Pre-Application Support Fund (Cohort 10)
Opportunity status: Open Type: Career development Opening date: 15 September 2026 at 1:00 pm Closing date: 19 November 2026 at 1:00 pm Reference ID: 2026/508
Overview
The Pre-Application Support Fund offers extra support for you to prepare a competitive application for an NIHR career development award. The scheme is open to individuals at all career stages. It offers up to 12 months of flexible funding and will normally last a minimum of 6 months.
Watch our webinar
Watch our Pre-Application Support Fund webinar for an overview of the award. It also includes insights that can help you develop a competitive application and:
- the aims of the award
- our application process
- what the funding committee will be looking
Watch the webinar
Benefits of a Pre-Application Support Fund award
The benefits of this funding can include:
- protected time from professional or caring responsibilities to prepare your planned application for an NIHR career development award
- access additional support to remove barriers you would otherwise face as a result of a disability or health condition
- gaining access to necessary research training resources directly related to your future application, for example, in research methods or working with people and communities, previously referred to as patient and public involvement
- opportunities to further develop and broaden your collaborations, as well as get supervisor or mentor input on your application
If your application is successful, you will become an NIHR Academy Member.
Funding available
All the costs that you request should be directly related to developing your application for an NIHR career development award.
This funding opportunity provides funding for:
- the salary of the award holder
- conference costs up to £1,000, including travel and subsistence
- training and development costs up to £5,000, including travel and subsistence
- support and mentorship, working with people and communities and research inclusion costs up to £3,000
- reasonable adjustment costs where additional support is required. Please see further guidance on this.
This award does not support research costs, including consumables and equipment, publication, and indirect costs.
Costs for this award will be funded at 100% and full economic costings (FEC) are not covered. Full details of costs for this award are available on our Pre-Application Support Fund page.
Find out more about how to cost your application in our finance guidance for applicants.
Eligibility
To apply, you must:
- state the NIHR career development award you will use the Pre-Application Support Fund to apply to; visit our award page for a list of eligible NIHR career development awards
- explain what additional support you need to prepare an application for NIHR career development funding
- have a proposed contracting organisation based in England, and partner organisation if applicable, that is an HEI, NHS body, or other provider of health or care services
- if you are applying to the Addictions Healthcare Goals Programme partnership award, you must have an equivalent UK-wide contracting organisation in the devolved nations
- have a research area of interest, including a plan for your future application, that fits within our remit for personal awards
- meet, or expect to meet at the time of application, the eligibility criteria for the NIHR career development award you would use the fund to apply for
- if applying for a post-doctoral level award, you must hold a relevant PhD or MD, or have submitted your thesis for examination before your Pre-Application Support Fund start date
- comply with NIHR's resubmission policy for career development awards
- justify in your application why you require further support from the Pre-Application Support Fund if you have previously held an NIHR award
- not have another active NIHR career development award application at the time of submitting your Pre-Application Support Fund application
Partnership award
Partnership awards are funding opportunities offered jointly by the NIHR and our charity and industry partners. You can apply for a partnership award through this funding opportunity with the:
- Addictions Healthcare Goals Programme
Key dates
Opening date
15 September 2026
Closing date
19 November 2026
Funding committee review period
November 2026 – January 2027
Funding committee decision
February 2027
Start dates
- 01 May 2027
- 01 June 2027
- 01 July 2027
- 01 August 2027
Application guidance
Please read our guidance to help you complete all aspects of your application. You must read the application guidance alongside the information on this tab, which detail specific requirements for this award.
You must also check our award page for additional application guidance, including eligibility:
- application guidance
- Pre-Application Support Fund: overview
- Pre-Application Support Fund: assessment criteria
- research inclusion guidance – it is important that you consider what training is needed from an inclusion perspective
- finance guidance for applicants
Application uploads
You must provide the following uploads as part of your application:
- Narrative CV
- Research area of interest:
- within your 'Research area of interest' upload, state the NIHR career development award that you intend to apply to
- provide an overview of the planned research area within this future application
- you do not need to include references as part of this upload
- Career development programme:
- include details of the activities that you plan to undertake during your Pre-application Support Fund award, through to the submission of your application for your chosen NIHR career development award
- Gantt chart or project plan document:
- this should align with your career development programme, including planned timings and when you will submit your future application
- Letters of support:
- ensure you obtain a letter of support from your contracting organisation and, if applicable, your partner organisation. Each letter of support should be a maximum of 3 pages.
Do not include uploads that are not specified, including multiple placement letters of support. Do not use the flexible upload option for this award. Committee reviewers will not consider anything that you upload into this section as part of your application. Read our application form guidance for more information on uploads.
We recommend that you convert your uploads into PDFs before uploading to the system.
Submitting multiple applications
As an applicant for an NIHR Academy personal career development award, you must have only 1 application under consideration at a time.
If you have already submitted an application for an NIHR Academy personal career development award, you must wait until you receive the outcome before submitting another.
If you submit a subsequent application while another is under consideration, we will deem it ineligible. If you are unsure, contact personal.awards@nihr.ac.uk to check before submitting an application.
How to apply
Log in to our awards management system to apply for this funding opportunity. You will need to create a new account if you do not have one already.
The closing date is 19 November 2026. We will not consider applications that we receive after this time. This funding opportunity will follow a single-stage application process.
Our commitment to inclusion
We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive culture. We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and communities bringing diverse skills and experiences.
Additional support
We are committed to removing barriers to inclusion wherever possible. We want to maximise the inclusion of disabled people and individuals with long term health conditions. We want to make sure our processes are as inclusive as possible and this might mean we need to make adjustments to the application process or for the undertaking of the award if successful.
You should not disclose detailed information of reasonable adjustments required to undertake the award in your application. Costings for reasonable adjustment that you, or any co-applicants may require, however should be included within your budget. See our finance guidance for more information. We will discuss this with you further if your application is successful.
If you would like to discuss reasonable adjustments to support your application or the undertaking of your award, if your application is successful, email personal.awards@nihr.ac.uk
Research Support Service
You can access free and confidential advice when you are developing an application to NIHR funding through the Research Support Service (RSS).
The support it provides is focused on:
- designing and developing your research funding application or your research career development funding application
- refining your research question
- designing your research, and approaches and methods of analysis
- methodological support
- involving people, community engagement, co-production in your research, and developing and delivering inclusive research
- advice from a broad range of methodologists
- opportunities to collaborate with RSS experts and partner organisations where academic interests align and capacity allows
- signposting to other sources of advice, resources and support
Contact details
- For help with your application, contact us at personal.awards+pasf@nihr.ac.uk
- For more information about the funding programme, visit the Pre-Application Support Fund page
- For help developing your application, if in England, contact the Research Support Service.