Diabetes grant application guidance

A common issue is applications that don’t include enough detail on their planned experiments, or include information that is unclear. 

Applicants should clearly explain the planned experiments including details like number of repeats or treatments. If the application is made-up of multiple work-packages, applicants should clearly explain how these link together and the planned sequence of the work.

Presenting preliminary data that led to the application is critical. This helps enable the panel to have an understanding of why the proposed work is needed and what led to it.

A common issue is that applications are statistically underpowered. Applicants should include clear information on statistical aspects of their plans, such as sample numbers and validation of datasets. 

The information should be sufficiently detailed for the panel to make a judgement on the statistical robustness of the project. Applicants should include statistical justifications as part of their project plan, including power calculations where relevant. 

Sometimes it is not clear in applications what the relationship is between the proposed project and an applicant’s other active related work. If an application has significant overlap with an applicant’s active projects, or the alignment between projects is not clearly explained, the panel will not be clear on the project they are reviewing which may impact on their scoring. 

Applicants are encouraged to make use of figures and diagrams to support the application. The research review panel are drawn from a wide range of fields, so the inclusion of good-quality figures to illustrate a project can strongly support an application. 

Lead applicant: The person with overall responsibility for the management of the grant and the primary contact even if the intellectual leadership and input is shared amongst the research team. The lead applicant will sign the award letter and ensure the grant terms and conditions are adhered to. The lead applicant will also be responsible for reporting to the charity.

Project title: The title should be descriptive while accurately reflecting the project. The title should be no more than 150 characters.

Start date: The start date should be within three months of the notification of outcome. The date should be realistic to allow enough time for recruitment and any necessary approvals. The start date can be changed if your application is successful, within reason.

End date: Projects are for up to two years.

Research location: Indicate the location of the research. Tick all that apply. Tick ​‘Other’ as well if some of the research will be undertaken by a co-applicant or collaborator who is not based at RFL or UCL.

Which organisation will administer this award? This should be RFL or UCL and will be responsible for signing the grant terms and conditions and providing the charity with invoices. Please note, the administering organisation will normally be the same as the organisation sponsoring any associated study, unless other specific arrangements have been agreed.

Total amount requested: This will be in GBP and should match the total breakdown of costs in the finance section of the application. Funding from £20,000 to £65,000 is available.

Is your application associated with a clinical study? Indicate if your application is associated with a clinical study. If it is, state the name of the trial and its EudraCT/​ISRCTN number.

Co-applicants/collaborator names: List all the co-applicants and collaborators that will be actively involved with the project.

Co-applicants will have had intellectual input into the design of the research project and application and are expected to be involved in the project, for example oversight of elements of the research and management/​leadership of the research.

Collaborators named in the application for a specific reason. This can include providing specific expertise, materials, reagents, access to patients or specialised equipment. Collaborators are not generally involved in the day-to-day work of the project and are not employed on the grant. Collaborators must provide letters of support which must be included with the application.

You should outline how the application complements or aligns with the RFL research and development strategy. 

The project research outcomes should inform future clinical research at RFL. Outline how this will be achieved. 

This entire section should be completed in scientific and technical language.

Scientific abstract: Provide a scientific abstract of the work that will be carried out during the project. You should briefly include background, aims, methodology and outputs and patient benefit.

Background: Describe the background to the project, the current state of knowledge and the work leading up to this application, including any preliminary data. You should also include why the research is needed referencing any gaps in knowledge.

Aims and objectives: The proposed research should be hypothesis-led and seek to answer a specific question(s).

Project plan: Describe the experimental and methodological approaches including how they relate to the aims of the project. Include the analyses you will use. You should reference published data and where necessary, any pre-prints or unpublished data.

Expected outputs and outcomes: Describe the anticipated outputs and outcomes, and their significance. In addition to potential patient benefit, this can also include academic outputs and impacts, such advancing knowledge and understanding.

Figures and diagrams: Use this section for any relevant figures and diagrams, up to two pages. You should include clear figure legends. 

Mentorship: Applicants to this scheme must have identified a suitable mentor and be based within a supportive research environment. Please briefly outline how these criteria will be met. You must include a named mentor and confirm they have agreed to provide mentorship for the duration of the project. You should state the kind of support the mentor will provide and how it will benefit you and the project.

References: Include the references to the research outlined in this application. Full author citations must be included.

This section of your application will be reviewed and assessed by the charity’s research involvement group. 

The research involvement group is made up of patients, carers, and members of our community. This group assesses applications from a person with lived experience perspective. This section should act as a comprehensive, stand-alone explanation of your project. 

This section should be completed in plain English using non-technical language avoiding scientific and technical jargon and abbreviations (unless they have been explained). This section should be accessible by non-scientists and the public. We may ask you to re-write parts of this section if it is not. 

Furthermore, if your application is successful, our fundraising and communications teams may use some or all of this section, both to get a better understanding of the research and in communicating the research to others, such as our supporters and donors.

NIHR have developed an informative guide on how to write plain English lay summaries: plain English summaries. 

Summary sentence: Describe your project in one or two sentences that sum up the project.

Plain English summary: The proposed research should be hypothesis-led and seek to answer a specific question(s). Please do not include any confidential information as this abstract may be published on the Royal Free Charity’s website. You should refer to the guides above on plain English summaries.

Background: Outline what the background is to this application and the work leading up to this application. Is it a continuation of your existing research? You should explain the need for this research and the wider research landscape. 

Aims and Objectives: Explain the aims and objectives of your project. Briefly outline the project structure and explain how the planned activities relate to these aims.

Impact: What impact will this project have for patients? If successful, when will the benefits of your research reach patients? What will the next steps be following this project?

Reducing inequalities: Addressing health disparities has been identified as a strategic priority for diabetes research. If applicable, explain how you have considered this when planning your project and the relevance of these issues to your research.

Patient and public involvement and engagement

Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) in research helps ensure that research is focused on outcomes that are important to patients and people with lived experience. It makes research more relevant by helping to identify and prioritise wider research questions that researchers may not have considered.

PPIE in research is defined as research being carried out ​‘with’ or ​‘by’ members of the public rather than ​‘to’, ​‘about’ or ​‘for’ them. PPIE does not refer to the recruitment of patients or the public in a clinical trial. Involvement is different to participation and engagement. 

NIHR has published briefing notes for researchers who are new to PPIE. 

With lab-based research, meaningful PPIE can seem more challenging. Parkinson’s UK, Alzheimer’s Society and the NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre have produced a practical guide to patient and public involvement in lab-based research which contains information on before involving patients and planning PPIE.

For this question of the application form, you should consider and outline:

• Whether you consulted patients and/​or people with lived experience in your application?
• How have they been involved in the design of the research project?
• If the research project is funded, how will they continue to be involved?

In 2023, Diabetes UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) launched a new strategy to set the direction of clinical and applied diabetes research in the UK. It identified several key areas where there is a need to increase research activity. More information on these areas is available in the strategy document. 

If relevant to your application, you should describe how your project aligns to these areas. 

This funding scheme welcomes applications for any area of diabetes research. Applications without alignment to the priority areas will be given equal consideration. 

Ethics and regulatory approval

Research involving human participants, tissue or data requires ethical approval. You can check on the Health Research Authority website whether your research requires approval.

The research should not start before the necessary approvals are in place. Ethical approval does not need to be in place when applying for a grant. Once approval has been secured, the letter from the Research Ethics Committee must be sent to the charity.

If approval is already in place for the research, include the final letter as an attachment when you submit your application.

Research involving human participants

If you answer yes to this question, you must also complete annex 1 and submit this along with your application form. Guidance for completion of the annex is available at the end of this page.

Research involving animals

We are an introductory member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC). The AMRC has a position statement on the use of animals in research and is committed to the principles of the 3Rs – reduction, replacement and refinement of animal use in research.

If you answer yes to this question, you must also complete annex 1 and submit this along with your application form. Guidance for completion of the annex is available at the end of this page.

Intellectual Property

If you answer yes to this question, you must also complete annex 2 and submit this along with your application form. Guidance for completion of the annex is available at the end of this page.

Environmental sustainability

Research laboratories can consume significant amounts of energy. A typical laboratory uses 5 to 10 times more energy per metre squared than office buildings[1] with ultra-low temperature freezers being among the most energy consuming pieces of equipment[2].

Describe how you have considered the environmental impact of your research project and the measures, if any, in place to reduce the impact on the environment. This can include alignment with your institution’s relevant policies. You should also consider:

• The impact of travelling to meetings or conferences and whether this is essential.
• How will you reduce consumable and plastic wastage? Examples include using glass instead of plastic, recycling instead of using disposal single use items, creating your own reagents instead of purchasing them.
• How will research team members contribute to sustainability?
• Where equipment is being purchased as part of the grant, consideration should be given to the environmental impact.

Sustainable UCL has developed the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF), which is a standard for sustainable laboratory operations. The LEAF website has useful resources on how research laboratories can mitigate their environmental impact.

Please note: If two applications are judged to be equal by the research review panel, further weight will be given to the answer to this question.

Compliance information

If any part of the grant intended to pay a third-party, please provide details. Please note this refers to a third-party delivering a service or supplies that requires a specific contract between RFL or UCL and the third-party for this project. We are not referring to a third-party supplier of general consumables or general supplies. 

If anyone named on this application is conflicted with the third-party, please provide details. Please also provide details of any potential conflict of interest with any RFL/UCL member of staff connected with the third-party. 

Conflicts include outside employment contracts (including pharmaceutical companies), shareholdings, directorships, advisory roles, gifts and hospitality. The list is indicative and you should refer to the relevant trust or UCL conflicts of interests webpage for further details. 

If any patient identifiable data being used in any part of this project or moved to any third-party, anonymised or otherwise, please provide details. You should explain what assurances are in place in relation to the retention of the data.

If you have answered ​‘yes’ to any of the above questions, please confirm you have read the relevant conflicts of interest policy. 

• For RFL applications: Trust’s conflict of interest policy
• For UCL applications: UCL’s conflicts of interest policy

If you answered yes to any question in this section, please confirm that the conflict of interest relevant to the application has been registered on the trust or UCL platform. For RFL applications you must attach the trust declaration of interest notice approval e‑mail when submitting your application. For UCL applications, you must attach UCL’s e‑mail confirming that the conflict has been approved or it has been determined there is no conflict.

Please also confirm that a contract exists between any third-party supplier and either the trust or UCL, and has been approved by the relevant contracts department and signed by an authorised signatory. If this can only be progressed after the grant is awarded, confirmation will be required at a later date. RFC will not make payments to a third-party without confirmation that the contract has been approved. 

The trust/​UCL is ultimately responsible for fulfilment of the contractual agreement. If needed, please insert clause below into any contract:

“The Royal Free Charity is acting as the recipient of these funds. The Royal Free Charity holds no liability, and it is the RFL/UCL (delete as appropriate) that is ultimately responsible for the fulfilment of the contract and holds all liability. This includes delivery and financial contractual obligations.” 

–

[1] Connections between laboratory research and climate change: what scientists and policy makers can do to reduce environmental impacts. https://doi.org/10.1002/1873–3468.13932

[2] Ultra-Low Temperature Freezers: Opening the Door to Energy Savings in Laboratories. https://www.etcc-ca.com/reports/ultra-low-temperature-freezers-opening-door-energy-savings-laboratories?dl=1587500130

Provide a breakdown of the costs requested in this application under each heading, if applicable. The Royal Free Charity will only fund directly incurred costs. Please ensure that the breakdown matches the total requested on Page 1 of the application form.

For RFL costs, the lead applicant can provide the RFL costs without costing the application via RFL research and development. However, if the application is intended to cover a new clinical trial, the application must be costed via RFL research and development.

For UCL costs, the lead applicant must provide the costings as calculated via Worktribe.

Finance costs

In-line with being an introductory AMRC member, the funding available will only support directly incurred costs and not directly allocated or indirect costs. These include:

1. Directly incurred costs (permitted costs)

The direct costs of research include:

• Research staff (e.g. junior postdoctoral researchers and research assistant salaries)
• Consumables and other costs directly attributable to the project
• Cost of equipment specific to the needs of the project
• Access fees for specialist equipment
• Animal costs
• Publication fees

• Conference travel and registration (limited to £3,000)

1. Directly allocated costs (not eligible for funding)

These are shared costs based on estimates and do not represent actual costs on a project-by-project basis. They may include:

• Research investigators: the proportion of time spent by senior researchers such as the principal investigator and co-investigators on a research project
• The cost of shared resources such as clerical and administrative staff, nurses, lab technicians, supervisors and collaborators who are already employed. Equipment not specific to the research

• Estates: the space used by researchers

1. Indirect costs (not eligible for funding)

These costs are necessary for underpinning research but cannot be allocated to individual projects. They usually cover computing and information support, central services, general maintenance, lighting, heating and other infrastructure costs

Research staff

If a particular expertise is needed for the project such as statistical expertise or technicians skilled in specific techniques, you may include a cost for a proportion of their time specifically for the work required as long as a justification is provided.

Salaries are expected to be costed by the host organisation’s research office according to an applicable pay model. Add the following figures to each box in the salary section: basic salary, national insurance, superannuation, London allowance.

Consumables

All research consumables and expenses that are necessary for the project should be listed. These should be directly attributable to the project. Any costs for access to specialist equipment should be broken down to per hour and number of hours. We assume that there is a basic level of equipment and computers in research laboratories. Equipment costs are capped at £10,000. 

Animal costs

If the project involves using animals, you must provide adequate details on the number, species, sex, strain and maintenance/​associated costs of the animals to be used.

Travel

Travel to conferences to present data that is a direct result of the grant is allowed for staff employed on the grant. Costs include accommodation, standard class travel and conference registration. The total cost should be no more than £3,000. 

Publications

Publication fees can be included in the application. We strongly encourage researchers to make their publications open access and freely available either immediately upon publication or after six months.

Patient and public involvement and engagement

Involvement costs and payments to patients or the public that are directly attributable to the research are permitted. NIHR provides guidance on how to cost these activities.

Ineligible costs

These costs include:

• Costs relating to staff recruitment
• PhD studentship fees
• Computers
• Personal license fees and a Home Office license
• Funding to provide maintenance and/​or insurance of equipment
• Office stationery costs unless required for the project and a justification provided
• Indemnity insurance
• Training courses (including Home Office animal license courses)

Justification of costs

Provide a detailed justification for the costs requested in this application, clearly outlining how these relate to the objectives and proposed timescales. The justification should be sufficiently detailed to allow the reviewers, panel and charity to have an informed opinion on the need of the costs requested.

Additional funding and support

If this application is associated with any matched funding to another funder or other source, provide details including whether the funding has been granted or an application has been submitted. You should also outline how the matched funding complements this application.

You should also include any support your host institution is providing and whether you can access a special purpose fund that will support your application.

If the research project is successful, outline any planned applications to other funders.

Lead applicant

Input how much time you spend on research generally and the time you will spend on this project in hours per week.

List your present and last employment position. Include any further positions that you think are relevant to the application. 

List all your current grants and any closed grants that you think are relevant to the application. 

List your most important research publications that are relevant to the application and any others you think would aid your application.

Co-applicants

Co-applicants will have had intellectual input into the design of the research project and application, and are expected to be involved in the project, for example oversight of elements of the research and management/​leadership of the research.

Input how much time the co-applicants spend on research generally and the time they will spend on this project in hours per week.

List all current grants and any other closed grants that are relevant to the application. 

List the most important research publications that are relevant to the application.

Collaborator(s)

Collaborators named in the application for a specific reason. This can include provide specific expertise, materials, reagents, access to patients or specialised equipment. Collaborators are not generally involved in the day-to-day work of the project and are not employed on the grant. 

All collaborators must provide a letter of support outlining what support will be provided for the project.

This information will be treated confidentially. You may wish to include the names of up to three peer reviewers who we may or may not contact to review your application. You must not have any conflicts of interest with your suggested reviewers. These include they must not be from the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust or UCL and you must not have published or collaborated with them in the last three years. Please provide their names and contact details.

You can also include names of people who you do not want to review your application.

Please list up to 5 keywords that describe the research content of your application. These keywords will be used to identify peer reviewers with the necessary expertise to review your application. 

A GANTT chart must be submitted with the application.

The following must also be attached to this application only if they are relevant:

• For UCL submitted applications, a Worktribe costs spreadsheet, unless provided in the Finance table
• Collaborator(s) letter of support
• Other letters of support, such as host institution
• Ethical approval letter(s)
• Quotes for equipment greater than £5,000
• Annexes on human participants, animal use and intellectual property

You must ensure you have all the necessary approvals and sign-offs before you submit your application. All applicants must get their application endorsed by the RFL theme 2 director. Projects based at RFL also require sign-off by the clinical director of research and innovation. Applicants should request these approvals at least one week before the deadline, to allow time for checks to take place. 

The completed application including approvals and sign-offs must be submitted by 4pm on Thursday 2 October 2025. Applications received after 4pm will not be accepted.

Applications must be sent to [email protected]. You will receive confirmation of receipt of your application.

Describe and justify the choice of study design, including planned interventions (experimental and control) and duration. If the study is randomised, what are the proposed practical arrangements for allocating participants to groups?

Provide details of the proposed target population groups, e.g. gender, age range. Include key inclusion/​exclusion criteria and any relevant details about how that population will be selected. 

Outline the planned frequency and duration of follow-up for participants. Describe any anticipated problems with non-compliance and/​or loss to follow-up and how these problems could be addressed. 

Outline the outcome measures and endpoints and how these will be assessed.

Describe any risks to the safety of patients taking part in the research and explain how the level of risk will be assessed. 

If any investigational products are to be used, provide brief details, including relevant information about availability, manufacture, quality and consistency.

Outline and justify the patient recruitment strategy for the study. If appropriate, provide evidence of feasibility to support your application and pilot work to establish numbers of available patients.

Describe and justify the sample sizes and proposed statistical analyses. Include the number of samples for each analysis, the associated level of statistical power, and potential limitations or bias.

Outline the possible challenges in recruiting the required number of people to take part in the research, and how these challenges would be addressed.

In addition, does anyone involved in your research proposal hold any consultancies, advisory roles, or equities in, or directorships of, companies or other organisations that might have an interest in the results of your proposed research? 

If applicable, list the proposed membership of the Trial Steering Committee and the Data Monitoring Committee.

Applicants must identify a sponsor (which will normally be either a university or NHS Trust), who fully understands the responsibilities and costs associated with assuming this role. Please note that the Royal Free Charity cannot act as sponsor.