NIHR GOSH BRC Knowledge Transfer Scheme 2024

The NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR GOSH BRC) Career Development Academy is pleased to launch the Knowledge Transfer Scheme 2024. The Knowledge Transfer Scheme aims to support early career researchers to undertake a research placement at external institutes to learn key technologies or techniques and to strengthen collaborations or develop new partnerships. Around £15k is available in this call to support up to three research placements.

The Knowledge Transfer Scheme permits national or international placements, and we expect placements will be between two and four weeks. Applicants can request funding of up to £5,000 for their placement and the request should be proportionate to the length of the placement. Longer placements will be considered where there’s sufficient justification and we recommend you contact the BRC to discuss this before preparing an application.

Applicants can apply for costs associated with travel, accommodation, visa, subsistence and any daily commute costs, which must align with their employer’s expenses policy. Applicants will be required to seek permission from their employer. They will also need to seek permission from the host institute for the placement and evidence this in their application with a letter of support.

For anyone who is interested in applying for the scheme but circumstances make it challenging to access, please contact the brc@gosh.nhs.uk

• Applications are welcome from early career researchers substantively employed by either Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) or UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (GOS ICH), including clinicians, non-clinical researchers, nurses, allied health professionals, pharmacists, health care scientists and any other appropriate clinical professionals.
• Applications are also welcome from early career researchers employed by the paediatric excellence initiative partner sites (Alder Hey, Birmingham and Sheffield Children’s hospitals). Applications from partner sites can request placements to learn a new technology/technique at GOSH/UCL GOS ICH or external institutes providing the placement results in development of a new partnership that directly relates to/or directly benefits a collaborative project between partner site(s) and GOSH/UCL GOS ICH.
• You do not need to have had prior links with the GOSH BRC to be eligible to apply.
• The research being explored during the placement must align with at least one of the BRC’s research themes. Knowledge transfer around quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method projects are eligible for this scheme.
• NIHR funding is formally not allowed to support any research using animals; therefore, any area of research or new technology/technique/skill must not involve animal work.
• Applicants must also have at least six months remaining on their contract with their substantive employer from the end date of the proposed placement.
• For this call, an early career researcher is defined as someone who is:
  • within six years** of receiving their PhD (or equivalent),
  • has less £250k in total grant income as Primary Investigator across their 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. Contact the BRC (brc@gosh.nhs.uk) if you have any queries regarding your eligibility for this call.

• Those interested in applying should read the guidance and submit a completed application form as a word document to brc@gosh.nhs.uk.
• Please also submit a copy of your up to date CV and letter of support from the host institute for your placement as part of your application.
• The deadline for applications is 5 p.m. Tuesday 24 September 2024
• A Review Panel, which will include representatives from the BRC’s Career Development Academy, BRC Junior Faculty and BRC Leadership team, will assess applications using the criteria outlined in the guidance document.
• We expect to inform applicants of the outcome of their application within a month of the deadline.

Click here to download the guidance and application form

Please contact brc@gosh.nhs.uk with any queries.