Represent excellent quality research

Be of value to health professionals

Benefit patients

Convince the judges that you can deliver the research

Offer value for money (which is not necessarily the same as cheapness)

When writing your first application, read all the guidance you can find, take all the advice on offer and get someone with experience to read and critique your work. The most important thing to remember is that you will, at some stage, be rejected, so be prepared for it, and don’t be disheartened. Rejections do not necessarily mean your project is not worth doing, but you do need to find the right funder and respond constructively to the criticism you have received.

9.1 Four keys to success

Choose a funder that is likely to be interested in your work. If you submit patient oriented research to a body which funds basic science you are unlikely to be successful.

Make contact with the organisation and get all the information you need.

Write an application that communicates your intentions clearly. When you are writing, talk to your reader and remember they are not from your specialist field. You really have to sell yourself and your idea.

Learn from your failures and keep trying. A big part of the research process is accepting criticism and learning from it. At all stages your work is constantly scrutinised and judged, and the grant application stage will be a particularly detailed examination. It is likely that you will be rejected and receive critical comments; try not to take these too much to heart and don’t let it stop you trying again at another organisation.

9.2 Is it being funded already?

There is little point seeking funding if someone else is already doing similar work. You may have already checked the National Research Register (www.nrr.nhs.uk) to see who else is working in the same field as part of your literature review (see Chapter 4). It may also be worth looking at appropriate funders’ websites to see what they have funded recently.

9.3 What funding is available?

Funding is available from a variety of sources including:

Research Councils

Government

The EU

Business and industry

Charitable trusts and foundations

The best way to search for funding is to access the RDinfo database, available to all on www.RDinfo.org.uk. This lists all funding available to researchers in the UK. It can be searched by key word, type of funding or organisation. It also includes studentships, educational grants and travel bursaries.

9.4 Find out about the funder

Assess the potential funder by finding out as much as you can about their aims and objectives, their priorities, and their scope. Look carefully at what they have funded previously since this can give you a good idea of the sort of research they favour. Most organisations will present this information on their website. Some of the larger funders are listed in the resource section.

9.4.1 Make contact with the funder

If you can’t find the information you need through the web don’t be shy about ringing up and asking questions. Even if the organisation presents their information well on their website it is a good idea to try to make a preliminary contact at the organisation. Most grant giving bodies will assign someone to talk to potential applicants – they are keen to find good researchers to do their research. Once you make personal contact it will be easier to ring up to get extra information, advice or feedback after the judging process.

If you can’t find the answers to the following questions in the literature provided it may be useful to make contact with someone:

What do they fund? The web site will usually have this but it may be useful to discuss whether your project meets their criteria.