructive feedback on their proposals within four weeks of the decision, and, where appropriate, information on other sources of funding may be provided.
Applications will be reviewed using the following criteria: