Exeter Fellow to lead NIHR funding board

Exeter Fellow in Clinical Medicine Professor Andrew Farmer is to chair a new National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) board to assess funding applications.

Professor Farmer will assess applications to the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme (NIHR-HTA),  the biggest of the NIHR research programmes responsible for assessing around 600 research applications every year.

Due to the increasing popularity of the programme a new funding board has been created. Its role will be to assess applications submitted to the programme in response to NIHR-wide themed calls and evidence synthesis funding opportunities, as well as researcher-led and commissioned proposals.

Professor Farmer said: “The new board will be a real benefit to researchers applying to the HTA Programme, increasing the programme’s capacity and the time available to consider and provide constructive feedback on applications.

“The introduction of this third board is also enabling the timings of the commissioned workstream to be changed giving applicants more time to respond to calls. I see this as a real benefit giving researchers longer to consider the research question and ensure they focus on the needs of patients and the NHS.

“I look forward to chairing this board and working with my colleagues to fund research that delivers the NIHR’s vision to improve the health and wealth of the nation.”