Study-Specific Funding
With each study that you complete you will receive funding for your time and for the activities you complete. This funding will be paid to the practice and will depend on the nature of the study tasks and your time spent on completing these tasks.
(For more detailed information about how costs are attributed in health and care research, please click HERE.)
Click the tabs below for brief information about what these costs entail, and which organisation is responsible for paying these to your practice.
Service Support Costs (SSCs)
Who Will Pay Me?
SSCs are paid to you by us, the LEH team. If you are new to research, we will set you up as a new supplier with MSE procurement and they will be the ones you need to invoice to. Even though you will invoice to the procurement team, the LEH team is responsible for finance too; therefore, you can contact us if you have any queries or if you have missed a payment, and we will get back to you promptly with an answer and/or solution. To find out more about our payment process please have a look at this easy-to-understand diagram HERE.
What Study Activities are Attributed SSCs and Who are They Completed By?
These will be activities to do with patient care, which will end when the research study ends.
Example tasks, which will be attributed SSCs are:
- Patient identification (practice manager, admin)
o Database search and/or
o Opportunistic recruitment - approaching a participant during a clinic for example
- Eligibility check (GP or other registered healthcare professional)
o Going through a list of possibly eligible participants to further check their eligibility for the trial
o Excluding those not eligible following clinical judgement and other factors identified in health records
- Invitation of eligible participants to the trial (admin)
o Mail-out to participants via post, Docmail or text messaging
- Informed consent (GP, nurse, or HCA)
o Go through a consent form with the participant and obtain their signature
- Additional investigations, assessments, and tests where the results are required by the patient’s care team to ensure patient safety and where arrangements are in place to feed the results back to the clinician (GP, nurse, or HCA)
Who Provides the Funding for SSCs and How Much Will I Receive?
These costs are supported by the NIHR CRN. The amount you will be entitled to is calculated by the LEH team following careful consideration of how long each study task will take you and who will be the person completing these. This amount is calculated according to the relevant staff member’s hourly rate. For example, one hour of GP time is £84.00 and one hour of practice nurse time is £23.06 (according to our 2022 template).
Research Costs (RCs)
Who Will Pay Me?
Research costs are paid to you by the study teams/universities who you will be liaising with at the set-up stage and the duration of the study. Once the study activities are completed, you will receive payment to the practice’s bank account.
What Study Activities are Attributed RCs and Who are They Completed By?
Research costs are costs of the research itself which do not contribute to patient care.
Example tasks, which will be attributed RCs are:
- Completion of case report forms – CRFs (GP, nurse, HCA, or CRN staff)
- Any study-related training (GP, nurse, CRN staff, and/or HCA)
- Site initiation visit (all staff contributing to the study at a practice)
- Archiving (admin)
Who Provides the Funding for RCs and How Much Will I Receive?
Funding for research costs is fully met by the study grant or sponsor. Where a research study is supported by the AMRC (Association of Medical Research Charities) then funding will come from the Clinical Research Network (CRN).
The amount the practice will be entitled to will depend on the activities completed and you will always be informed of this amount before you sign up to a study. The LEH team will notify you via the study summary and it will be visible on the contract you sign with the study team as well.
Excess Treatment Costs (ETCs)
Who Will Pay Me?
You will receive payment from the CRN. This payment is triggered once you have recruited a certain number of participants to the trial. For example, a payment could be triggered when you have reached the 5-participant mark for a particular study. You will receive payment in each quarter of the financial year as and when your practice qualifies.
What Study Activities are Attributed ETCs and Who are They Completed By?
NHS treatment costs are activities, which contribute to the care of the patient. ETCs are any excess costs on top of usual care.
Example tasks, which will be attributed ETCs are:
- Training to deliver treatment (GP, nurse, HCA and/or CRN staff)
- Delivering an intervention/treatment (GP, nurse, HCA and/or CRN staff)
- Supplying/administering medicine/device (GP, nurse, HCA and/or CRN staff)
- Patient follow-up when it is required as part of the patient’s clinical management (GP, nurse, HCA and/or CRN staff)
Who Provides the Funding for ETCs and How Much Will I Receive?
ETCs are met by the host NHS organisation through NHS/specialised commissioning/ICBs. ETCs must be accurately identified as part of the research grant funding application to ensure that healthcare providers are reimbursed by the appropriate funder. You will be notified via the study summary whether the study you are participating in involves any activities, which are attributed ETCs. ETCs are calculated on a per participant basis, therefore it will depend on how many patients you recruit to a study and deliver the intervention to for example.
For more information on Excess Treatment Costs please click HERE.