Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) produced by local, national and international organisations are intended to improve the quality of care provided to patients while containing healthcare costs and reducing variability in clinical practice. They offer a way of bridging the gap between what is known to be best evidence and the implementation of best practice standards in healthcare.
The National Clinical Effectiveness Committee (NCEC) is a Ministerial committee with a remit to establish and implement processes for prioritisation and quality assurance of clinical guidelines and clinical audit so as to recommend them to the Minister for Health to become part of a suite of National Clinical Guidelines and National Clinical Audit. A core principle of NCEC is to support evidence based, cost-effective clinical care guidelines. Guidelines, which are developed by Guideline Development Groups (GDGs), must be based on the best available evidence and specialist technical and research supports are needed to ensure that evidence is trustworthy and unbiased. To support this core principle, the HRB is launching a call which aims to continue to provide high quality evidence support to inform guideline development.
Details of this scheme
The aim of this open competitive call for proposals is to provide funding for one award for a period of four years to ensure expert and dedicated evidence support is available to support GDGs working on NCEC prioritised topics.
- The successful applicant team will be expected to provide technical and scientific support on issues relating to evidence synthesis, economic modelling and budget impact analyses in guidelines prioritised by the NCEC in accordance with NCEC methodology and requirements.
- In addition to delivering on NCEC priorities, the team is also expected to have an outward focused mindset, enhancing capacity and driving innovations in the broader evidence support and methodological research community, through alliances and partnerships nationally and internationally.
Applicants may apply for funding up to a maximum of €2.5 million (inclusive of overheads).
Who can apply?
Applications should be made on behalf of an interdisciplinary team of researchers with the necessary knowledge, expertise and experience in the conduct of high-quality systematic reviews, meta-analyses, health economic evaluations and budget impact analyses. The team members should have complementary expertise and mechanisms to access additional topic-specific expertise, as required.
The programme may be ideally suited to a ‘virtual centre’ reflecting a hub-and-spoke model, capable of harnessing the required skills and expertise across multiple departments, centres and/or institutions.
Co-applicants and collaborators from outside the Republic of Ireland are encouraged where their participation clearly adds value to the programme.
How to apply
Applications must be made using the HRB Grant Electronic Management System (GEMS) (https://grants.hrb.ie), and this system will close automatically at the deadline.
The application must have been reviewed and approved by the signatory approver at the research office (or equivalent) in the host institution before it is submitted to the HRB. Therefore, applicants should ensure that they give the signatory approver sufficient time before the scheme closing date to review the application and approve it on GEMS. Please note that many host institutions specify internal deadlines for this procedure.