How we can help

RDS NW advice service

We provide advice on all aspects of preparing applied health, public health and social care research funding applications, including:

  • advice on potential NIHR funding and other national competition peer reviewed funding programmes
  • formulating research questions
  • conducting literature reviews
  • research design for quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research
  • building a research team (including help to identify potential collaborators)
  • involving patients and the public in all stages of the research process
  • writing plain English summaries
  • the impact of your research
  • advice on feedback from funding committees.

We can provide post-funding advice to researchers experiencing difficulties, who have previously received support in their successful applications from us. This support may relate to study set-up, delivery or analysis, but will be advisory only, including signposting to other support groups.

We offer a range of specialist support services to help you develop your grant application, including:

  • one to one adviser support
  • critical reviews and formative feedback on draft funding applications
  • pre-submission panels, available to researchers at the final stage of proposal preparation – pre-submission panels imitate NIHR grant award panels as far as possible and are comprised of a range of expertise to provide multidisciplinary feedback
  • we and other RDS regions across England deliver a broad range of workshops and seminars to promote and support funding opportunities – please see our upcoming events

For more information on our advice service please see how our advice service works page.

View our client testimonials to see how our support has impacted our client’s success.

Please also see our self-help resources page for useful guidance and tool kits to help you with your research application development.