GOSH Charity and Sparks National Funding Call 2022/2023

To start your outline application, please follow the instructions on the Grants Management System website.

The deadline for submission of outline applications is 5pm, Thursday, 7 July 2022.

GOSH Charity is 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. Similar to last year, we will also consider applications seeking to understand how COVID-19 affects children, particularly in the context of pre-existing diseases or conditions. 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. Proposals will be expected to have the potential to lead to new medical developments or improved healthcare (e.g. diagnostic tools, novel interventions) through laboratory and/or clinically based research. Applicants must clearly articulate the route to clinical application and/or potential for patient benefit, regardless of where their proposed studies are positioned along the basic-to-applied research continuum.

This is a national funding call and is open to independent researchers based anywhere in the UK. Investigators can apply to this call as a lead applicant if they: Hold a salaried, academic research post; are in an independent position at group-leader level and have sufficient time remaining in their current post to complete the awarded project or provide a written commitment from the host institution to extend the post for the duration of the award should it be successful.

As a way of increasing and retaining capacity in paediatric health research, we are particularly interested in supporting projects from promising early career researchers. To this end, while we welcome applications from independent researchers at any level of seniority, if a funding decision is required between applications of equivalent quality, those of early career researchers will be prioritised. Awards may not be used to support the salaries of the Principal Investigator/team leader. Please refer to our list of frequently asked questions for further details.

GOSH Charity has made £2 million available for this funding call and it is anticipated that a range of proposals from different investigators and institutions across the UK will be eligible for an award. Therefore, applicants are asked to carefully consider their request for funding and whether it represents good value for money. Total costs above £50,000 and up to £250,000 per application will be considered, for a maximum project duration of three years. Funding will be provided for the direct costs of research (such as research staff and consumables) but will not cover consultant programmed activities, the salary-time of the Principal Investigator/team leader, nor may it be applied towards PhD studentships.

Applications will be received and managed by GOSH Charity and considered by its Research Assessment Panel. Final funding decisions are expected to be announced in March 2023. Full details about the application process, including the composition of our Research Assessment Panel, are available through the GOSH Charity’s website.

We are also delighted to extend the reach of this call by offering, in association with our research partners, the possibility of joint funding for projects focusing on their respective areas of interest. We therefore specifically welcome any applications that:

• Aims to lead to treatments or a cure for Ataxia-Telangiectasia
• Aims to lead to treatments for Norrie Disease which a particular focus on treating the hearing loss
• Aims to significantly advance the search to find a cure and/or a treatment for any of the genetic forms of centronuclear and myotubular myopathy, including studies on modifiers of disease progression
• Aims to advance the understanding of Ewing’s Sarcoma and to provide benefit for patients through the development of early diagnosis tools, improved treatment or a cure
• Aims to identify treatments that improve the quality of life for patients with Acrodysostosis. Key areas of concern for the Acrodysostosis community are cognitive impairment, skeletal abnormalities and hormone resistance
• Aims to advance the understanding and treatment of Dravet Syndrome

As funders, we have signed a cross-funder statement coordinated by the Academy of Medical Sciences, on the COVID-19 institutional memory: how we as funders will look to fairly remember and recognise the impacts of COVID-19 on grant applicants' work in the future.

As part of this statement, we would like to reassure our research community that we are acutely aware of the immediate and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on research activities. Any disruptions to research activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be taken into consideration by our panels and committees when assessing an individual applicant’s record of outputs, research achievements, and career progression in future grant rounds.

You can read and download the full statement here.

Please note that all applications to this call will be uniformly assessed according to the same criteria for remit, quality, impact and value for money, irrespective of their potential for co-funding by one of the research partners, or the career stage of the main applicant. Further prioritisation of applications will only be considered where proposals are deemed equally competitive.

For frequently asked questions about this funding call please click here. Alternatively, if you would like to know more about the funding call, our research partners, or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the GOSH Charity Grants team at grants@gosh.org.

The call will be launched on Wednesday 18th 2022. To start your outline application please follow the instructions on the Grants Management System website.

The deadline for submission of outline applications is 5pm, Thursday, 7 July 2022.