NIHR GOSH BRC Knowledge Transfer Scheme 2025

Scientist in a lab, wearing a lab coat, with a Bunsen burner

Open: Knowledge Transfer Scheme 2025 call is now open for applications. The Scheme provides funding to undertake national or international research visits between two and four weeks to learn key technologies or techniques and to strengthen collaborations or develop new partnerships.

Background

The NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR GOSH BRC) Career Development Academy is pleased to launch the Knowledge Transfer Scheme 2025. 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 £16k is available in this call to support three to four research placements.

Call information

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

Eligibility

  • You do not need to have had prior links with the BRC to be eligible to apply.
  • Applications are welcome from early career researchers working in child health and who are substantively employed by GOSH, ICH, or one of our partner hospitals (Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital or Sheffield Children’s Hospital). Applicants at partner sites can apply for funding to learn a new technology/technique at GOSH/UCL GOS ICH or external institute 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.
  • Researchers from all professions are invited to apply, including clinicians, non-clinical researchers, nurses, allied health professionals, pharmacists, health care scientists, biomedical engineers, and any others not mentioned here
  • For this funding call, an early career researcher is defined as a someone who:
    • holds a PhD
    • has received no more than £250,000 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.
  • Applicants must also have at least six months remaining on their contract from the end date of the proposed placement.
  • 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 to apply.
  • 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.

Contact the BRC (brc@gosh.nhs.uk) if you have any queries regarding your eligibility for this call.

How to apply

  • 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 Thursday 04 December 2025, 17:00
  • 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.

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

Download the full guidance and application form here (120.2 KB)