Joint Funding Scheme

The Joint Funding Scheme, which we run in partnership with the Health Research Board (HRB), is an activity we are particularly proud of. It offers the opportunity to our member organisations to support research of relevance to their communities and to share the cost of that research with the HRB. To date, 151 awards have been made with a total investment of €25 million since the scheme’s inception.

A unique scheme: This is a unique scheme with no known parallels. It brings together the HRB and HRCI member charities to co-fund patient-focused projects of key relevance to the communities the charities represent.

High success rate: The scheme has a very high relative success rate – an average of 60% of projects submitted to the HRB have been approved for funding, over the last five rounds.

Open to almost all research types: Almost all types of health research are funded, with the exception of clinical trials. It has been a particularly beneficial scheme for rare disease research.

Strong PPI: This was the first HRB funding scheme to include patient and public involvement reviewers on the grant assessment panel. Together with the strong focus on PPI by the participating charities, this helps to ensures the relevance of the funded research to patients and the public.

High impact and benefits: The scheme has strong impact in comparison to other HRB funding schemes. It helps HRCI member charities to support research with a strong likelihood of real-world impact, build research capacity in a particular area and to promote PPI.

High quality studies: research funded through this scheme must be assessed according to best international standards, in keeping with the HRB’s rigorous processes, helping to ensure that charity-funded research is world class.