National

The NIHR Research Support Service (RSS) provides support and advice to researchers from all backgrounds and organisations in health and social care, not only to develop funding applications but throughout the research pathway.

The service is delivered by eight ‘hubs’, each a partnership of research groups, organisations and clinical trials units (CTUs) with expertise in applied health and care research. Working alongside the eight NIHR RSS hubs are Specialist Centres for Public Health and Social Care that have additional context-specific expertise in these areas. The NIHR RSS is a national service, and each hub and specialist centre is open to researchers based anywhere in England.

The NIHR RSS supports applications to national, open and peer-reviewed research programmes – this means funded research programmes that use groups of experts to review whether applications are suitable for funding. This covers all NIHR programmes as well as funding from UK Research Councils and national health and care charities.

The NIHR RSS can support translational, clinical and applied health, public health, and social care research, including applications for fellowships and other personal awards.

Local

The University of Birmingham and Partners RSS specialises in:

• Evidence synthesis
• Innovative trial design
• Analysis of complex data and electronic health records
• Test evaluation and prognosis research
• Patient-reported outcomes
• Delivering clinical trial studies in specific areas and settings
• PPIE and Impact
• Implementation research

If you would like to request support from this RSS Hub please complete this form.

Geography

This is a national network.  Researchers can choose which hub/specialist centre they prefer to work with or contact the network lead (here) for help identifying the most suitable.

What services we offer

We can help you to develop your research ideas into competitive funding applications.  You can come to us before you have started to write up the proposal or identified the funding stream you will eventually apply to; we can help to do this using our expert knowledge of programmes and what their panels look for in a successful application (though we will not write the proposal for you).

All hubs and specialist centres can support researchers with advice on:

• Finding funding sources
• Refining research questions, aims and objectives
• Developing appropriate methodological approaches
• Planning projects, teams and budgets
• Planning for implementation and impact
• Writing techniques/pitching an application
• Patient, public, service user and community involvement and engagement
• Research design to maximise equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

Other support includes advice on project delivery, research approval processes, obtaining ethics approval and signposting to other services, such as the Health Research Authority and NIHR Research Delivery Network.

Across the NIHR RSS, hubs have expertise to offer advice and support in:

• Quantitative expertise, including the statistical aspects of study design, analysis, and reporting; randomised controlled trials (RCTs) including cluster designs and platform trials; and other designs, such as stepped wedge, Bayesian and adaptive approaches.
• Feasibility and pilot studies
• Qualitative study design and analysis
• Mixed methods design and analysis
• Development, validation and adaptation of outcome measures
• Research priority setting, stakeholder involvement and participatory research methods
• Behavioural science/ health psychology
• Epidemiology
• Systematic scoping reviews, qualitative synthesis, systematic reviews and meta-analysis
• Health service/implementation research
• Expertise developing innovative PPIE approaches with researchers, patients, community organisations and the public
• Co-production of interventions with PPIE and stakeholders.
• Equality, diversity and inclusion
• Big data and record/data linkage
• Health Economics, early economic modelling and evaluation, outcome measurement and cost-effectiveness
• Operational support, clinical trials management, and study delivery
• Planning pathways to impact

Fellowships

• The NIHR RSS supports researchers developing Doctoral, Partnership and Advanced Fellowships applications. Some Hubs offer additional support for Fellowship applications as part of their expertise. Please note that non-specialist Hubs only offer limited support to pre-doctoral fellowship applications as fellowships at this level do not include a research proposal and are particularly dependent upon the input, guidance and expertise of the project supervisor, the NIHR RSS cannot take the supervisor role.
• The Public Health Specialist Centre remit has a greater emphasis on capacity and capability development; therefore, they are potentially able to offer a higher level of support for pre-doctoral fellowships on a case-by-case basis.

Collaboration

• NIHR RSS staff or partners may be invited to collaborate in research. Please note, the NIHR RSS has no expectation of collaboration and will provide high-quality advice irrespective of whether its staff or partners are collaborators.

Clinical Trials Units (CTUs)

• NIHR RSS Hubs offer collaborative trial delivery. Projects adopted by a CTU will require collaborative involvement of CTU academics to develop the bid. The NIHR RSS can also signpost users wishing to work with non-RSS UKCRC-accredited CTUs, and in certain research areas non-UKCRC accredited CTUs.

More information

To ensure the NIHR RSS can provide comprehensive support, initial contact should be as early as possible – ideally months before the funder deadline. Requests made less than 5 working weeks before the submission deadline may influence the quality and nature of the support the NIHR RSS can offer and access to specialist teams to deal with more complex interventional support. If required, CTU support is complex and more likely to need a minimum of 3 months to develop the proposal.

National

Funded by the NIHR, there are approximately 20 Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) nationally.  They bring together experts from the NHS and universities, facilitating early-stage experimental medicine research and support the translation of scientific discoveries. 

Local

NIHR Birmingham BRC focuses on inflammation and the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of its associated long-term diseases.  Themes include:

• Inflammatory arthritis
• Cancer inflammation
• Infection and acute care
• Inflammatory liver disease
• Women’s metabolic health
• Oral, intestinal and systemic health
• Sarcopenia and multimorbidity
• Thrombo-inflammation
• Data, diagnostics and decision tools
• Next generation therapies
• Patient-reported outcomes

Geography

The BRC is a national service. 

What services we offer

We can support connecting you with relevant, world-leading experts, to support trial design and delivery of experimental or translational research.  The BRC is a connector across the region, facilitating access to world-class infrastructure/ facilities and providing support from experienced research staff to support delivery of your trial.

Our business engagement team can support with applications for subsequent external grant awards/ industry funding.

Our extensive public, patient and inclusion strategy supports our ambition to co-create research portfolios with our diverse community.  underpinned by our close working with patients, the public and charities.

We support career development, through access to multi-disciplinary training, networks and transition-point support schemes open to all. As well as through bespoke training, ensuring researchers are commercially aware. 

The Birmingham BRC also leads on:

• NIHR Bioresource which is a recallable resource of over 250,000 volunteers, with and without health conditions who have agreed to take part in health-related research. Researchers can choose participants based on their genetic make-up or on physical characteristics, such as markers in their blood cells. Apply here.
• NAFLD (Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease) BioResource specifically supports rapid identification of participants for NAFLD trials, with over 3,700 currently registered participants.

More information

As the BRC facilitates early-stage research, please contact us early to achieve maximum benefit.

• General enquires – birminghamBRC@uhb.nhs.uk
• Patients and public – To contact our PPIE team, please email BRCPPIE@uhb.nhs.uk

National

The HealthTech Research Centres (HRC) help medical device, digital technology and diagnostic companies (collectively known as healthtech) to develop, evaluate and validate new innovative health technologies to address pressing healthcare challenges. This includes help to generate evidence to demonstrate financial value (health economics) or improve operational efficiency in the NHS (real-world evidence generation).

There are 14 centres nationally, focusing on specific areas.

Local

The NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Devices, Digital and Robotics is led by world class academics from the University of Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham and Imperial College London.  The themes each include the cross-cutting areas of Human Factors & Usability, Health Economics & Value Proposition, and Regulations, with leads from the University of Birmingham and Health Innovation West Midlands.

Geography

Acting as a national network, each Centre focuses on key themes.

What services we offer

Expertise

Unrivalled access to world-leading medical diagnostics expertise and extensive clinical networks.

State-of-the-art facilities

Access to specialist equipment relevant to distinct specialisms, including a sleeping unit, a surgical theatre simulation suite, a gait analysis lab and a neuroimaging suite.

Advice

Advice on the suitability of new technologies and the evidence required to support their commercial uptake. This includes advice on device design, patient care pathway analysis, clinical evaluation, health economics, site identification, patient recruitment and regulatory advice.

Collaboration

Help to broker relationships between industry and clinical practice to test new technologies in community settings. We can help you to build a multidisciplinary team to work with you to ensure you generate the right evidence to support the adoption of your health technology into the NHS.

Patient and public involvement

Public contributors are at the centre of our HRCs, helping to steer and govern our work to ensure it is relevant to patients and carers. Each HRC has a PPIE lead to support companies in their product design, development and to facilitate patient engagement and recruitment.

Study delivery

In-house delivery of clinical trials, health economics, health informatics, multidisciplinary pathology capabilities, and generation of high quality evidence to demonstrate the benefits of your product.

More information

To add contact info

National

NIHR Clinical Research Facilities are state-of-the-art, purpose-built facilities based in NHS hospitals that are dedicated to delivering early phase, experimental medicine and high-risk studies. This includes first-in-patient trials and those that require dedicated space and specialist expertise. 

In addition to NIHR funded facilities, there are further facilities which are not NIHR funded, the UKCRF Network brings together all CRFs across the UK and Ireland to develop, share and implement excellence in operational practice to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of studies, and drive forward initiatives that improve quality of patient experience.

Local

Birmingham CRF, based across University Hospitals Birmingham and Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital, provides a high-quality clinical environment where volunteers and patients of all ages can take part in experimental and early phase clinical research

Geography

NIHR/ Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility Birmingham facilitates

What services we offer

Facilities

Outpatient clinical rooms, day-case facilities, inpatient rooms/ overnight stays, meeting rooms and specialist rooms e.g. metabolic studies area, endoscopy suite, bone density scanner (DEXA) and high specification isolation rooms. 

Research Delivery staff

The CRF has dedicated expert research staff who can support the setup of the study, support efficient navigation of site R&D processes, liaising with Sponsors to support timely activation.  Also supporting delivery of the study, coordinating patient research visits, ensuring compliance with study protocols, and data collection/ entry.

CRF Laboratory

Based in the adult facility, provides invaluable services such as specimen processing for researchers as well as a comprehensive education package to students such as those undertaking BMedSci programmes. The laboratories consist of a class II analytical laboratory that can facilitate investigative research, sample processing, storage and analysis and an analytical laboratory with flow cytometry equipment, CO² incubators and hoods. A separate freezer room houses several minus 80 degree celcius, temperature monitored freezers.

Inflammation Research Facility (IRF)

Based in close proximity to the University of Birmingham’s Research laboratories, this is dedicated to the study of the inflammatory process and related diseases. Specialties currently using the space include rheumatology, respiratory and neurology. CRF nursing and support staff work closely with clinicians and scientists to deliver internationally competitive research and high-quality care to research participants.

More information

All research projects running through the CRF must be approved by the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), which reviews the study for scientific merit, this is separate, but parallel to, each Trusts capacity and capability approval. 

The Investigator should arrange an informal meeting with a senior manager to discuss if the study is within the remit of the CRF as early as possible:

• ClinicalResearchFacilityEnquiries@uhb.nhs.uk (adult)
• crfmanagement@nhs.net (paediatric)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.