ITMAT Call for Proposals: Push for Impact – NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre

To accelerate the translation of patient-based discovery research and experimental medicine across the NIHR Imperial BRC, we are pleased to announce this “Push for Impact” call for proposals.

The call aims to encourage innovative projects to deliver clinically focused outputs for the BRC by exploiting the resources and capabilities within ITMAT. Similar to previous calls, the intention is to support the ‘pull-through’ of discovery science into potential clinical application. Successful proposals in this call will generate high impact publications and demonstrate a feasible route to more comprehensive clinical studies to be funded externally.

This funding call is a two stage process:

Stage 1: Following the launch of the call, potential applicants should first discuss their interest in applying with their respective Head of Department and Departmental management. The deadline for applicants to submit their initial proposals to the appropriate departmental contact listed above is midday on Wednesday 10th May 2017. Departments will then conduct an internal review and triage process to select up to 5 proposals to take forward.

Stage 2: Proposals selected by the Departments should then work these up into full applications. Each Department may then submit up to 5 proposals to the ITMAT Management Committee by midday on 14th June 2017.

It is expected that up to 25 proposals will be submitted from across the 5 Departments within the Faculty of Medicine. These proposals will be assessed by the ITMAT Management Committee (a subcommittee of the new ICHT Research Committee), consisting of representatives from the NIHR Imperial BRC cross-cutting Themes and core facilities.

With a total budget of £850,000, this call will support up to six, 24-month multi-disciplinary projects that can demonstrate a strong promise of success. Successful projects will result in high impact publications and follow-on funding through schemes such as the MRC Experimental Medicine Challenge Grants or Biomedical Catalyst: Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS), the NIHR Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) programme or Innovate UK. Outputs must translational and advance the objectives of the NIHR Imperial BRC. It is recognised that costs for some proposals may be higher than others; however, an indicative cost per proposal is likely to be between £100,000 and £150,000 over the 2 year period. Projects will be funded for a maximum of 2 years.

Any clinical academic member of staff with a substantive employment contract with either Imperial College London or Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust may apply. All applicants must hold a contract of employment which extends to at least the end of the proposed project and all applicants must have secured departmental approval prior to submission. Applications are eligible from Imperial College London substantive employees, who are attached to either Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, or The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. Project work must take place within the NIHR Imperial BRC and therefore a substantive employment association with Imperial College London is required in these cases.

Details of the call can be obtained from the BRC Office (brcofficer@imperial.ac.uk).