Research Partnership Catalyst Award

Funding seeks to support applicants to develop and deliver on projects in translational medical research, particularly studies of disease mechanisms in humans and the translation of these insights into early detection and interventions. This includes use of diagnostics and devices, patient-reported outcome measures, and the development of proof of concepts, such as through early phase clinical studies of new treatments and development of advanced therapies. Applicant’s research projects should align to the priority areas and themes below and demonstrate clear contributions to the strategic priority areas for health research at the KHP organisations, including how the research will seek to reduce health inequity. Discovery science projects and/or those involving animal models are not eligible. 

We particularly encourage applications that:

• Aim to harness combined strengths across King's College London faculties and KHP organisations;
• Bring together multidisciplinary, cross-partner and/or cross-faculty research and expertise, which may be reflected in the supervisory team;
• Connect mental and physical health (and/or links to the NIHR Maudsley BRC).

Figure 1: Priority areas for funding

We aim to encourage applications from all registered health professionals. Our ambition is to broaden the health professions represented amongst CTM funded research and therefore we are specifically encouraging applications from nurses, midwives and allied health professionals.  

Examples of projects funded by the Centre for Translational Medicine can be found on our website.

For the duration of the award, in addition to pursing their research projects, recipients will:

• Prepare future research plans and collaborations;  
• Prepare submission to external funding bodies to secure funding to support your research; 
• Publish research outputs for peer-reviewed journals;
• Prepare and present your research at internal and external meetings;
• Actively participate in research meetings and public engagement activities.

• Health professionals (registered with a UK health professional regulatory body) are eligible to apply, including nurses, midwives, doctors, dentists, pharmacists, healthcare scientists, psychologists and all other registered professions allied to healthcare;
• Applicants need to have a doctoral level research qualification (PhD or MD);
• Applicants need to be at consultant or senior level roles (Agenda for Change band 7 and above).  In this role you should be working at a senior level with specialised knowledge and demonstrable capacity for professional independence and leadership; 
• You should not be undertaking any substantive research activity and have limited or no research funding. We expect you will have less than half a day per week dedicated to research within your current contract. For example, one programmed activity, a week within your current job plan; 
• You must have substantive employment at one of the KHP partner trusts, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, that does not terminate before the end of the award (expected to be September 2028 and no later than March 2029.); 
• You must have the support of your NHS organisation who can guarantee your research time will be protected.

• Your primary research partner needs to be the group of an established research leader based at KHP (King’s College London, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust). You need to show how you will work with the research partner and be embedded into the research environment. This should include both career support through inclusion into the research environment for example journal clubs, lab meetings etc, but also through the inclusion in the use of research facilities and capabilities; 
• Additional collaborative working relationships with other research groups outside of KHP, Industry partnerships, or clinical teams are allowed and welcomed. These can be national or international partnerships;  
• Successful applicants may undertake periods of training in institutions of collaborators where appropriately justified e.g. where expertise, technologies or techniques are not currently available across KHP. In such cases, applicants are encouraged to outline how any new capabilities learned externally will be brought back for wider dissemination. 

• Funding will cover two programmed activities/ 20%FTE/ 1 day per week (8 hours) for up to 24 months;
• Up to £7,500 per annum can be requested for research running costs/consumables. As part of this award, it is expected you have a budget line for PPIE activity. This may come out of the consumables budget or another source but needs to be indicated in the application;
• Each awardee will also have access to up to £1,000 per year flexible bursary e.g. for travel to meetings or external training not provided by KHP organisations.

Salary cost: the NHS Trust Research and Development (R&D) office will help determine salary costs for the duration of the project. Please request this straight away, as it can take up to 4-6 weeks for a costing request to be processed. 

NHS Trust R&D office contacts are:

• Joint R&D Office of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Lauren Moult, lauren.moult@kcl.ac.uk;
• Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust R&D Office gstt.rdcosting@nhs.net;
• King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust R&D Office kch-tr.rd-researchcosting@nhs.net.

After an initial eligibility check, an independent representative review panel from across King’s 
Health Partners, including patient/public representation, will evaluate all applications. Applications will be ranked, and shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview where the panel will assess: 

• The research track record of the candidate;
• Quality of the research project described and its likelihood of creating a platform for attracting external funding;
• Alignment of research with the strategic research priorities across KHP organisations;
• How this award will support a step change in your research career;  
• Strength of the PPI/E plans. 

(Max 1-page A4, excluding references):

• Briefly outline the broad area and summary of the proposed project you will work up during this award to submit for external funding;
• Include a description as to how the research will contribute to the priority domains described in the guidance above, as well as how this will map to local and national priorities;
• Please also include plans to work with patients, the public and/or the local community to develop this project;
• A reference list of up to 10 sources should also be noted at the end of this document.

This letter should be written by someone with authority to make these commitments such as the Clinical Lead.

The letter of support must contain:

• Confirmation that you will have protected research time and will therefore be released for the proportion of time funded by CTM;
• Acknowledgement that the staff member’s clinical role/post may need backfill for the duration of their award so clinical care continues; 
• Guarantee that you can re-enter the clinic full-time without any loss of career progression or status at the end of the award if you choose to do so;
• Detail any support they will provide you during or following the end of the award which would support your aspirations for continued engagement with research.

Provide a letter of support from your research partner, signed by both them and the Head of Department (if relevant) for that research partner indicating both approval and support for this application.  This should include: 

• Confirmation of access to research infrastructure to enable the applicant to successful undertake the project described, be this space, technical support or use of facilities;
• Integration within the research team to support their development of the applicant’s research career.