Assessment

Assignment (Formative Assessment)

1. Individual Presentation (Not Marked ) – your individual presentation will be formatively assessed by staff and students. Feedback will be provided with the purpose of helping students better conceptualise and design their outline grant proposal. Each student will present for 15 minutes (10 minute presentation, followed by 5 minute question period). Detailed guidance on developing the presentation will be provided in class on day 1. Presentation should cover the following content.

a. Research question of interest

b. Explanation of need for interdisciplinary approach; identification of disciplines of interest

c. Explanation of theoretical context or framework in which the proposed study is embedded

d. Proposed research design, methods, and partners/stakeholders

e. Intended outputs and outcomes; research impact for end-users & academic community

Assignment (Summative Assessment)

2. Outline grant proposal – this is an essay assignment equivalent to 4,000 words and weighted at 100% of your final overall mark. This part of the assignment should be submitted on-line by 12.00 noon on Thursday 14^th December 2017. Note that submissions will be checked for plagiarism so answer in your own words and fully acknowledge use of other’s work.

The grant proposal must describe an intervention with process measures, and should be organised into two stages: the first 18 months involves building the intervention through pilot research, and the final 42 months to deliver and evaluate the intervention and its outcomes. Total budget should not exceed £1 million.

Structure your essay as follows:

a. Full Title of the Project (≤30 words)

b. Justification of Project Proposed (approximately 3000 words)

b.1 Specification of research question – please state in one sentence the research question to be addressed

b.2 Importance of the health problem to public health – please describe the frequency of the health problem in the population, its impact on social and economic costs, and provide a rationale for using an interdisciplinary approach.

b.3 Summary of the current evidence – please describe the current knowledge and outline other research taking place in this area. You should discuss how the proposed research will add to the existing evidence base and inform interdisciplinary research in this area.

b.4 Objectives – provide a clear summary of your research objectives.

b.5 Proposed study design – please provide details of intervention development, pilot work, recruitment, randomisation, allocation, and adherence/compliance

b.6 Outcomes to be measured – please define the primary and secondary outcome you will measured in this study. Also define the proposed sample size, and describe the data analyses plan.

b.7 Team Expertise – please provide a clear account of the interdisciplinary team assembled and the skills and expertise each member will provide.

b.8 Ethical Issues – please provide a clear description of any potential ethical issues inherent in the research and discuss how these issues will be addressed and minimised.

b.9 Summary for the non-expert – please provide a summary of sections b.1 through b.8. This summary should enable the non-expert reviewer to understand how the proposal addresses a question important to public health, how and where the research will be carried out, what outcomes will be used to assess the success of the research, what if any, are the ethical issues involved in this study and arrangements for handling these, why this interdisciplinary team is well placed to carry out the research and provide justification for the costs requested.

b.10 Beneficiaries and Impact statement - Beneficiaries are those who are likely to be interested in or to benefit from the proposed research. Wherever possible, the beneficiaries should consist of a wider group than that of the investigators' immediate professional circle carrying out similar research. Specific beneficiaries might be researchers in other disciplines; academic institutions; companies, public sector brokers and others who may use the results to their advantage.

· identify the potential impact of the proposed work

· list who is likely to benefit from the proposed research

· indicate any collaborations with beneficiaries and explain their role in the project

· give details of how the results would be disseminated

· please include whether the research is likely to lead to patentable or otherwise commercially exploitable results

b.11 Reflection (approximately 1000 words) – reflect on the process of this assignment. Discuss the challenges you faced and how you might prepare to meet these challenges when developing a future research proposal. Include a reflection on what skills and resources might be beneficial in assisting you to develop interdisciplinary research ideas in the future.