NIHR Regional Funding to Improve How Research Is Delivered

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17/11/2026
National Institute for Health and Care Research

New NIHR LogoThe NIHR’s 12 Regional Research Delivery Networks (RRDNs) have opened their 2027/28 strategic funding round, for projects that improve how research is delivered and how the public can take part in it. If you’ve got an idea for getting dementia studies into care homes, primary care or community settings, or for reaching people who rarely get offered research, this is the pot for it. Applications close at 11.59pm on 17 November 2026.

This isn’t funding for a research study. It pays for projects that change the way research gets done in a region, such as new ways of reaching participants, faster and better study set-up, or stronger delivery teams and partnerships, with improvements that last after the money runs out.

What you can apply for

Strategic funding lets regions tackle local and system-level barriers that core funding doesn’t usually cover. Projects can:

  • trial new ways to reach more people with research opportunities
  • improve the speed and quality of study delivery
  • build stronger research teams, foster collaborations and strengthen research systems
  • boost capacity and capability to deliver life sciences research
  • expand capacity and capability for research delivery more widely

Each project must be distinct from day-to-day work, deliver clear outcomes and leave lasting improvements behind. Collaborative projects that show regional impact, can be scaled up and could improve the wider system are strongly encouraged.

What it won’t fund

The NIHR is clear about what falls outside this scheme:

  • routine operational activity, existing staff or ongoing services without a defined improvement
  • fixes that only help one department or one study, with nothing others can learn from
  • individual research projects, including recruitment or study-specific costs for a single study, or support for one investigator’s programme
  • general NHS service improvement or academic research where improving research delivery isn’t the main aim

Funding to support delivery of existing or incoming studies in wider care settings, such as care homes and social care, goes through the separate wider care settings funding opportunity, which is open alongside this one.

Funding and timescales

Each application can ask for up to £150,000, and collaborative projects involving at least two organisations or more than one region can go above that. Projects run for 6 to 24 months, starting on 1 April, 1 July or 1 October 2027 or 1 January 2028, and must finish by 31 March 2029. Projects running past March 2028 need to show satisfactory progress by then to keep their funding.

Each organisation can submit up to three applications, plus one more for a collaborative or multi-region project.

Who can apply

You need to be based in England and work in healthcare, social care or public health for an eligible organisation. That covers a wide range: GP practices and primary care networks, community pharmacies, NHS trusts, community services, schools, social care services, care and nursing homes, hospices, prisons, integrated care boards, voluntary and community organisations, charities, universities and local authorities.

If you’re applying from an NHS trust or a university, you need sign-off from your R&D or innovation department before you submit, and applications without it are rejected without review. Organisations without an R&D team need the application submitted by someone with delegated authority for the project.

Regional priorities and the dementia angle

Every application has to align with at least one of the government’s three shifts (hospital to community, analogue to digital, sickness to prevention), the seven strategic priorities in the RDN five-year plan, or your region’s own priorities. Several regions have set specific ones:

  • South Central lists ageing and multimorbidity, including dementia and frailty, as a named priority, along with mental health, health inequalities in coastal, rural and underserved communities, and access to life sciences research
  • North London and South London are focused on primary care research, with North London also targeting neighbourhood health centres, community diagnostic centres and prisons
  • West Midlands wants ideas on round-the-clock community research delivery, community imaging and embedding research in integrated care boards
  • South West Central and East Midlands are prioritising collaborative and inclusive delivery

The other regions follow the national shifts and the RDN priorities. With so much dementia care happening in the community, many of these priorities are a good fit for dementia research delivery. Our blog on making sure no care homes are left out of dementia research and our podcast on supporting social care research and building capacity are full of the kind of problems this money is meant to fix.

How applications are assessed

Your RRDN will judge your application on strategic alignment, the quality and deliverability of the project design, its potential impact on research delivery, infrastructure or policy, how sustainable and scalable the results are, and value for money.

How to apply

Talk to your local RRDN first. You must discuss and agree your application with them before you submit, and some regions, such as West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber, ask for a conversation with a named contact or panel. If you’re not sure how the network fits together, read our story on the launch of the NIHR Research Delivery Network.

RRDN contacts:

Applications are made online through the NIHR awards management system, which now lets you save and come back to your application. Read the strategic funding application guidance before you start. Applications close at 11.59pm on 17 November 2026, and you’ll hear whether you’ve been successful on 22 February 2027.

Full details are on the NIHR strategic funding opportunity page.

 

Visit funding web page
(https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding/strategic-funding-opportunity-202728/rrdn-strategic-27-28)