Confidence in Concept Fund
Confidence in Concept awards encourage discovery research to progress to translational development projects. They support preliminary work or feasibility studies to establish the viability of an approach.
This fund will support investigators undertaking development of an idea that is close to translation. It establishes the scientific and/or commercial potential of a concept.
Current Call
We invite expressions of interest for the 2020 call. We must receive these by 31 July 2020.
Eligibility
We accept applications from:
- Newcastle University researchers and academics (including NHS staff with honorary University contracts)
- basic scientists
- clinician scientists
We will considered applications relevant to any area of translational research. Projects should have strong potential for near-term impact. They should also have the ability to attract extra investment.
We give priority to those that are likely to align with applications to the Global Challenges Research Fund. Projects should aim to form partnerships for future translational funding opportunities.
The award will not fund:
- entire translational projects
- admin costs
- industrial partner costs
- staff between posts/funding or PhD studentships
- continuation of normal research grants
- costs related to the protection of IP
- staff exchange into a Newcastle University spin-out company
Projects should be no more than 12 months in duration and must finish by 30th March 2022. We will not permit extensions beyond this date.
Awards will be £50-100K.
Application process
There is a two-stage application process:
1. Expression of interest
The review panel will include:
- a clinician scientist
- a non-clinician scientist
- an industry representative
- a representative from the University’s Global Challenges Academy
Successful expressions of interest will move to stage 2.
2. Full application
Three panel members review the applications, and then discuss it with the full panel. Membership includes experts in:
- methodology
- clinical governance
- clinical trial design
- delivery
- statistics
Assessment criteria
We assess applications on scientific grounds.
Project proposals should aim to attract downstream translational research grants. This is a key consideration of all applications.
The criteria includes:
- quality
- impact
- productivity
Projects should be no more than 12 months in duration and must finish by 30th March 2022. We will not permit extensions beyond this date.
Deadline
We should receive expressions of interest by 31 July 2020. Please contact cic.pm@newcastle.ac.uk for an application form and guidance.
Project Management
We will arrange a project set-up meeting 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
This report must include:
- follow-on funding applications (submitted/awarded)
- publications
- patents (applications/published)
- impact activities
- industry collaborations
- spin-out companies related to the project
This is a requirement by the Medical Research Council for the annual Researchfish submission. We use the report for the University’s annual renewal application for Confidence in Concept funding.
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.