Highlights of Chatter session on Research Inclusion as a Condition of Funding – RICOF
Please find below the session highlights. Follow this link to view the recording and click here to download the slides.
Why RICOF?
- Research needs to be serving communities which are most in need.
- Inclusive research increases scientific rigour, societal welfare, and brings economic impact.
- The RICOF project is taking place in stages. The presentation discussed activities taking place in the first stage of the project, which focuses on inclusive design in applications for funding. Subsequent stages will include a focus on research participants sex, gender and ethnicity.
Delivering RICOF
As part of the delivery of RICOF, training to applicants, funding committees and NIHR staff has been provided. This ensures that stakeholders are equipped with the skills to deliver the project and that guidelines published in connection to RICOF are implemented consistently across the organisation. In addition, guidelines are undergoing continuous improvement to ensure ongoing relevance.
RICOF values feedback from the research community as inclusive design in research may be new to some. Programme teams are gathering feedback from applicants and public contributors.
NIHR Research Support Services offer help to researchers in writing applications that meet inclusive design requirements.
Currently, RICOF is being implemented across NIHR domestic research programmes. Funding programmes in Global Health and NIHR Infrastructure investment will be implemented throughout 2025/26 and 2026/27 respectively.
The NIHR is actively working to align with the Health Research Authority to ensure that the work in preparing inclusive funding applications aligns with the requirements set out in the HRA and MHRA’s Inclusion and Diversity Guidance, thus, increasing efficiencies and avoiding duplication.
Specific details to applications to NIHR
Patient and Public Involvement continues its fundamental contribution to ensuring inclusive research design. RICOF and PPI requirements are overlapping but distinct. Both require applicants to think about how each will be built into the whole application to ensure that the scientific design as well as the budget required to deliver inclusive research and public and patient involvement are evident.
Word count at application was not extended and there is no uplift in budget to accommodate RICOF.