MRC Public Health Intervention Development Scheme (deadline: 11th January 2018)
The MRC Public Health Intervention Development scheme (PHIND) supports the early stages of development of interventions that address an important UK or global public health issue. Studies funded by the scheme will develop the necessary evidence to underpin the later development and evaluation of novel public health interventions.
The scheme supports projects that will develop innovative new interventions that address an important UK or global public health issue, and seeks to encourage a novel, high risk approach to intervention development. Complex, population level interventions, with a focus on non-health care settings (such as: transport, education, employment, leisure and the built environment), are considered particularly suitable. Health care settings are not excluded, but projects should demonstrate potential for improved health of general, high risk or vulnerable populations. In addition, proposals that align with the NIHR Public Health Research Programme or for MRC Global Health schemes are particularly welcomed.
Proposals should address the early stage of development of new interventions including qualitative and quantitative primary research, developing theory and designing the intervention. Examples of the types of research within scope are:
- defining the intervention
- specifying content
- developing theory
- modelling process and outcomes such as developing logic models
- identifying components and their inter-relationships
- developing procedures and protocols
- creation of new interventions where active components of existing interventions are recombined to create a new intervention
Where appropriate, investigators are strongly encouraged to include user participation in their developmental study, as absence of user engagement at an early stage can reduce the success of the intervention.
Proposals should demonstrate a pathway to further development and evaluation of the proposed intervention and criteria for progression to the next stage of development should be detailed within the Case for Support. To help fully evaluate the impact of PHIND awards, in addition to the standard MRC reporting conditions, grant holders will be required to inform the scheme manager of project outputs.
The following activities are ineligible for support:
- Interventions treating clinical conditions or improving health services delivery should be directed to the relevant funding schemes: DPFS, MRC Global Health and NIHR schemes.
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses
- Standalone feasibilityopens in new window studies and pilot studies should be submitted to the appropriate NIHR funding scheme
- Adaptation of existing interventions for a new context or target population for which there is already an evidence base is not within the scheme remit and would likely fall under the remit of the NIHR Public Health Research Programme
The assessment panel will assess applications against the following criteria:
- The importance of the public health question and need for an intervention to address the issue(s)
- The proposed approach including methodology, innovation and likelihood of the outcomes of the proposed study to fill a current gap in knowledge
- The research team, research environment and stakeholder partners
Applicants can apply for up to £150K (MRC Contribution), for a maximum of 18 months. Funds may be requested to support costs attributable to the study including investigator and research staff time, consumables, equipment and travel.
Please find further details and apply here.
If you have any queries about this scheme please contact publichealth@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk or 01793 416356.