External experts and national research groups are invited to contribute to project development. This multifaceted approach enables competitive applications to public funders, research charities or industry partners. If funding is achieved, projects become active and as autonomous as possible to reallocate PLRH resources to new proposals.
Once the research question is established, clinical trialists and statisticians conduct a preliminary assessment. The PLRH ethos is that, if a proposal is feasible and addresses an unmet need, it should be supported. Feasible ideas might require extensive background and design work to prepare for a funding application.
Feasible proposals that closely align with existing work are referred to the relevant research group or programme. The PLRH will facilitate collaboration between the proposing group and research team.
Ideally our research projects continue to evolve after the initial proposal is addressed. The PLRH isn't necessarily involved in these next steps, but we try to provide current updates and contact details to encourage further participation.
Funding calls for healthcare research are incredibly competitive; for example, less than 30% of all NIHR funding applications are successful. We think it's important to keep a record of our unsuccessful applications in case we can re-visit or build a new collaboration in the future.