The NIHR Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Programme is accepting outline applications to its researcher-led workstream.
This is a 2-stage, commissioned funding opportunity. To apply for the first stage you should submit an outline application. If invited to the second stage, you will then need to complete a full application.
Eligibility
See our EME Programme page for details about the overall programme remit and eligibility criteria.
Highlight notices
The NIHR currently has several highlight notices open. These spotlight areas of ongoing health research priorities for our programmes.
For further details and information on all our current highlight notices, please see the themed funding opportunity pages.
Please note that the EME researcher-led: primary research funding opportunity is open to all relevant research areas, and does not just include these highlight notices. If you are responding to a highlight notice, please indicate this in the application form.
Traumatic brain injury highlight notice
This cross programme highlight notice indicates an area of research interest for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the NIHR. Applications in response to this highlight notice must still be within remit of the programme you’re applying to.
Applications are not required to address or include this research priority.
Every year approximately 1 million people in the UK attend emergency departments following a head injury. Many of these injuries are minor with no persistent symptoms while others can result in mild to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) with potentially long-term physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioural effects.
Common causes of TBI include falls, road accidents and injuries at work, assaults and violence, military conflict and also sport related injuries, which are the leading cause of concussion amongst children and young people. TBI also disproportionately affects specific high-risk populations, including men, adults aged over 75, the homeless, the prison population (and those with a history of offending), and people with a history of mental health or substance abuse issues. Socioeconomic and demographic factors also heighten risk, with individuals living in areas of high deprivation and urban environments being disproportionately affected. Of great concern since 2025, there has been a 24% increase in the rate of female TBI since 2005/6, including in relation to intimate partner violence.
In 2022, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) established the Concussion in Sport Research Forum (CiSRF). In September 2024, the CiSRF published a report identifying priorities for research to better understand, prevent and treat sport-related concussion.
Initially announced at the UK Concussion Conference (December 2025) hosted by the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Brain Injury, this broad funding opportunity welcomes applications addressing research priorities that span the TBI pathway from prevention and acute care to long-term rehabilitation, to improve health and care outcomes. Of particular interest are innovations focusing on improving diagnosis, prognosis, management and integrated pathways of care to deliver meaningful benefits for patients and more effective, efficient service delivery.
Suggested areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
- concussion in sport – addressing the research priorities identified by the CiSRF – of particular interest are priorities 1, 4, 5 and 7-10
- education and dissemination – interventions to improve education and public dissemination of concussion management in community settings, including schools and universities and within medical training across the health and care sector
- clinical management – improved holistic, clinical management of concussion in adults and children, from identification to rehabilitation, to improve health outcomes and equity of care
- paediatric HealthTech – the development of innovative HealthTech for paediatric neurological trauma that address prevention, rehabilitation and long-term participation in daily life and are coherent with real world contexts, particularly the interface between families, schools and healthcare professionals
- prevention in high-risk populations – the evaluation of primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions to prevent and reduce the number of clinically relevant head impacts amongst high-risk groups, reduce the likelihood of brain injury after head impact, and assess clinical management to improve post-impact outcomes
- rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury – evaluation of the effectiveness of approaches to rehabilitate people (including children and young people) as per NICE guidelines recommendations for research, for example NG232 and NG252
- novel approaches to treatment – innovations in pharmacological and other therapeutic interventions across the whole TBI pathways of severities
- sex differences in experience of traumatic brain injury – exploring the clinical differences in presentation and experiences of traumatic brain injury in women
- social care support for traumatic brain injury – exploring and evaluating the existing evidence around adult and children’s social care support to tackle short-term and long-term effects of traumatic brain injury and developing new, effective, and sustainable ways to support the social workers, service providers, paid and unpaid carers supporting people with traumatic brain injury
We encourage applicants to engage with the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Brain Injury (hrc-brain@nihr.ac.uk).
Visit funding web page
(https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding/eme-programme-researcher-led/2026407)
