BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION PERSONAL AWARDSBASIC SCIENTISTS

Dr Shannon AmoilsSenior Research AdvisorBritish Heart Foundation

British Heart Foundation• An introduction to the British Heart Foundation

• Overview of our current research funding

• Personal Awards for basic scientists

• How we award

• What makes a successful fellowship application

British Heart Foundation

• Founded in 1961

• Charitable organisation – all our income comes from public donation

• Single largest funder of cardiovascular research in the UK

• We spend £80-£100m on cardiovascular research every year

• Aim is to fund pioneering research into the causes, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease

• Fund basic and clinical research focusing on the heart and circulatory system

Current funding - overview

Epidemiology/ Clinical trials

15%

Laboratory science70%

Otherclinical studies

15%

Research portfolio~£400m

Current funding - overview

StudentshipsFellowshipsProfessors

People30%

Infra-structure and

Centres10%

£80-100 million per yr

Projects25%

3y Project GrantsProgrammes

35%

5y Programme Grants

Current funding - overview

• Funding is response mode – with the exception of a few calls for applications for substantial funding on a specific theme– Research Excellence Awards

• 6 centres awarded 2013• emphasis on training and multidisciplinary research

– Centres of Regenerative Medicine• 3 centres awarded 2013• Mending Broken Hearts Appeal• programme of investment in cardiovascular regenerative medicine

research

Current funding - overview• Spending controlled by 3 committees, each meeting 4x per yr:

– Project Grants Committee (22 members)– Fellowships Committee (7 members)– Chairs & Programme Grants Committee (11 members)

Personal awards – non-clinical

Advanced Training Award (2-3y)

PhD studentship (3 or 4y)

Postdoctoral RA on project grant (1-2 x 3y)

Intermediate Basic Science Fellowship (4-5y)Includes research costs and technician/RA

Senior Basic Science Fellowship (5y: renewable)Includes research costs and technician/RA; renewable at 50% salary

BHF Professor (10y: reviewed at 5y)

Career Re-entry Fellowship (3-4y)

Immediate Postdoctoral Fellowship(3-4y)

Named Research Associate, Co-applicant, Principal Investigator

Includes programme grant funding for research

Immediate Postdoctoral Fellowship• For the most outstanding newly qualified postdoctoral researchers to start establishing an independent cardiovascular research career

• Apply in the final year of PhD or within 1y of the PhD viva

• Award includes personal salary and research expenses for 3y (possibility of a 1y extension)

• Up to 18 months of the award should be spent overseas or in a second UK institution

Advanced Training Award

• To provide younger researchers with an opportunity to move into cardiovascular science from a different field or to gain additional expertise in a different field within cardiovascular science

• Apply within 2-3y of submitting PhD thesis

• Award includes personal salary and research expenses for 2-3y

• Successful candidates are likely to be moving to a strong cardiovascular research environment where their existing skills will be useful in future cardiovascular research

Intermediate Fellowship• For talented individuals intending to become research leaders, ready to establish independence

• Candidates are usually 3-6y since PhD, with a series of first or senior author research papers in high quality journals

• Personal salary, research expenses and technical support

• Award for 4y, (1y can be spent overseas if justified)

• Possibility of 1y extension

Senior Fellowship• For outstanding scientists expected to reach Reader or Professor level in less than 5y

• Candidates are usually 7-10y since PhD, with an established track record of research leadership, often a previous Intermediate Fellow

• Personal salary, research expenses and technical support if justified for 5y (up to 1y overseas if justified)

• Competitive renewal possible, host institution must then pay 50% personal salary

Career Re-entry Fellowship• To enable successful post-doctoral scientists to re-enter research after a career break of longer than 2y

• Award includes personal salary, research expenses and technical support post if justified

• Duration of the award is 3y

• Possibility of a 1y extension

Personal awards – clinical

Clinical Research Training Fellowship (3y)

Intermediate Clinical Research Fellowship (4-5y) Pre or post CCT, includes research costs and technician/RA

Senior Clinical Research Fellowship (5y) Includes research costs, renewable once only at 50% salary

BHF Professor (10y: reviewed at 5y) Includes programme grant funding for research

Research Leave Fellowship

How we award

Panel interview Senior Fellows, some Intermediate Fellows,all Immediate Fellows Award or Reject

(Can often reapply)

Some decisions made prior to committeeRest are discussedDon’t rank applications

Application submitted [no outline required]

Peer reviewSent out to at least 3 external UK (international) reviewers 2 committee members each provide reviews

Fellowship Committee (4 times/yr)

Award numbers - non clinical

Fellowship type Awards/Applications 2011-2012

Awards/Applications 2012-2013

Awards/Applications 2013-2014

Current award nos

3 year PhD studentship

35/73 [48%] 28/65 [43%] 31/55 [56%] 106

Advanced Training Award

1/4 0/1 1/2 2

Intermediate Fellowship

8/21 [38%] 14/36 [39%] 6/23 [26%] 39

Senior Fellowship

2/10 [20%] 7/10 [70%] 2/7 [29%] 17

Career Re-entry Fellowship

1/1 0 0 1

Assessing fellowship applications• Person – quality of the applicant

• Project – quality of the science

• Place – quality of the research environment

Before you start your application• Is this the right time for you to be making this application?

– if in doubt – ask advice– ask your mentors– contact us, send us your CV, come and talk to us

• Is this the right place to conduct your research with the appropriate expertise?

• Have you chosen the right supervisor?

• Have you chosen the right collaborators?

• If there’s a gap in your expertise, choose collaborators to fill the gap

What makes a good project?• Logic

• Originality

• Feasibility

• Compelling pilot data

Key points about any application [1]• Must provide the scientific foundation for your project, citing the appropriate papers

• It’s your job to show why your science is important and worth doing, and why you have the right credentials to do it

• Aims must be clear

• Hypotheses must be testable (not vague aspirations)

Key points about any application [2]• Experimental plans must be focussed, detailed and test the hypotheses

• Must provide pilot data to back up your approach

• Should be at least predominantly achievable by the end of the award

• Make sure all your aims aren’t dependent on each other

• Career intentions – clear statement

• Strong letters of support

Before you submit your application• Make sure you have laid out the application correctly and followed the funder’s instructions

• Get advice from your colleagues – the next pair of eyes seeing your application should not be those of the reviewers

Otherwise you’ll get comments like…• The project is overambitious and lacks preliminary data. Without these data it is too high risk to fund.

• The applicant has little expertise in this area and this is also not an area of expertise of his supervisor.

• It is not clear how the applicant’s research pathway is different to that of the host department. It is also not clear whether he will drive the work forward independently.

• The application is densely presented, with small font and no margins – it is extremely difficult to read. The applicant clearly can’t present his ideas in a concise way and this is reflected in the overambitious nature of the project.

When you want comments like…

Dr XXX is a strong candidate for an Intermediate Fellowship. The publications from his PhD and his awards mark him out as an able clinician researcher. He has begun to develop his own programme of research attracting funding to support this. He has the appropriate facilities available to him and strong support from his supervisors and mentors.

AWARD

New BHF Fellows

Alan Lawrie

University of SheffieldTamara Girbl

QMULMaarten Koeners University of Bristol

BHF Fellows

Thank you

Shannon Amoilsamoilss@bhf.org.uk bhf.org.uk/research/research-grants.aspx