Finance

How to guide: Finance

It can be difficult to understand how studies are funded, what practices will be paid, and how. Funding can also come from multiple sources.

Key information you should be aware of:

• Practices should make themselves aware of what finance is available and what they need to do to obtain this.

• Practices may need to put contracts in place to enable funding to be paid.

• Study teams should clearly outline payments.

• Some payments may be variable depending on how many participants are recruited or on the number of mailout letters/texts sent.

• Other funding may also be available to support practices.

• NHS treatment costs or excess treatment costs are paid up front by practices but then paid back in full. 

See also

• Contracts guide

Full guide

Who pays?

Research guidance is clear on which organisation is responsible for paying for certain things.

You will be given information on these, but the below is provided for information to aid understanding about who is responsible for what.

Cost	What it is	Who is responsible for paying
Research cost	Costs of the R&D itself that end when the research ends. They relate to activities that are being undertaken to answer the research questions	The study team (funded from the research grant).
NHS treatment costs (also known as Excess Treatment Costs - ETC)	Patient care costs, which would continue to be incurred if the patient care service in question continued to be provided after the R&D study had stopped.	These are funded by the NHS and the Clinical Research Network (CRN) manages this. The funding itself comes from ICBs but is managed centrally. Studies do not automatically get these funded but need to apply. When there is an ETC incurred at the practice, the practice needs to pay out the cost first and it will be reimbursed. ETCs are reimbursed to practices at Q2 if they meet a minimum threshold of £100, or at Q4 if they do not reach the threshold.
Service support costs (also known as study support costs)	Additional patient care costs associated with the research, which would end once the R&D study in question had stopped, even if the patient care involved continued to be provided.	The CRN pays these for non-commercial portfolio studies but again these are not paid automatically but need to be applied for.

 

Practices should:

• obtain assurance that any costs incurred by the practice will be covered. Receiving an advisory email from the WY R&D team will include assurance of this.

• ensure that the necessary contracts are in place to enable practices to get paid.

If you want to read more about this, please see: Attributing the costs of health and social care research & development (publishing.service.gov.uk).

Obtaining the finance

The study team and CRN should provide information about how finance can be accessed relating to a study.

To obtain CRN funding, a practice needs a contract to be set up with the CRN. Contact studysupport.crnyorkshumber@nihr.ac.uk if you have any questions about contracts. Service support costs are paid quarterly in arrears, so it may be some time after the activity when the practice actually gets paid.

To obtain research funding, the practice may need to invoice the study team. The study team should provide the detail of how this is done. The contract/PIC agreement/Organisation Information Document (appendix 2) should detail what will be paid and how. The practice may need to add its bank details to one of the appendices in the contract.

For PIC activity, the funding may be paid by the research site as this is the organisation who has the contract with the practices.

Other finances

The CRN may occasionally offer additional funding to support practices with their research. The latest round has closed but there may be further funding opportunities and this will be updated when funding becomes available.

The CRN also provides the opportunity for practices to request support to deliver specific studies – this can be applied for via https://sites.google.com/nihr.ac.uk/art/submit-a-request

Glossary of Acronyms and Terms

• CRN - Clinical Research Network

• CCG - Clinical Commissioning Group

• ETC - Excess Treatment Costs

• PIC - Participant Identification Centre

• OID - Organisation Information Document