GOSH Charity National Funding Call 2023/2024 FAQs

We are inviting project grant applications for paediatric health research studies focusing on complex or rare diseases. The call will support research across the spectrum of medical conditions affecting the foetus, neonates and children directly, as well as pregnancy disorders that affect the child. Qualitative and mixed-methods research projects, including healthcare management and service delivery for specific childhood diseases/conditions or groups of closely related conditions, are also welcomed.

All projects must aim to improve understanding of the disease or associated conditions or to improve outcomes for the affected child. Research proposals will be expected to have the potential to lead to new medical developments, such as diagnostic tools or novel interventions, with a clear articulation of the route to clinical application through a combination of clinical and laboratory-based research.

If you are unsure whether your work would fit the remit of this call we encourage you to email the GOSH Charity Grants team.

We are proud to continue partnering with a number of rare disease organisations this year: The Norrie Disease Foundation, Acrodysostosis Support and Research, Myotubular Trust, Action for AT, Dravet Syndrome UK and Cure DHDDS. These partnerships offer us the possibility of making joint awards in specific disease areas. Applications in research partner areas will not have a separate application or assessment process. All applications fitting the remit of the call, including those focusing on one of the research partner areas, will be assessed in open competition.

This is a national funding call and is open to independent researchers from institutions across the UK proposing original research within the established remit.

No. For this funding call you do not need to have a co-applicant or collaborator from Great Ormond Street Hospital or UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health to be eligible to apply.

No, funding is awarded nationally and based exclusively on the quality of the proposed work. The tables below show the distribution of internal versus external applications for each of the four preceding calls, as well as overall success rates:

We allow applicants to request up to £5,000 toward the organisation of conferences and scientific or clinical workshops in support of rare diseases, which bring together clinicians, families and scientists to share insights and inspire scientists with the experience of families and clinicians. If invited for a full application, applicants will have to provide justification for the event they are organising, an outline of their plans, and to provide a detailed breakdown of associated costs. If successful in securing the award, applicants will also be expected to provide updates on progress and information regarding the results and impact of the event. Please note that plans for the conference or workshop must be aligned with the overall proposed research project, and that this cost must be part of the total award of up to £250,000 and not an extra cost.

Applications will be managed by Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH Charity). GOSH Charity is a member of the AMRC and as such, we ensure the research we fund meets the highest possible standards of quality, accountability, transparency, and openness. The application will involve a two-stage process, an initial outline application and, if shortlisted, invitation to a full application stage that will include external peer review.

Full applications and respective reviews will then be considered by the Charity’s Research Assessment Panel (RAP), who will make the final decision according to various criteria including remit, quality, feasibility, impact, and value for money.

The Panel is made up of the following members: Professor Pamela Kearns (Chair of the Panel, University of Birmingham), Professor Carl Goodyear (Deputy Chair of the Panel, University of Glasgow) Professor Eamonn Maher (University of Cambridge), Professor Raj Chopra (Apple Tree Partners), Associate Professor Tim Collier (London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine), Professor Veronica Swallow (Sheffield Hallam University), Dr Li Chan (Queen Mary University of London), Professor Caroline Wright (University of Exeter), Professor James Boardman (University of Edinburgh) Dr Wael Kafienah (Bristol University), Professor Simone Di Giovanni (Imperial College London) and Professor Alan Parker (Cardiff University) . The Panel also includes a lay member: Yvonne Parry.

Shortlisting of outline applications will be made by a subset of the RAP.

The deadline for outline applications is 3pm, Thursday 29 June 2023. Applicants will be notified in early to mid September 2023 if they have been shortlisted to the next stage. The deadline for full applications will be in mid-October 2023. If you are invited to submit a full application, you will be informed of the final funding decision in March 2024.

As in previous years, this funding call is making up to £2 million available to spend on project grants. We anticipate a high number of proposals from a wide range of different investigators in institutions across the UK. Therefore, applicants are asked to carefully consider their request for funding and whether it represents good value for money. The charity accept individual applications up to £250,000 for a duration of up to 36 months.

Yes. If you have any queries, then please do not hesitate to contact the GOSH Charity Grants team.

To start your outline application please follow the instructions on the Grants Management System website. The deadline for outline applications is 3pm on Thursday 29 June 2023.

Please allow sufficient time for internal approvals prior to the deadline as there is a two-stage process for submission. Signatories and co-applicants must be invited to participate in the application prior to submission. Once the application has then been submitted, it will go to signatories for final sign off. Please note that this sign off must occur before the final deadline.

Additionally, you should allow ample time for your application – particularly its financial details – to be reviewed by your host institution’s research office or equivalent entity.

To be eligible for the award as an early career researcher the applicant must:

- Hold a salaried, academic research post;

- Be in their first independent position at group-leader level;

- Have sufficient time remaining in their current post to complete the awarded project.

And must not:

- Have received substantial research funding as a Principal or Co-Investigator exceeding £150,000 prior to application to the call, including direct costs but excluding the Principal Investigator’s salary, overhead and indirect costs.

Should you be unsure as to whether you are eligible to apply as an early career researcher, please contact us.

One of the objectives of this call is to promote the establishment and retention of talent in child health research, and we are therefore particularly interested in supporting projects from early career researchers. If you are an early career researcher, your application will be prioritised over an application from an established researcher only if it is deemed equally competitive according to the multiple criteria considered by the Research Assessment Panel (i.e. if it receives an identical score as competing applications). Your early career researcher status will only be considered at the final award decision stage.

We are committed to supporting high-quality research regardless of career stage. We anticipate that only a small fraction of applications will come from early career researchers. Additionally, those applications will be submitted to the same peer review process and assessed through the same set of stringent criteria by the Research Assessment Panel. It is therefore unlikely that you will be rejected on the basis that you are not an early career researcher.

No. If an application falls under the remit of one of our Research Partners, the shortlisting, peer review and Research Assessment Panel decision processes will be identical to all other applications. If your application receives a fundable score and is deemed competitive, the co-funding arrangements with the research partners will be formalised after the award decision is made (i.e. the Research Partner will only have the option to co-fund a relevant application if it has been selected for an award). Meeting the requirements of any of our Research Partners will not be used as a criterium to score applications.

The award will cover:

- Salaries for research staff (including post-doctoral research assistants, research assistants, research nurses, technicians, statisticians, technologists, methodologists, etc…)

- Consumables

- Experimental animals

- Equipment up to £10,000 for one single item and with a justification of why the item cannot be used/borrowed from elsewhere (higher-value equipment should be discussed with the Charity’s Grants team before applying, but would generally be expected to be co-funded to 50% by the applicant's Institution)

- Funding for attending relevant conferences (we would consider funding of up to one UK/European conference per year and one international conference during the lifetime of the award and based on a well-justified need)

- Funding for organising a conference or workshop in a relevant rare disease area (up to £5,000)

- Any other direct costs of research

The award will NOT cover:

- Salary of the Principal Investigator/team leader

- Consultant programmed activities

- PhD studentships

- The Apprenticeship Levy

- Medical costs or any other costs that should be covered by the NHS

There are a number of excellent online resources that can help you get started with planning an effective PPI strategy to complement your research project. The following table lists some resources compiled by Genetic Alliance UK to help get you started: