The Health Services and Delivery Research (HS&DR) programme is a merger of  two existing programmes - Health Services Research (HSR) and Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO). The programme will still have the two main work streams of health services research and healthcare delivery research but will extend its remit to include research on implementation and a range of knowledge mobilisation initiatives.

• health services research (HSR) will focus on research into the quality, appropriateness, effectiveness, equity and patient experience of health services.
• healthcare delivery research (HDR) will focus on evaluating models of service organisation, delivery, and interventions, which have the potential to improve service effectiveness, efficiency and productivity.

The unique element of this programme is the target audience that the research is trying to influence, and this is the decision-makers in the NHS (managers and clinical leaders).

Who it's for:
The audiences for this research will be the public, service users, clinicians and managers. Projects will commonly require multidisciplinary approaches to assess the quality and outcomes of services. There are 3 researcher-led calls per year and 3 calls for proposals to commission in areas of strategic need.

Funding:
The budget of the new programme will be the total of the two existing programmes at £16m per year. It will either fund multiple small studies or a single large study of national or international importance. The first call for proposals will open in early 2012. (Average cost £260K over 2 years)

Process:
Applicants can submit research applications at any time via an electronic application form. A number of cut-off dates will be given in a 12 month period. There is a big drop out rate of bids at the short listing stage, where basically the panel selects only potential winners to go forward. It is vital that short listed projects address the feedback and advice given at this stage. Projects will be scored on quality and relevance to the NHS.

Criteria:
The project should produce rigorous evidence regarding use, costs, quality, access, planning and organisation, financing, and outcomes of services that will lead to improvements in health and health services. The panel is looking for actionable findings-solution based research.
Applications will be judged on the following criteria:

• The project should clearly address all 3 of the main dimensions of quality that are of concern to the NHS: patient safety, patient experience and effectiveness of care.
  
• Project needs to address a practical question and should be of major strategic importance to the NHS - show explicit links to NHS strategy/policy
• Project needs to be nationally important - demonstrate the scale of the problem
• Scientific quality of the proposal and the likelihood of the study making substantial advancements and improvements in knowledge, health and/or health-services
  
• Feasibility of the study (is the proposed timetable sensible)
• Demonstration of the necessary skill mix, experience, project management and infrastructure for success - the team needs to be able to deliver and so experienced teams with good track records will be prioritised
• Literature review is very important and should show that there are no other projects looking at this question and no available dataset could be used to address the question
• Value for money

HS&DR Website

Feedback:
Each project will be assigned to one panel member to champion and two assistants.

• This will be the same person that short listed the project and fed back any advice, so they will know if you've addressed any issues that arose at that stage.
• It helps the panel member to champion your project if you present a strong, clear argument about why it is important to do this work, why you and why now
• Explain your study design before your methods
• Avoid jargon and spell out acronyms as the panel member may not be familiar with your field