UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) Call Pre-announcement and Information and Networking Event

Posted by: Julie Simpson - Posted on:

Background

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) pose a significant burden to the UK, accounting for around 89% of all deaths and resulting in large economic costs to health and social care systems and to the wider society. Diverse and complex factors and systems operate together to influence NCDs. Recognising the need for large-scale, multidisciplinary solutions for the prevention of NCDs, 12 major funders of health research have partnered to invest over £50 million in the UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) to improve population health, and reduce health inequalities, through the primary prevention of NCDs. The vision is to generate new knowledge on actionable, sustainable and cost-effective ways of modifying the upstream systems and environments which influence NCDs in the UK.

 

Under the first UKPRP funding round, eight consortia and networks were awarded over £25 million to tackle major upstream determinants of NCDs. Details of the successful proposals are available online.

 

Second UKPRP funding call

The UKPRP funders are pleased to announce that a second funding call will be launched on 3 September 2019 for proposals for new Consortium and Network awards.

 

Under the second call, we are looking to complement the current portfolio of UKPRP investment and anticipate proposals in the areas listed below. The list is not exhaustive, and we’d welcome proposals outside of the areas provided that they complement the current portfolio.

 

  • preventing poor mental health and promoting mental wellbeing
  • reducing health inequalities (where this forms the primary focus of the application)
  • social and economic determinants of health and wellbeing
  • food systems*, unhealthy diets and obesity
  • developing interventions in specific ages including on issues relating to ageing; and in occupational settings
  • fostering the use of evidence in decision making in local government
  • urban environment, including transport systems and air quality
  • using green and blue space for improving population health and preventing NCDs
  • using digital technologies and social media to deliver interventions, and exploiting large-scale datasets and linkage to routine datasets

 

* We are aware of existing research funding schemes on food systems and influences on diet. Given the importance of this research challenge, the UKPRP would welcome proposals addressing this area.

 

New knowledge and fresh approaches to preventing NCDs can be delivered more effectively through assembling expertise and insights across diverse academic disciplines and users (including policy makers, practitioners, the third sector, industry, the public etc.) and by taking a complex systems approach. We are therefore keen to engage a range of disciplines, including those that have not traditionally been involved in NCD-prevention research, in the second funding round. We would welcome applications from research teams including expertise from outside of what is generally perceived as the public health arena: for example, engineers, geographers, architects, designers, systems scientists, transport planners, lawyers and linguists. Proposals could be led by researchers from these disciplines and/or be in partnership with disciplines typically involved in population health research but should be co-produced with users to deliver proposals that are relevant to policy and practice.

 

The application process will include outline and full proposal stages. Applicants whose outline consortium proposals are selected for progressing towards the full application stage will each receive a Consortium Development Grant (CDG) which is a fixed-term (six month) award of up to £50k to build linkages between diverse consortium members and to co-produce research ideas and the full application. Applicants whose outline network proposals are successful will each receive time (six months) to develop their initial network membership and full proposals detailing plans for building a new multidisciplinary community around their chosen NCD-prevention challenge.

 

Information and Networking Event – 24 September 2019

An information and networking event will be held in London on 24 September 2019 to communicate the priorities of the second call; to describe the application process; and to provide opportunities for networking between researchers across academic disciplines, and with end users to explore research collaborations.

 

We are inviting expressions of interest from both research academics and users to attend this information and networking event. While attendance at the event will not be essential for applying to the call, we encourage you to submit your interest to do attend. Presentations and other materials from the event will be made available online to support all applicants in preparing their outline applications.

 

Further details about how to apply to attend the event on 24 September 2019