The Policy Research Programme (PRP) is commissioned to provide the evidence base for policy development on public health and social care issues. It commissions primary research, secondary analysis, formative evaluations, systematic reviews, and scoping papers of research needs. This used to be a CCF programme but now site within the Department of Health.

Who it's for:
The programme funds research in three main ways:

• Five year programmes of research in 16 research units, a primary care research centre, a public health research consortium, and a surveillance unit
• Programmes of interlinked studies on key policy initiatives
• Single projects and literature reviews
  

Funding:
The budget is £33m per annum of which £5.5m is ring-fenced for work on Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease..

Process:
Researchers need to register on-line to apply for a PRP tender and access applications forms. Research briefs for each call are posted on the website.

Criteria:
Research teams are asked to provide rapid responses to policy questions based on their ongoing research portfolios, individual expert knowledge of their specialist areas, and research projects or reviews especially devised to provide rapid results.

Applications will be judged on the following criteria:

• Ministerial priority and relevance to the goals, aims and objectives of the Department of Health
• Size and importance of the problem to be addressed in terms of actual or potential burden of disease and social condition
• Well-defined plans for introducing research results into current policy activity or the formulation of future policy
• Timeliness
• Feasibility of the research
• Likely return on the investment in research
• Appropriateness and availability of other research budgets

PRP Website