FYI. Medical Research Council Public Health Intervention Development Scheme
The MRC Public Health Intervention Development scheme (PHIND) supports the early stages of development of interventions that address an important UK or global public health issue. Studies funded by the scheme will develop the necessary evidence to underpin the later development and evaluation of novel public health interventions.
The scheme supports projects that will develop innovative new interventions that address an important UK or global public health issue, and seeks to encourage a novel, high risk approach to intervention development. Complex, population level interventions, with a focus on non-health care settings (such as: transport, education, employment, leisure and the built environment), are considered particularly suitable. Health care settings are not excluded, but projects should demonstrate potential for improved health of general, high risk or vulnerable populations. In addition, proposals that align with the NIHR Public Health Research Programme or for MRC Global Health schemes are particularly welcomed.
Applicants can apply for up to £150K (MRC Contribution), for a maximum of 18 months. Funds may be requested to support costs attributable to the study including investigator and research staff time, consumables, equipment and travel.
Proposals should address the early stage of development of new interventions including qualitative and quantitative primary research, developing theory and designing the intervention.
Where appropriate, investigators are strongly encouraged to include user participation in their developmental study, as absence of user engagement at an early stage can reduce the success of the intervention.
Proposals should demonstrate a pathway to further development and evaluation of the proposed intervention and criteria for progression to the next stage of development should be detailed within the Case for Support. To help fully evaluate the impact of PHIND awards, in addition to the standard MRC reporting conditions, grant holders will be required to inform the scheme manager of project outputs.
Assessment process
Applications will be directly assessed by a scientific panel, comprising a range of public health research and practitioner expertise, without additional external peer-review. The panel will have close links with NIHR and MRC global health to ensure the public health relevance of the proposal and to increase the potential success of future applications for piloting and evaluative studies.
The panel will assess applications against the following criteria:
- The importance of the public health question and need for an intervention to address the issue(s)
- The proposed approach including methodology, innovation and likelihood of the outcomes of the proposed study to fill a current gap in knowledge
- The research team, research environment and stakeholder partners
How to apply
Proposals to PHIND must be submitted through the Joint electronic-Submission (Je-S) system.
Please use the Guidance Document when preparing your application and case for support.
Please also refer to the 10 tips for writing a PHIND application, available in the Document Download section.
Please note that the Guidance Document (Case for Support questions 2 and 5) has recently been updated (May 2017), to request more detail on the likely proposed intervention and methodology that would be used in the early-phase study.
Full details are available on the MRC website.
Deadline: 18th July 2019