Get support with research grants & fellowships

OUR SERVICE

The SPARK Grants Application Team (GAT) facilitates the grant application and costing process on behalf of the LHP member organisations.

The functions and activities which can be supported by SPARK GAT include:

• Help identify funding calls
• Coordinate grant meetings as required:
  • Initial meeting with Investigator, Research Team, NIHR CRN NWC AcoRD Specialist, SPARK Grants Team, LHP Programme Manager, LHP NHS/HEI Leads and others as required.
  • Follow-up meetings as required prior to grant submission deadline.
• Facilitate the collation of grant costings and where a LHP NHS Trust organisation is involved, acquire relevant NHS costs from the partners. Costings for grants include but not limited to research support costs, service support costs, per patient costs, hosting fees, external collaborator costs, Sponsorship related costs, third party vendors.
• Facilitate all grant application approvals and sign-offs from LHP member organisations and other parties involved in the grant application.
• Identify Sponsorship requirements.
• Identify required contracts and link investigators in with the relevant LHP member organisations contracts team, where required.
• Sign-post and initiate collaborations where not already established, such as LHP Programmes, RDS and CTUs.

LHP Programmes

LHP’s Programme Management team works holistically with LHP SPARK in supporting the grant development and application process.

Managing the delivery of a number of cross-cutting and disease specific programmes (across the life course) which have been identified as priority areas for our region, LHP’s Programme Managers work with a variety of stakeholders within the anchor organisations and higher education institutions under LHP and across the system, supporting the grant application process at the earliest stage, through:

• Building communities through stakeholder engagement and inclusivity
• Mapping and identifying collaborative opportunities
• Developing special interest networks to deliver programme strategies, bringing together members from within the partnership, but also from across the system
• Through these networks, facilitating grant development, forming new collaborations and sourcing other funding opportunities (e.g. building academic capacity)all to ensure the strategic development of research, education and service impact at the level of the system.

To find out more please contact lhpadmin@liverpool.ac.uk

LHP Programme Management Team:

• Living Well and Infection: Elizabeth Collins
• Starting Well: Carianne Hunt
• Cardiovascular (including Cardio-respiratory): Paul Burdett
• Neuroscience and Mental Health: Jade Thai
• Cancer: TBC

Find out more about our team here.

LHP NHS and HEI Partners

LHP SPARK operate a single shared governance and oversight approach to the grant development and submission processes across LHP HEI and NHS organisations. Contacting SPARK will ensure your organisational R&D office is alerted to your intent to develop a grant.

Your employing Trust/HEI organisation and/or the LHP NHS Trust/HEI lead organisation need to be made aware of the submission at the earliest stages in order for them to complete their own assessments to ensure they are able to support the set-up and delivery of your research study.

By contacting LHP SPARK via enquiries@lhpspark.nhs.uk LHP SPARK team will make the relevant contact to the LHP member organisation representative.

LHP SPARK: HOW TO ACCESS SUPPORT FOR YOUR GRANT APPLICATION

To request grant application support from SPARK, all investigators must complete the LHP SPARK Grant Proposal Form.

The latest LHP SPARK Grant Proposal Form is available at the bottom of this page.

The completed form should be submitted to SPARK six to eight weeks prior to the funder submission deadline but no later than four weeks.  A member of the team will respond within two working days.

The initial meeting with the investigator must occur no later than three weeks prior to the funder submission deadline. It is important for all investigators to make themselves available to attend the initial meeting to facilitate the grant application. This time is required to ensure SPARK are able to fully facilitate and support the grant application ready for NHS and HEI submissions and approvals.

The SPARK Grants Application Team is small and due to the high burden of grant applications that come through the office, SPARK must be provided with enough time to be able to support and facilitate a grant application.

If sufficient time is not provided to SPARK your application is at risk of not being supported for submission to the funder.

LHP SPARK CONTACTS

To discuss a forthcoming grant application, please contact Stacey Carruthers (SPARK Research Coordinator) and/or Jodie Henderson (SPARK Research Grants Officer) via enquiries@lhpspark.nhs.uk , who would be very happy to help and provide further information.

OTHER KEY CONTACTS FOR RESEARCH GRANT AND FELLOWSHIP APPLICATIONS SUPPORT

The following organisations can be contacted directly to request support for research grant or fellowship applications. Detailed information on how they can support you and contact information is available on their respective websites:

• Liverpool Clinical Trials Centre: LCTC – Collaborate
• NIHR Research Design Service North West: RDS NW – Research Design Service North West (nihr.ac.uk)
• NIHR CRN NWC: CRN North West Coast (nihr.ac.uk)
• NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast (ARC): NIHR – Applied Research Collaboration | North West Coast
• Innovation Agency North West Coast: Innovation Agency NWC – Home