Every day NIHR research saves lives and improves the quality of life of the public. The research we support drives improvements to our health and care services, resulting in better wellbeing, better productivity, and significant contributions to the wider economy.
Our brand new NIHR Impact Prizes will celebrate researchers and teams who have maximised the impact of their research and whose work has transformed people's lives or promoted economic growth.
The Impact Prizes are open to those who have received NIHR funding or support across the range of areas NIHR funds, including health, public health, social care, and global health research.
We will award up to 6 Impact Prizes, up to 3 for research teams or individuals, and up to 3 specifically for early career researchers. Winners will be nationally recognised at an in-person award ceremony in March 2025, hosted by Professor Lucy Chappell, the Department of Health and Social Care’s Chief Scientific Advisor and CEO of the NIHR.
Key dates
3 October 2024: Applications open and webinar for applicants
13 November 2024: Applications close
February 2025: Notification of outcome
March2025: Winners will be announced at an in-person award ceremony
Assessment and judging criteria
Initial eligibility checks and shortlisting of applications will be conducted by the NIHR Coordinating Centre. Shortlisted applicants would be judged by the review committee based on the short-written applications and accompanying video.
The decisions of the committee will not be open to appeal and the funders reserve the right to amend the application process.
Your application will be assessed against the following criteria:
Importance of impact achieved - findings that have demonstrablytransformed people’s lives and/or promoted economic benefit and can include:
- Change in service delivery or practice- e.g. more effective and efficient service delivery, better prevention, better diagnosis or treatment (including digital solutions), new or improved health and care services
- Improved health and wellbeing - e.g. lives saved, improved treatment outcomes, reduction in disease prevalence, reduced health inequalities
- Improved care - e.g. social care users can make more informed decisions, experience more cost-effective social care interventions, have an improved quality of care, or have help to return to work
- Health and care system- e.g. improved efficiency in service delivery, hospital bed days saved, improved service management, training implemented, addresses workforce challenges
- Influence on policy and practice - e.g. change in policies or guidelines enabling change in service delivery
- Inclusion - e.g.addresses health and economic disparities in underserved communities
- Innovation - e.g. intellectual property, licensing products/software, spin-outs, sales
- Investment- e.g. jobs created, inward investment promoted
Guidance on submitting an entry
Applicants are expected to fill out a short Google form including details on the research undertaken (including NIHR’s role), the impact of the research, and how the impact was achieved. The form requires applicants to include references to evidence and validate the impact claimed.
Applicants are also required to submit a 2-minute video about the impact of their research. This will be used to form part of the assessment process for the Impact Prizes alongside the application form.
Applications will be assessed by an NIHR review committee, chaired by Dr Gail Marzetti, The Director of Science, Research, and Evidence at the Department of Health and Social Care and also the NIHR Deputy CEO.
This guidance is prepared to support the completion of your application and to ensure you respond to the questions in a way that will support the decision-making of the review committee.
Applicants must submit their application via the online form by 1pm on 13 November 2024. Make sure you read the guidance below before submitting your form.
Section 1: NIHR funding details for Impact Prize
Impact Prize Application Title
Please include a title for your application, noting this does not need to be the same as the award or project title relevant to the research. This should be one single title covering the entire application.
Impact Prize - Lead Applicant Details
Please include the name, contact email details, and role in the original research for the Impact Prize applicant. Depending on the nature of the research, this may be the Principal Investigator of the research or other representative of the research team with whom the NIHR will communicate in relation to the application.
Only one application should be submitted per team/programme of research. Please confirm you are the only applicant applying for the Impact Prize from the research team/programme of research that this application relates to.
Lead Applicant Organisation and Collaborators
Please include the name of the organisation that was awarded the NIHR funding if directly funded. This may be the host or lead organisation that was originally contracted by NIHR. This also applies to consortia. For organisations that were not directly funded by the NIHR, please list the lead organisation that benefited from the NIHR support. Please include key collaborators (organisations or individual co-applicants) who were involved in the research.
While applications can be made by individuals or research teams, only one application should be submitted per team/programme of research. Please confirm you are the only applicant applying for the Impact Prize from the research team/programme of research that this application relates to.
NIHR award references, and project title
Where you have received direct funding from NIHR such as through an NIHR funding programme or award, please includeall relevant NIHRfunding references and project titles to which the impact reported relates.
Where you have received relevantNIHR infrastructure support such as through the Research Delivery Network/Clinical Research Network, Biomedical Research Centres, Research Design/Support Service, please also state this here, and provide project tiles or other identifiers where possible.
Where an NIHR funding reference does not exist, please input any other relevant unique identifier or reference (such a ORCID ID or IRAS number) to help us identify the NIHR research that contributed to the impact.
Acknowledgment of early career researchers
Research teams may want to highlight the efforts and contributions of an early career researcher that has contributed to the knowledge mobilisation and impact of the research. Please name and provide the ORCID ID for this individual, and complete this section if you intend to highlight the role of this individual in the research impact. Selecting this will ensure your application is reviewed for an early career researcher prize, in addition to an overall Impact Prize.
Definition: Early career researchers are defined as a researcher who meets either or both of the following criteria: has not held a grant as chief investigator (excluding fellowships) exceeding £100,000 or has completed a PhD within the last 5 years.
Section 2: Summary of your research
For questions in sections 2 and 3, please include evidence to validate any facts, figures, or claims of impact as numbered in-text citations* to validate the information provided, and provide corresponding full references in your response to the last question of this section (Question 4) below.
Note the term ‘reference’ refers to any source of information, such as website pages, journal articles, news stories, that aims to confirm and validate facts, statements, and claims cited within the response.
*In-text citations: indicate in your text - either in parentheses or brackets - a number that corresponds to a source on your references list (e.g. the research was cited in NICE guideline X (1).
Question 1: Summary of your research
In plain English, describe in no more than 300 words (up to 1,950 characters), the rationale for the research and its key findings. Include evidence to validate findings where possible, such as quantified evidence, by providing numbered references with a corresponding reference list in the appropriate section of the form (Question 4 below).
Read further guidance on writing plain English summaries.
Section 3: Your impact
Note: regarding the period in which impact should have occurred to be eligible for the Impact Prizes, the impact reported through the application should have been realised within the last 5 years, however, there is no time limit on when the research should have been undertaken.
Question 1
Please provide a summary of the difference your research has made beyond academia (as per our judging criteria). You need to provide evidence of the benefit and difference your research has made,notjust the potential for the research to make a difference. Quantify the impact where possible, such as number of people receiving the new treatment, number of lives saved, reduction in disease prevalence, realised cost-saving figures, or number of jobs created.
ReadNIHR impact case studies for examples of relevant impact. Word limit: 450 words (up to 2,925 characters).
Question 2
Please describe how the impact of the research was achieved. For example, how knowledge users were engaged in the research (including patients and the public) and how the research was disseminated and taken up to change and improve health or care proactively. If citing an early career researcher please set out their contribution. Word limit: 200 words (up to 1,200 characters).
Question 3
Describe clearly how this impact is directly linked to NIHR’s funding and/or support, and the added value of NIHR support. Word limit: 200 words (up to 1,200 characters).
Question 4
Please provide a list of corresponding numbered references cited as part of your answers to Sections 2 and 3 above. The references should be cited as in-text number citations throughout your responses to Sections 2 and 3 (e.g.the research was cited in NICE guideline X (1). These in-text numbered references should correspond to the reference list provided here.
You may wish to include any key academic papers, policy or guidelines, publications, news articles, or media coverage that have highlighted your impact - please provide URLs where possible. The references you provide will be used to validate the information you provide and will support your application.
Section 4: Mandatory uploads - video
The 2-minute video should complement your responses to the questions above. These will be used as part of the judging process and may be used on NIHR digital channels to publicise the winners and showcase NIHR's impact on an ongoing basis. This is a chance for you to articulate and bring to life the impact of your research.
Technical requirements
- We do not expect professionally produced videos, you can use a smartphone. However, please ensure the visual and audio are of good quality, and its messages can be easily understood by the review committee. Learn more about filming and editing videos.
- Please ensure that your video application isno longer than 2 minutes,as only the first 2 minutes will be considered by the review committee.
- Please upload the video to the Dropbox folder link provided in the application form, ensuring the file is titled (Organisation name_applicant surname). Note the Dropbox link for the video upload is different from the link provided for the reference document upload.
- Dropbox will stop accepting applications at 1 pm on 13 November 2024, when the call closes.
The videos will be submitted to Dropbox and then downloaded for use at the review committee meeting. Copies of the videos will be held on our secure server and for unsuccessful candidates, the video will be deleted after 1 year, videos for successful candidates will be retained in line with NIHR retention policies for the handling of award data. The video submissions should not include any special category personal data or political opinions or statements.
Please note: incomplete applicationswill not be considered, including those which have not included a video. If there are any issues with the video upload, NIHR will contact the applicant to attempt to resolve the issue.
Data Protection Statement
The purpose of collecting this data is to communicate with you about your application and have the necessary information to evaluate your submission for the Impact Prize. The data is collected in the public interest and will be retained for eight years.
Your personal information is held and used in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as defined in the Data Protection Act 2018. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) funds the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is the Data Controller under the provisions of the regulation.
We are committed to protecting privacy and processing all personal information in a manner that meets the requirements of the regulation. Your data will be stored on a secure NIHR platform. It may be shared across the NIHR, including with other NIHR coordinating centres, to facilitate collaboration, create impact case studies, explore funding opportunities, or conduct statistical analysis.
The video submissions and the impact case studies created from the data provided as part of this application may be used publicly as a format to highlight the impact of your NIHR funding. They may be shared on NIHR communication channels, including on social media. We will only do so with your explicit consent.
You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can do so by emailing:impact-prizes@nihr.ac.uk
The NIHR privacy policy includes further information including ways we may use your data, NIHR contact details and details on your individual rights.
