MRC Brain Sciences II (BSII) - Second call for proposals 2004, UK

Main Category: Mental Health
Article Date: 20 Jun 2004 - 24:00 PDT

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The Medical Research Council (MRC), United Kingdom, is once again looking for innovative, world-class projects to strengthen brain sciences research in the UK, as it launches its second call for proposals, Brain Sciences II, today (17 June 2004).As an additional boost to the £4.7m call, the Department of Health for England is making £1m available for applications that will create a springboard for future clinical, health service research and public health research into mental health.

For this call MRC would be particularly keen to receive applications relevant to clinical problems in mental ill health and degenerative brain disorders.This call will follow a similar format to Brain Sciences I in terms of the type of application - 'Pathfinders' and 'Trial Platforms' - as well as in the application and review process.

Professor Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive of the MRC, said: "The first call for proposals was a huge success and demonstrated the wealth of talent and scientific creativity we have in brain sciences in the UK.

"We expect the scientific community to come up trumps again this time and rise to the challenge of putting together some highly competitive ideas. We expect the approaches to be as diverse as last year, ensuring there will be another good spread of awards across all areas and disciplines.

"We are delighted that the Department of Health has joined forces with the MRC for this call, which will bring an added dimension to what we can achieve together to address some of the pressing health issues relating to mental health. We hope that it will make a useful contribution to the work of the newly created Mental Health Research Network."

Deadlines for expression of interest, without which a full application can not be submitted is noon, 26 July 2004.

Call for Proposal 2004

Following the success of the first Brain Sciences call in 2003, MRC invites further proposals addressing key challenges for research in all areas of brain sciences but especially those relevant to mental ill health and neurodegenerative disease. This second call will be conducted in partnership with the Department of Health who are prepared to invest additional funding to pump prime new research in the area of mental ill health.

Background to BS II

In the 2002 Spending Review, the Government announced the provision of £15m across the Research Councils to help build future capacity and multi-disciplinary interactions in this important area. MRC committed its allocation of £9.7m to:

-- Encourage innovative, high pay off proposals
-- Build capacity for future research programmes
-- Encourage the development of investigators at an early stage in their research careers
-- Build a co-ordinated, multidisciplinary programme of research

The first call in 2003 was highly successful in funding a wide range of high-quality proposals. A total of 315 full applications were received, from which, twenty-nine proposals were awarded, with a broadly even split of awards by value (18 Pathfinder awards, worth £2.68m; 11 Trial Platform awards, worth £2.23m).

Purpose of this call

The purpose of this second call is to foster new projects in Brain Science research, particularly in the areas of mental ill health and neurodegenerative disease (including stroke).

BS II will follow a similar format and process to the first call. There will be two mechanisms of support available; 'Pathfinders' and 'Trial Platforms'.

-- Pathfinders - strategic research grants to encourage cutting edge, high pay-off research that could develop new ideas to the point where they would be able to compete for funding via normal mechanisms. As well as laboratory-based applications, novel studies in epidemiology or public health are also welcome.

-- Trial Platforms - in line with the recommendations from the Clinical Trials for Tomorrow Review, MRC aims to build capacity for future proposals for clinical trials. With this in mind, applications should set out to address one or more of the following aims:

-scoping studies (including systematic reviews)
-developing and validating outcome measures
-developing and testing new interventions, in particular complex interventions, for evaluation in large scale trials
-pilot and feasibility studies for multi-centre randomised trials (including model development)
-approaches to promote the integration of new treatments into practice

It is intended that both types of award will act as a springboard for future research bids (especially for researchers in the earlier stages of their research careers) through open competition across the Council's range of funding schemes (although applicants should note there will be no guarantee of future support), and thus applicants must state explicitly the follow-on opportunities and predicted long-term outcomes arising from the proposed studies.

Funds available

A total of £4.7m MRC funding is available to spend under this call and it is anticipated that approximately 20-25 proposals will be funded. Awards will be made up to a maximum total value of £250k (including indirect costs) and will have a maximum duration of 24 months.

The Department of Health will provide a further £1 million to pump prime clinical, HSR and public health research in mental ill-health, through this call. The extra funds can support Trial Platforms or Pathfinders in any area of mental health, but the Department would particularly encourage:

-- Pilots for multi-centre RCTs linked to the mental health research network
-- Research in child / adolescent mental health, and mental health of older people.

MRC will manage the call and administer awards on behalf of both organisations.

Criteria for Assessment

The following general criteria will be used in the assessment of applications:

-- Fit to the call - the application must address key challenges of clinical relevance in the fields of mental ill-health and neurodegenerative disease or other medically important brain sciences research.
-- The importance, quality, and novelty of the scientific case
-- The applicant(s) track record and/or potential within the field
-- Suitability of the research environment
-- Value for money
-- Ethical considerations
-- Applicants should highlight cross- and multi-disciplinary approaches, including details of partnerships with other research councils, industry and charities.
-- Follow-on opportunities and predicted long-term outcomes arising from the proposed studies

Funding decisions may also take account of the need for a balance of support between areas and approaches, between new and established investigators/groups, and co-ordination with other Research Council's Brain Sciences funding.

Eligibility

One of the principles of this initiative is to ensure a wide distribution of funding to develop capacity in a number of areas. In light of this, in addition to the normal MRC eligibility rules, the following apply to this call:

-- Individuals may be Principal Investigator (ie the named, lead applicant) on one grant only. Consequently, Principal Investigators who received funding under the previous call are NOT eligible to apply again in their own right under BSII. However, they may be a co-applicant (eg second or third named applicant) or collaborator on any number of new applications.
-- Co-applicants funded under the first call may reapply either as a Principal Investigator (one grant only) or co-applicant under BSII.
-- Any Individual may be a co-applicant on a number of new applications under BSII.
-- Applicants who were shortlisted for funding in the previous call may resubmit, though are advised that to be competitive, their application should be substantially revised to account for new data and developments in the field.
-- Applications that were not shortlisted for funding in the previous call cannot be reconsidered in BSII. Applicants may only submit entirely new applications.
-- Proposals from Research Council establishments (institutes and units) will not be considered.
-- Eligibility Frequently Asked Questions provide further details and clarification.
Application Process

In addition to the normal MRC grant terms and conditions, the following will apply:

-- All applicants must register their intention to apply; failure to do so will mean that a subsequent full application will not be accepted under this present call. One intention to apply per application should be submitted.
-- The dates set out in the timetable, for registering an intention to apply and for submission of a full application, will be strictly adhered to, applications received after the relevant deadline will not be considered.
-- Applications must be in accord with the specification for this call; failure to do so may mean that the application is rejected
-- Applications must strictly adhere to the four page application limit (including diagrams etc), applications exceeding this length will not be considered further. Annexes may only be used for matters pertaining to risk or ethics.
-- There will be no outline stage
-- Applicants applying for support in the area of mental ill-health research should note that MRC and DH will be looking to co-fund a number of proposals that would be linked to the Mental Health Research Network. The MHRN aims to provide the infrastructure to support large scale, high quality research in mental health and social care which has implications for services and treatments. Applicants proposing to collaborate with MHRN should contact Jane Lawrence before applying to MRC, but they need only follow the single MRC process for applying.
-- There is no restriction on the availability of the allocated DH resources within the UK.
-- Shortlisted applications will be assessed in January/ February 2005 by specially convened Panels comprising a number of current and past members of MRC's Neurosciences and Mental Health, and Health Services and Public Health Research Boards, with additional expertise as appropriate.
-- Membership of the panels will be published on the MRC website in October 2004. The final list of awards will be confirmed at the Neurosciences and Mental Health Board meeting in February 2005; applicants will be advised of the outcome by email soon after this meeting.
-- The decision of the Panels and Board will not be open to appeal

There will be no 'pruning' of awards: awards will only be considered up to a maximum value of £250k over 24 months (including indirect costs). It is therefore important that applications are appropriately costed and offer clear value for money.

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