Research Guidance & Useful Links

Research inclusion as a condition of funding: researchers and research support staff- Recording of the webinar

NIHR’s new Research Inclusion Requirements came into effect in autumn 2024.

Use the EDI Toolkit to find full details.

The  Research Support Service (RSS), which replaces the RDS, offers free and confidential advice on the development of funding applications and throughout the research pathway. Follow the link to the NIHR RSS page.

This project, published by The George Institute for Global Health’s Medical Science Sex and Gender Equity (MESSAGE) project, in partnership with Imperial. aims to improve the integration of sex and gender considerations across data collection, analysis and reporting in biomedical, health and care research in the UK.

This initiative is bringing together stakeholders from across the UK to co-design a sex and gender policy framework for funding and regulatory organisations and supporting policy implementation across the UK research sector.

MESSAGE Policy Framework.

Professor Robyn Norton, Founding Director of The George Institute, Emeritus Professor of Global Health at Imperial and co-principal investigator of the MESSAGE project, said, “The UK has one of the largest female health gaps globally, and many of these inequities stem from the earliest stages of medical research. By integrating sex and gender considerations into funding proposals, researchers will now be expected to design and conduct their research in a more equitable and scientifically robust manner.”

The policy framework was co-designed with representatives from across the UK research sector, including research funders, regulators, researchers, academic journals, patients, clinicians and government officials.

Recent research finds unprofessional behaviour such as rudeness or bullying may become embedded in the workplace when staff are disempowered, teams lack cohesion and managers are unaware of the behaviour. This could then impact staff wellbeing negatively contributing to mental and physical health problems among staff, affecting patient safety and compromising the quality of patient care.

Unprofessional behaviour was most likely to be directed at staff who are female, new, disabled or from minority groups.

Improving working conditions and encouraging staff collaboration could help to eliminate unprofessional behaviour in healthcare.

The NIHR has a dedicated page on this topic- What drives unprofessional behaviour in healthcare?

Current NIHR funding opportunities.