Glossary

Commissioned and Researcher Led Workstreams

Commissioned workstreams

Commissioned workstreams start with the information needs of decision makers typically, but not exclusively, within the NHS. These are refined and prioritised by people with expertise in the field, and commissioning briefs are advertised. Applications are then assessed for compliance with the commissioning brief, scientific quality, feasibility and value for money.

Researcher Led workstreams

Researcher Led workstreams are open calls for researchers to apply for funding for their own topics and questions. These applications are prioritised in terms of NHS or other information need in a process similar to that in the commissioned workstreams. Applications are then assessed for scientific quality, feasibility and value for money.

Ways of Working

Full and appropriate funding

Full and appropriate funding is provided because we place no upper limit on the amount of funding granted for a project. Subject to availability of funds, if the question is important enough and the science requires it, we will fund it. For University based projects we will fund up to 80% of the Full Economic Cost (FEC) of the research, and 100% of the direct costs for NHS Trust based projects. Other organisations are also welcome to apply to our programmes and should discuss the basis of costing with us.

Needs-led

We are Needs-led because we assess what are the important questions and in what priority they should be answered. We actively ensure that our programmes meet the needs of decision makers. We ensure we are needs-led throughout the funding pipeline by actively assessing need and priority for all funding streams.

Science-added

We are Science-added because we ask does the proposal meet the scientific quality we insist on, and how can we support the delivery and improvement of quality? We actively apply scientific knowledge, expertise and methods to support the scientific quality of proposals and funded research. We communicate closely with the research community, and provide significant post award support and monitoring.

Research Methods

Feasibility and Pilot studies

We expect that when pilot or feasibility studies are proposed by applicants, or specified in commissioning briefs, a clear route to the substantive study will be described.  This applies whether the brief or proposal describes just the preliminary study or both together.  Whether preliminary and main studies are funded together or separately may be decided on practical grounds.

Feasibility Studies

Feasibility Studies are pieces of research done before a main study. They are used to estimate important parameters that are needed to design the main study. For instance:

• standard deviation of the outcome measure, which is needed in some cases to estimate sample size,
• willingness of participants to be randomised,
• willingness of clinicians to recruit participants,
• number of eligible patients,
• characteristics of the proposed outcome measure and in some cases feasibility studies might involve designing a suitable outcome measure,
• follow-up rates, response rates to questionnaires, adherence/compliance rates, ICCs in cluster trials, etc 

Feasibility studies for randomised controlled trials may not themselves be randomised.   Crucially, feasibility studies do not evaluate the outcome of interest; that is left to the main study.
If a feasibility study is a small randomised controlled trial, it need not have a primary outcome and the usual sort of power calculation is not normally undertaken.  Instead the sample size should be adequate to estimate the critical parameters (e.g. recruitment rate) to the necessary degree of precision.

Pilot studies

Pilot studies are a version of the main study that is run in miniature to test whether the components of the main study can all work together. It is focused on the processes of the main study, for example to ensure recruitment, randomisation, treatment, and follow-up assessments all run smoothly.  It will therefore resemble the main study in many respects.  In some cases this will be the first phase of the substantive study and data from the pilot phase may contribute to the final analysis; this can be referred to as an internal pilot.  Or at the end of the pilot study the data may be analysed and set aside, a so-called external pilot.