NIHR GOSH BRC Junior Faculty Early Career Researcher Excellence in Impact Award 2024

The National Institute for Health and Care Research Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR GOSH BRC) Junior Faculty Early Career Researcher Excellence in Impact Award nominations are now open.

The GOSH BRC is a collaboration between Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (GOS ICH) funded by the NIHR. The GOSH BRC aims to support facilities and world-leading expertise allowing our staff and NHS, university and industry collaborators to conduct pioneering translational research into childhood illnesses. The GOSH BRC Junior Faculty is a group of early career researchers (ECRs) who support the career development of talented child health researchers, celebrate their successes, creativity and innovation, and ensure early career researchers have leadership opportunities and input to all BRC decisions.

The award recipient will receive a prize of £500 towards consumables and/or conference attendance and a fully-funded place (including travel) at the NIHR GOSH BRC Academic Training Weekend 2024 where they will be invited to present their award-winning work.

We invite nominations for outstanding early career researchers from GOSH, GOS ICH or from the Paediatric Excellence Initiative (PEI) partner sites (Alder Hey, Birmingham and Sheffield Children’s Hospitals). The award recipient will be an early career researcher who is making a significant contribution to the field of translational research aligned to their career stage. Their research should align with the remit of one of the BRC themes and the nomination cannot include basic science projects (i.e. not translational) or any research using animals due to NIHR funding rules.

• Early career researchers working in the areas of child health and substantively employed by GOSH, GOS ICH or GOSH BRC PEI partner sites. For this award, an early career researcher is defined as someone who is:
  • A PhD student or someone within six years** of receiving their PhD (or equivalent),
  • Has ≤£250k in total grant income as Primary Investigator/Lead applicant since the start of their research career (excluding their own salary e.g., a fellowship grant) and
  • Does not hold a tenured academic position.

**six years of full-time active research pro rata. Eligibility can be extended for reasons such as caring responsibilities, illness, career breaks or change in profession, clinical activity and any extenuating circumstances that resulted in time away from research.

• Nominations are invited from clinicians, non-clinical/basic scientists, and wider healthcare professionals (e.g. nurses, allied health professionals, pharmacists, psychologists, healthcare scientists and any other appropriate clinical professional).
• NIHR funding is formally not allowed to support any research using animals; therefore, any nomination should be for impact on translational research that does not involve substantial animal work.
• Self-nominations are accepted with a supporting letter of endorsement.
• Nominees must be available to attend and present in-person at the NIHR GOSH BRC Academic Training Weekend 2024 on Saturday 9 – Sunday 10 November 2024.

• The £500 award would need to be fully spent by 31 March 2025.
• We will ask the award recipient to submit a breakdown of how they intend to spend the £500 to the BRC for approval to ensure only eligible costs are supported.
• The award cannot be used to support basic science projects (i.e. not translational), any research using animals.

To nominate an individual, please complete the Nomination Form and submit, as a word document, to brc@gosh.nhs.uk by 5p.m. on Monday 16 September 2024.

Click here to download a nomination form

Nomination forms will be reviewed by members of the BRC Career Development Academy leadership team and will be assessed based on:

• Evidence of the nominee’s contribution to the field of translational research aligned to their career stage.
• Alignment of the nominee’s research to the BRC’s research aims.
• Potential of the nominee to be a future leader in translational research.

Please contact brc@gosh.nhs.uk if you have any questions.