Funding will support the time, materials and training required for dementia clinicians to commit time and resource to research, informed and strengthened by concurrent clinical work as they move towards establishing independent research programmes.

Costs Covered

• Awards will cover the applicant’s salary for 50% dedicated research time on the Fellowship (up to 0.5 Full Time Equivalent) alongside justified project costs that have not already been funded elsewhere. This may include training and development costs, including a period of overseas training, travel and subsistence to support conference and meeting attendance, and Patient and Public Involvement.
• They expect fellowships to be completed within 5 years however this may be negotiated to allow a beneficial balance of clinical- and research-dedicated time. They anticipate 0.5FTE will be dedicated to the fellowship and they encourage applicants to justify their time-split with clinical duties within the application.

Eligibility Criteria

• The Applicant:
  • The applicant must be clinically qualified and active in the UK, as relevant to their discipline.
  • As described above, applicants should hold a strong track record of original, impactful research, with increasing experience in publication, presentation and review. They should be able to demonstrate progress made towards independence, and commitment to developing collaborations and partnerships.
• The Project:
  • Research projects must align with Alzheimer’s Research UK’s strategy, focusing on treatment, diagnosis and prevention of dementia, however applications concerning clinical trials are particularly encouraged.
  • Awarded grants will be dependent on requisite approvals (Ethics and/or Home Office Licences) and commitment to ARUK Research Policies.
• Host Institution, Supervision and Mentorship:
  • Applicants are required to have secured a Sponsor, an established investigator at the prospective Fellow’s institution (Host Institution) who will provide the facilities required for the research programme to run successfully.
  • The Host Institution must be UK-based however the application may include collaborators outside of the UK.
  • Joint funding between ARUK and the applicant’s Host Institution may be proposed, and clearly explained in the Application Form, Costings and Institutional Letter of Support. If this applies to you, please contact them to discuss this before you apply.
  • A letter of support from the Host Institution is required to confirm support for the application, in addition to letters of support from any collaborating organisations.

Review Criteria

• Triage
  • Three expert panel members from their Grant Review Board (GRB), who are not conflicted carries out an in-depth assessment of the applications drawing on their specific areas of expertise, and score each application A triage of the applications is carried out by a sub-set of GRB members to determine which applications move forward in the review process.
• Rebuttal Opportunity
  • Before final review, applicants are given the opportunity to respond to the feedback from the GRB members. This rebuttal stage allows applicants to address any concerns or questions raised by the reviewers, providing clarifications or additional information to support their application. For prospective fellows, this will be in the form of live rebuttal during the interview process.
• Lived Experience Review
  • Those applications which have human volunteers are sent for Lived Experience Review. As part of the application, applicants are required to write a Plain English proposal, which are sent to volunteers from the Lived Experience Involvement Group for comments, and for scoring. The comments are made available to the GRB members and incorporated into discussion at the board meeting.
• Fellowship Interviews
  • As part of their review process, interviews will be conducted alongside the Grant Review Board (GRB) meeting. The interview panel will consist of a subset of the GRB members, individuals with lived experience of dementia, and the Director of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK.
  • During the interview, prospective Fellows will be asked to deliver a 5 minute PowerPoint presentation outlining their work. This presentation provides an opportunity to showcase their research and discuss its potential impact.
• Final Funding Approval
  • Based on the in-depth discussions and assessments, the GRB makes recommendations for funding.

For more information, visit Alzheimer’s Research UK.

https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/grants/advanced-clinical-fellowship/