Our top funding and opportunities in 2020

Shaping Economies for Healthier Lives

A new £1.5m programme, Shaping Economies for Healthier Lives aims to improve the use of local and regional economic development strategies to improve health and reduce health inequalities. This three-year programme will fund collaborations of local and regional government, universities and specialist organisations to embed considerations of health and health inequalities within Local Industrial Strategy interventions and develop approaches to measure the health impacts of these interventions. Look out for the launch in spring 2020. 

Common Ambition programme

Our new Common Ambition programme will support up to five ambitious teams across the UK to work towards a shared aim: to build sustainable change across health care through collaboration between those who use services and those who deliver them. Funding is available to collaborations between providers of NHS services and voluntary or community sector organisations, such as charities or social enterprises. Successful partnerships will receive funding of between £300-500k. We will also provide successful teams with a bespoke package of support – which could include coaching, training, facilitation and learning events – worth up to £50k. The programme will open for applications in February 2020. Find out more.

Research call on the role of the NHS and social care in prevention

There is a growing focus through the NHS Long-term Plan and other policies on the need for health and care services to do more to prevent ill-health and tackle inequalities. However, there is a lack of research on the opportunities for health and care services to become more prevention-led, or the most effective approaches to achieve this goal. We are planning to invest £1m during 2020 in an open research call on how the NHS can best contribute to improving health through a focus on prevention. Watch out for the launch of our open call in mid-2020. 

New improvement programme on uptake of innovation and technology

In 2020 we are scoping a new award programme that focuses on the implementation challenges surrounding the uptake of innovation and technology in health and social care, investing more than £1.8m over three years. This work will allow us to use our funding to generate learning around what works in supporting the adoption of innovation and technology, supporting actionable recommendations for policy and practice. The programme will open for applications later in 2020.

Advancing Applied Analytics programme

The fifth round of our funding programme to improve analytical capability in support of health and care services opens late summer. For this round, we are especially interested in projects that help senior managers and clinicians understand the value of better analytics, and projects that demonstrate a clear path from the initial project to longer-term and sustainable changes beyond the life of the individual project. Find out more.

Q Community

Q is an initiative connecting people who have improvement expertise across the UK. There are already over 3,500 members and the community continues to grow. Q’s mission is to foster continuous and sustainable improvement in health and care, creating opportunities for people to come together as an improvement community to share ideas, enhance skills and collaborate to make health and care better. Opportunities to join Q are open on a continuous basis. We are welcoming applications from people with improvement expertise based anywhere in the UK (and from across Ireland from late spring). Join Q.

Q Exchange funding

A third round of Q Exchange will take place in 2020. Members of the Q Community can apply for funding for collaborative projects, from a total pot of £600k provided by the Health Foundation and NHS England and NHS Improvement. Potential projects are developed and refined during an online collaborative process and voted for by Q members to receive grants of up to £30k each. Find out more.

Catalyst Projects

An initiative to improve patient care through data-driven health and care decisions, this initiative is funded jointly by the Health Foundation and HDR UK. We have £600k funding for up to four projects that should start by 1 May 2020 and run for 12 months. Apply by 11 March 2020. 

THIS Institute

Growing capacity and capability in healthcare improvement research is one of THIS Institute’s key goals. In 2020, THIS will be seeking applications from universities who will recruit and select high-calibre students to undertake PhD student fellowships, for clinical or non-clinical candidates. The call opened on 27 January. 

Sciana: The Health Leaders Network

An initiative bringing together outstanding leaders in health and health care policy and innovation across Europe, the Sciana network provides the space and time to share learning and take inspiration from an international context. Each cohort will comprise 18 leaders, six each from Germany, Switzerland and the UK. The network is supported by a partnership between the Health Foundation (UK), Careum Stiftung (Switzerland) and the Robert Bosch Stiftung (Germany) in collaboration with Salzburg Global Seminar. Applications for the fifth round of the network will open in July 2020. Find out more.

The REAL Centre: funding opportunities in 2020

The REAL Centre (Research and Economic Analysis for the Long term) will launch in June 2020, aimed at ensuring long-term decisions about the health and social care system are informed by the best available analysis and evidence. To support this, the REAL Centre has £9m of funding to establish a research network of academic partners. The partners will develop broad research programmes in the areas of supply and demand for health and social care. Funding will be available to exceptional researchers with a strong track record focused on either area. The funding call will open for applications in the second half of 2020.
 
We're also investing up to £475k in a supplier who will develop a model of demand for health care, based on the modelling of risk factors and the prevalence of non-communicable diseases. The model will form part of the work of the REAL Centre. Apply by 13 February 2020.

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This content originally featured in our email newsletter, which explores perspectives and expert opinion on a different health or health care topic each month.