Funding Call Pump Priming Funding Call- NIHR Surgery and Peri-Operative Care Translational Research Collaboration (SPOC-TRC)
NIHR Surgery and Peri-Operative Care Translational Research Collaboration (SPOC-TRC) Pump Priming Funding Call (2025–2026)
The SPOC-TRC pump priming call aims to support projects that promote safe and transparent early-phase research in surgery and/or perioperative care. This includes funding to support early-phase studies to develop novel SPOC interventions, as well as studies to support methodological developments relevant to early-phase evaluation of SPOC interventions. Activities to promote education and training in this field are also within the remit.
The SPOC-TRC operates with financial support from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) as well as annual contributions from member NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs). A proportion of the funds from SPOC-TRC members will be made available for pump priming awards.
Scheme overview
• Projects may be funded up to a maximum of £20,000 for up to 12 months.
• Projects are to be led by a member of the TRC or co-led by TRC members.
• Projects are to involve a minimum of two TRC members from different BRCs.
• Projects are encouraged to collaborate with groups external to the TRC, e.g. another BRC (not part of the TRC), academic centre or industry and with those across different surgical specialities.
• Projects are required to consider PPIE as described in more detail below.
• A clear vision, aim and key milestones are required.
• A credible plan for obtaining subsequent external funding is required.
• Consideration of industry engagement/collaboration is required.
Scope
Pump priming funding is available for activities that involve collaboration. It is expected that this is between a minimum of two BRCs within the SPOC-TRC (Appendix 1). Additional collaborations with an external group, e.g. another BRC (not part of the TRC), an academic centre or industry is encouraged. Activities and projects involving cross-surgical speciality collaboration is also encouraged. The proposed activity should contribute to the achievement of the SPOC-TRC workstreams and/or overarching SPOC-TRC vision (Appendix 2).
Activities and projects that are within scope of the call, include projects designed to:
1. Support an early phase research evaluation (i.e. Phase 1, 2a, 2b) of an invasive procedure or a peri-operative care intervention in two centres.
2. Support methodological innovation/evaluation to optimise the design and conduct of an early phase study/ies of an innovative invasive procedure or a peri-operative care intervention.
3. Support activities to promote training and education in early phase evaluation methods for surgery and peri-operative care.
4. Advance PPIE methods for early phase studies in surgery and peri-operative care.
Eligibility
In addition to being within scope, projects need to demonstrate that they have met specific criteria within their application, including:
• Demonstration of a clear vision, aims, and key milestones that align with the SPOC-TRC aims
• A clear rationale for why the project delivery is contingent on securing SPOC-TRC pump priming.
• Involvement of patients and/or the public, including appropriate plans for implementing PPIE as a key part of the research activity (or clear justification for why this is not needed).
• An expectation that pump-priming projects will have a high chance of subsequently:
o Securing external, peer-reviewed research funding through the development of collaborative research proposals,
o Attracting industry or other external partner collaboration/support.
Applications should therefore put forward a credible case for how the projects will be positioned to increase the likelihood of securing further funding and industry collaborations.
Projects should be completed within 12 months.
Application process
Prior to submitting a completed application form, individual(s) interested in applying for pump priming are encouraged to discuss their planned proposal with the Collaboration Manager (Liz Stopard, liz.stopard@bristol.ac.uk). These discussions serve to encourage the research that is most relevant to our remit and confirm eligibility. some key dates:
Launch of pump priming funding call- 28 July 2025
Deadline for applications- 3 October 2025
Applicants informed of the outcome of their application- 1 December 2025
Full guidance can be found here.
Download the application form here.
