Guidance for NIHR Trainees (Personal Awards)

Guidance for NIHR Trainees (Personal Awards)
Research Contract
 The Department of Health (DH) enters into a contract (sometimes known as a “Research Contract”
or “Research Agreement”) with the organisation that is hosting your award (the “host employer”).
You (the NIHR trainee) will have a contract of employment with the host employer and your salary
will be paid by them.
 The Research Contract/Agreement contains details of your agreed start and end dates, and details
of the work that you are contracted to complete, which is the research, training and development
programme described in your original application form (this work programme may be subject to
changes that have been recommended by expert review panel members or in peer review
comments).
 The Research Contract details the schedule of payments that will be received by the host employer
organisation (quarterly in arrears). The schedule is based on figures from your host employer which
have been agreed by the NIHR TCC.
 Your award entitles you to NIHR trainee status within the NIHR Faculty. As the named NIHR trainee
you cannot be replaced in this capacity by your host employer.
 Please notify the NIHR TCC in writing of any changes to the research, training and development
plan. Significant changes may require further approval from the NIHR TCC or the relevant expert
panel.
 It may be necessary, under exceptional circumstances, to change your employer or academic host.
Any request would need to clearly support your further development as a research leader and will
require negotiation and agreement from the NIHR TCC. If you are planning to change your
employer or academic host, and/or move to a new institution, please contact the NIHR TCC as soon
as possible. (Please note, we do not expect a change of host institution to take place within the first
year of your award.)
Variation to Research Contract
 It may be possible to negotiate a variation to your research contract. These would normally be
issued to cover longer periods of sick leave, maternity, paternity or adoption leave etc. Payments
are normally suspended for the period of leave with a Variation to Contract document being issued
on your return to work. It can take time to issue a variation and reactivate payments so please give
advance notice to the NIHR TCC where possible.
 Variations to costs are not permitted.
 When you are on leave from the programme, the necessary statutory payments will be managed by
your host employer according to their usual local procedures, as outlined in your contract of
employment issued by your host employer.
Trainees Coordinating Centre
Ethics
The awards funded by the NIHR TCC are individual research training awards as opposed to
departmental or project grants. An individual’s award may commence without ethical approval,
however any research which is part of the training award proposal and requires ethical approval cannot
be undertaken until ethical approval has been obtained, subject to the normal local and national
regulations. Your award funded work, or part of it, may require approval by NRES REC (National
Research Ethics Service - Research Ethics Committee). If your local R&D office is unsure of
whether your research activities require NRES ethical approval, please contact NRES as soon as
possible (http://www.nres.nhs.uk/contacts/nres-committee-directory/ or iras.queries@nhs.net).
Copies of all relevant ethics documentation must be submitted to the NIHR TCC at the earliest
opportunity.
Reporting
As part of your contract, the NIHR TCC requests a series of reports over the duration of your award.
The reporting schedule is summarised in the following table:
RESEARCH / TRAINING
REPORT
NIHR Trainee
FINANCE REPORT
Interim
(only for Trainees undertaking a
PhD) 6 months after award start
Annual
Each anniversary of award start
Generally no requirement for interim
financial reports but may be required
to take into account changes from
time to time.
Annually to match the DH Financial
Year (April to March)
Final year on anniversary of award
start (replaces Annual report)
Not required
Person(s) responsible
Reporting
stage
Final
Final year on anniversary of award
start (replaces Annual report)
Post-award* Up to 5 years after completion of
the research
NIHR Trainee + Finance Officer
 Reports should refer back to the proposals in your original application form where possible.
 The NIHR TCC will send you report form templates by email, prompting you usually 4-6 weeks
before the completed reports are required.
 Submit all reports as both paper and electronic copies allowing original signatures to be read.
*Post-award reporting will be required electronically only.
 Should you have any enquiries about reporting, please contact the NIHR TCC using the contact
details at the end of this document.
In your Research, training and development progress reports, you should identify:
o
any significant changes to the plan of research, training or development
o
successes, publications, and press releases etc. resulting from your work
o
Any barriers to your research, training or development
o
future research / development milestones
o
any over- and/or underspends
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 For NIHR Trainees undertaking a PhD an Interim report after the first 6 months is requested in
addition to Annual and Final research reports. Trainees should include information relating to
progress with PhD registration at the chosen Higher Education Institution.
 NIHR Trainees with Senior Level awards (NIHR Senior Research Fellows / NIHR Clinician
Scientists / NIHR/HEE Senior Clinical Lecturers) are expected to attend a review panel meeting
during the third year of their award. Funding for years four and five are dependent upon a
successful review.
Finance reporting
 The annual Finance report (financial reconciliation) provides a summary of actual expenditure on
each budget line for the period covered by the report.
 All financial reports must be accompanied by an institutional pay scale.
 Salary costs and training and development costs are protected amounts of funding. You cannot
“vire” between these two budget sections, e.g. you may not use under-spends from salary costs
to cover over-spends in training and development costs, and vice-versa.
 Under-spends may be carried over at year end; this will require approval from the NIHR TCC and
will need to be managed by your host. Substantial deviations from expected expenditure will
need to be justified before agreement to carry over is given.
 The final payment of the award is held back until all Final reports are received. This payment will
be reduced to account for any significant under-spends or any previous overpayment compared
to actual expenditure recovered.
 Final finance reports must be submitted no later than two months after the contract end date.
 If final reports are not received within one year of the contract end date, the final payment will no
longer be payable.
Researchfish

Researchfish is an online questionnaire system which captures the outcomes and impacts of
funded research and is used by many other funders. NIHR research outputs will be requested
annually throughout the duration of the award and for up to 5 years after completion of the
research. You will receive notification by email from us and Researchfish if your award is due to
report through Researchfish. You will then be sent your account and submission details by
Researchfish.
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
 Please provide details of any intellectual property that you anticipate will arise as a result of your
award funded activities, and how you anticipate that it will be exploited. If you feel you would benefit
from assistance in exploiting any IP that will arise during your award please contact NIHR TCC
office. Intellectual Property includes: Patents, Trademarks, Designs, Copyright (such as new
software, checklists, scales, protocols, questionnaires, toolkits, guidelines or similar) and
Research Tools (such as data analysis techniques, assays, cell lines, biomarkers, materials or
equipment and devices).
 Sections 15 and 16 of the contract contain information about IPR and are of particular
importance if commercial exploitation or patents are applied for and apply for a defined period of
time after the contract has ended.
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Publications, Communicating your Research
 As part of your contract, a least 28 days notice must be given to NIHR TCC before releasing or
publishing any research paper/article arising from NIHR-funded research.
 Please send one electronic copy of accepted publications to NIHR TCC at least 28 days before
publication.
 NIHR-funded researchers, research teams, hospitals and universities should acknowledge the
NIHR as a funder and protect intellectual property rights (IPR), by using the following written
statement in any publications, research reports, press releases and other communications:
“This report is independent research arising from a (insert award name e.g. Clinical
Lectureship) supported by the National Institute for Health Research and the (and Health
Education England if required). The views expressed in this publication are those of the
author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the National Institute for Health Research or the
Department of Health.”
 The NIHR logo must not be used on your research publications or press releases but can be
used on research posters, presentations, patient materials, promotional materials and websites.
For the guidance that you will need to use the NIHR logo, produce press releases and for further
guidance about communicating your research, please see http://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding/traininggeneral-information.htm
 You may use the following personal descriptor format if required: e.g.
[name of researcher] is funded by a [name of award e.g. Doctoral Research Fellowship] from the
National Institute for Health Research (and Health Education England if relevant)
Or as an email signature: [name of researcher]
[title e.g. NIHR/HEE Clinical Doctoral Fellow]
[Institution]
Europe PubMed Central
All NIHR individual award holders will be registered on Europe PubMed Central, an online database
which is to become the information resource of choice for the European biomedical and health
research community. Individuals will be able to link their publications to their award, and in doing so
help to establish a single sustainable repository for UK-funded research outputs. Details about
Europe PubMed Central can be found at http://europepmc.org/
NIHR Hub
The NIHR Hub is an online resource, using the Google platform, for information sharing,
communication and networking across the NIHR Faculty and with other working groups. It is
currently under development and the aim is for all NIHR personal award holders to be given access.
We will contact all personal award holders at a later date to enable them to register with the Hub as
an NIHR trainee.
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NIHR CRN Portfolio and NHS Permission
The UK Clinical Research Network Portfolio is a database of clinical research studies taking place
across the UK. In England, studies included in the NIHR CRN Portfolio have access to infrastructure
support via the NIHR Comprehensive Clinical Research Network and other networks.
Information on how studies can be included on the Portfolio is available at: www.crn.nihr.ac.uk/canhelp/funders-academics/nihrcrn-portfolio/
NIHR individual award holders are recommended to use, where possible, the IRAS/CSP system for
gaining NHS permission. Further information is available at: www.crn.nihr.ac.uk/can-help/fundersacademics/gaining-nhs-permissions/
Contact Details
 It is important for us to have your up to date contact details. If any of your contact details (e.g.
phone, email or address etc.) change during the duration of your award please inform us using
the email addresses below.
 If you have any queries or require further information about any of the above information, please
do not hesitate to contact the NIHR TCC. Contact details are as follows:
NIHR Trainees Coordinating Centre
Leeds Innovation Centre
103 Clarendon Road
Leeds LS2 9DF
Tel. 0113 346 6260

Fax. 0113 346 6272
E-mail addresses for enquiries:
Award/query type
Reporting queries and electronic copies of
Research and Finance reports
Guidance on NIHR logo or acknowledgement
of NIHR as a funder
NIHR Fellowships
NIHR/HEE CAT for Nurses, Midwives and
AHPs
NIHR/HEE Fellowships for Healthcare
Scientists
NIHR Clinician Scientist awards
Email address
nihrfellowshipreports@nihrtcc.org.uk
comms@nihrtcc.org.uk
nihrfellowshipenquiries@nihrtcc.org.uk
cat@nihrtcc.org.uk
hcs@nihrtcc.org.uk
NIHR.ClinicianScientists@nihrtcc.org.uk
NIHR TCC, July 2014
Review date: Oct2014
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