Impact Accelerator Award - Confidence in Concept Fund
This funding will support investigators to undertake further scientific and technical development of an idea that is close to translation in order to establish the scientific and/or commercial potential.
The aim of the funding is to accelerate the transition from discovery research to translational development projects.
Development of academic-industrial collaborations is also encouraged.
Current call
Funding available
Projects should be £50k-£120k
Duration
Projects must be no longer than 12 months in duration, with a strict finish date of 31 March 2026.
Eligibility
Applications are accepted from:
- Newcastle University researchers and academics (including NHS staff with honorary University contracts)
- basic scientists
- clinician scientists
Scope
Applications relevant to any area of translational research are considered. Projects deemed to have the greatest potential for near-term impact and the ability to attract additional investment will be given priority. It is desirable that projects also include plans to create/develop new interactions aimed at forming partnerships for future translational funding opportunities. Where appropriate, partnerships with industry are beneficial.
The award will not fund:
- entire translational projects
- administration costs
- industrial partner costs
- staff between posts/funding or PhD studentships (bridging)
- continuation of normal research grants
- costs related to the protection of IP
- staff exchange into a Newcastle University spin-out company
- directly allocated costs, indirect costs or overheads
Application process
Please read the IAA-CiC Guidance September 2024.
Expression of Interest stage
The IAA Scheme is a two stage application.
Applicants must download and complete the Expression of Interest (EoI) 2024 form. This should provide details of the project as described in the Guidance document.
After reviewing the EoI applications, projects will be selected for full stage application.
The deadline for submission of EoI applications is by 17:00 on 30 September 2024.
The outcome of the EoI stage will be notified by 23 October 2024.
Full application
The application form for full stage applications will be provided to those projects selected from the EoI stage applications.
The deadline for receipt of full applications is 9 December 2024.
Each application will be reviewed by members selected from an Expert Panel (clinician scientist / non-clinician scientist / industry representative) before final review by the Full Panel, which includes experts in methodology, clinical governance, clinical trial design and delivery and statistics.
Applicants will be notified in the week beginning 13 January 2025.
Assessment criteria
Applications are assessed on scientific grounds, with the potential to convert the project to downstream translational research grants a key consideration. The criteria are adopted from the MRC’s guidance and include:
- quality (methodology, innovation, leadership, collaboration),
- impact (scientific question, knowledge gap, health and/or socioeconomic impact, resource of value to many disciplines),
- productivity (likelihood of delivery, use of resources).
Projects should be no more than 12 months in duration and must be completed by 31 March 2026 (extensions beyond this date will not be permitted).
If you have any questions please email cic.pm@newcastle.ac.uk
Project Management
We will arrange a project set-up meeting for funded projects to review the stated aims, methodology and its milestones. It will confirm the funding and budget set-up requirements.
Progress reporting
Regular meetings will ensure effective monitoring of research progress. The allocated translational development manager will help develop follow-on funding applications.
Outcome reporting
Project end
There is a requirement to submit a short report once the project is complete. The business and translational development teams will advise with ongoing support. They will build external collaborations and develop follow-on funding applications.
Annual report
UKRI collect information on the benefit of IAA-CiC funding through an annual report filed by the university which monitors onward outcomes from all CiC funded projects. PIs will be required to provide update information each year on the following metrics:
- follow-on funding applications (submitted/awarded)
- publications
- patents (applications/published)
- impact activities
- industry collaborations
- spin-out companies related to the project
- staff trained and supported
We also use the report for the University’s renewal application for Confidence in Concept funding.
Example Confidence in Concept projects
Project 1: Pharmacy enhanced services for people with type 2 diabetes
This project provided a digital platform for education and behaviour change for people living with type 2 diabetes.
Changing Health is a digital health service spin-out from Newcastle University. It delivered the national digital behaviour change platform. It also delivered the national type 2 diabetes digital education and behaviour change service. Both were for NHS England.
It is one of five providers for the national diabetes prevention programme. They delivered education and behaviour change to 200,000 people in England.
They provided digital education and behaviour change to 20 English clinical commissioning groups.
The service has licensed evidence-based programmes from other academic groups. These groups had previously found it difficult to commercialise digital behaviour change programmes.
Project 2: Mechanistic evaluation of stroke and mitochondrial dysfunction: toward clinically relevant therapies
This project aimed to test a range of parameters, including:
- demographic
- anthropomorphic
- physiological
- clinical
All testing occurred in a genetically defined group of patients with mitochondrial disease.
The project determined the patients' contribution to disease mechanisms. It also assessed their potential as clinical biomarkers and for clinical trials.
The project identified many clinical biomarkers and outcome measures. This data contributed to the largest clinical trial of a medicinal product in mitochondrial disease.
Project 3: Development of a non-invasive MRI method to image and quantify lung ventilation properties
This project investigated whether 19F-MRI of inhaled perfluoropropane could produce images of tracer distribution within the lung. It then explored if this data could provide reproducible metrics of lung ventilation properties.
Using this technique, we produced the first UK images of pulmonary ventilation properties. It demonstrated high reproducibility in a study of 12 healthy volunteers.
The project received MRC DPFS funding for scale-up of the methodology and next stage of human evaluation. The DPFS award has delivered robust scan methodology. We applied this in two-site UK studies of healthy volunteers and patients with respiratory.
The next steps of the translational pathway are being planned. This will test the ability to inform clinical decision-making. It will also implement the methods into clinical care pathways.