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News about funding and collaboration opportunities around mental health research.
Last update: 10 June 2022.
Forces in Mind Trust Grants - Rolling Open Call
Funder: Forces in Mind Trust
Awards: Discretionary
Deadline: Rolling
Established in 2012, the Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) allocates funding for projects that deliver long-term solutions to the challenges faced by the Armed Forces community. It seeks to enable all UK ex-service personnel and their families to lead successful and fulfilled civilian lives.
Grant funding is available for high-quality research through FiMT's Mental Health Research Programme (MHRP) for projects that will have demonstrable impact in the field of veterans' mental health. MHRP is delivered through the following three strands: rolling open call, highlight notices and commissioned research.
Funding is also available in other areas that form part of the 'transition' process of service personnel and their families leaving the Armed Forces and returning to civilian life (eg employment/training, wellbeing, support networks and welfare).
Projects funded through FiMT's rolling open call can be in any area of veterans' mental health, however, there is a particular wish to receive applications that respond to FiMT's mental health research priorities. The priorities are:
- Alcohol and substance misuse, including effective and appropriate interventions.
- Usefulness of services aimed specifically at veterans (including peer support workers).
- Methods to improve help-seeking rates and barriers to help-seeking.
- Efficacy of military and veteran charities to provide effective mental health support.
- Effectiveness of a 'recovery' based model for the veteran population, including a wider focus on employment and debt management.
- Impact on families, including aggressive behaviour, violence and domestic abuse.
FiMT is committed to funding research that actively involves ex-service personnel and/or family members at all stages of the research process. Guidance can be found here.
MRC Neurosciences and Mental Health Research Grants
Funder: MRC
Awards: n/a (up to 5 years)
Deadline: 27 September 2022
Investigator-led grant funding for research into disorders of the nervous system, including fundamental research normal development and function, and understanding of the mechanism of disease. Research grants are suitable for focused short or long-term research projects and can support method development or development and continuation of research facilities.
Guidance can be found here.
MRC Neurosciences and Mental Health New Investigator Research Grants
Funder: MRC
Awards: n/a
Deadline: 27 September 2022
Grant funding for research into disorders of the nervous system, including fundamental research normal development and function, and understanding of the mechanism of disease.
New investigator research grants are aimed to support the transition into becoming an independent principal investigation with support from the host institution. There is no limitation on length of post-doctoral experience.
Guidance can be found here.
MRC Neurosciences and Mental Health Programme Grants
Funder: MRC
Awards: Typically £1m or more; maximum 5-year duration (renewable)
Deadline: 27 September 2022
Programme grants provide large, long-term and renewable programme funding for researchers working in the area of neurosciences and mental health research. They aim to help the medical science community to ‘think bigger’.
Guidance be found here.
MRC Neurosciences and Mental Health Partnership Grants
Funder: MRC
Awards: n/a
Deadline: 27 September 2022
Funding for partnerships working to transform the understanding of neuroscience and mental health. Partnership grants are expected to support these research areas, but funds can not cover research costs.
Guidance can be found here.
Implementing the Mental Capacity Act in Practice (Mental Capacity Assessments)
Funder: NIHR
Awards: n/a
Deadline: 19 July 2022
HSDR call 22/11 Implementing the Mental Capacity Act in Practice (Mental Capacity Assessments) seeks high-quality research on how the Mental Capacity Act (2005) has been implemented in practice across health and social care organisations. The programme welcomes applications for cross-UK studies. The main aim is to provide an overview and evaluation of the implementation of Mental Capacity Act assessments, training and assessment tools, and to understand the impacts on people using health and care services.
The HSDR programme wishes to fund high quality research which evaluates training and assessment tools and other available materials and resources, supporting the implementation and delivery of optimal decision-making and Mental Capacity Act-compliant capacity assessments in any settings.
The research funded will be intended to improve outcomes for people who use services and their supporters, health and social care professionals' practice, the quality and accessibility of services, and the provision of evidence for decision-makers. While there is different legislation in place across nations of the UK (The Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 and the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000), cross-UK exploration would be welcome.
This funding call welcomes applicants from as broad a range of backgrounds and expertise as possible, including (but not limited to) applied health research, mental health, social work, social care, legal and ethics, philosophy and social sciences. Studies will use a variety of methods which must all be clearly explained and justified, most likely based on a mixed methods approach. There should be a focus on lived experience of people using services, their families, their informal support networks and staff. The following areas of interest are examples of the type of research areas in scope for this call:
- Overview and evaluation (including accuracy, reliability, usability and acceptability) of tools currently used by health and social care professionals to support decision-making and assess mental capacity.
- Identification of barriers and facilitators to conducting Mental Capacity Act-compliant assessments of mental capacity, and how these can be overcome.
- Evaluation of training and educational interventions to improve staff knowledge, confidence and consistency in supporting decision-making, conducting Mental Capacity Act assessments and best interest decisions. This will include looking at issues identified by staff as development gaps, such as dealing with 'undue influence'.
- Identification and evaluation of the components of an effective assessment of mental capacity to improve consistency in delivery and outcomes of capacity assessments, and to facilitate collaborative multidisciplinary working.
- Understanding the risks and impact of cultural bias, as well as identifying barriers and enablers to consideration of cultural, ethnic and religious factors in supporting implementation of decision-making and assessments.
- Evaluation of how the Mental Capacity Act has been embedded (or not) in organisations and practice and the impact on, and experiences of, people using services and their carers.
- Exploration of differences and commonalities in decision-making and assessments carried out by different professionals and in different contexts, from mental health settings to community and home assessments, and how this understanding can be used to improve practice.
- Effectiveness of multi-agency working within application of the Mental Capacity Act and understanding how this operates across different health and social care settings.
The HSDR programme supports applied research with the aim of improving health and social care services across the UK. It is open to any methodology, or combination of methods, appropriate to answer the proposed research question(s), and this must be fully explained and justified.
Full guidance can be found here.