National Prevention Research Initiative Phase 4: Call for outline applications
7 September 2010
The National Prevention Research Initiative (NPRI) funds research aimed at improving health and at preventing diseases or conditions such as cancer, heart and circulatory diseases, diabetes, obesity, stroke and dementia. The Initiative supports research on behaviours associated with significant risks to health, such as poor diet, physical inactivity, smoking and alcohol consumption, and on the environmental factors that influence those behaviours.
Phase 4 will support cross-disciplinary research that develops or tests interventions that can potentially have a major impact on population health, using the full range of evaluation methods, including experimental and quasi-experimental (or observational) designs and natural experiments.
Research funded through the call will be translational and must be relevant to, or directly impact on, policy and/or practice. Research will:
- develop interventions (including work to understand the underpinning basis)
- test efficacy of interventions
- evaluate effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions
- evaluate methods for encouraging the uptake or implementation of interventions known to be effective.
Interventions with a strong element of joint or communal exposure, characteristic of population-level or community-level interventions are especially welcome but applications will also be received for individual-level interventions.
Researchers are encouraged to involve relevant users in the development of their applications. Studies that focus on long-term behaviour change are particularly welcomed, and applicants should be able to indicate they have considered societal factors, health inequalities and the diversity of human culture and condition.
Individual applications may be of any size, including ambitious high-value applications where the proposed research applies to multiple funding organisations. Approximately £10 million is available through this call and awards will be made on the basis of full economic costs (fEC) at approximately 68 per cent to reflect collaborative funding from research councils, charities and government departments.
The deadline for submitting outline applications is 16.00 on 3 November 2010. Only shortlisted applicants will be entitled to submit a full application. Further details are available from the NPRI website or from Dr Marlie Ferenczi at the Medical Research Council: marlie.ferenczi@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk.
About the National Prevention Research Initiative
NPRI Phase 4 is funded through a partnership of the following organisations: Alzheimer's Research Trust; Alzheimer's Society; Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council; British Heart Foundation; Cancer Research UK; Chief Scientist Office, Scottish Government Health Directorate; Department of Health; Diabetes UK; Economic and Social Research Council; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; Health and Social Care Research and Development Office for Northern Ireland; Medical Research Council; The Stroke Association; Wellcome Trust; Welsh Assembly Government; and World Cancer Research Fund. The MRC will manage the call and administer awards on behalf of the NPRI funding partners.
