Support and resources
We know that if systemic change in the health and social care of older people is to be achieved in the long term, we need to invest in creating sustained capacity in our research base and supporting those who are working hard to ensure that the services they provide are evidence-informed.
Academic and clinical researchers
We like to identify the important, but less well-funded, areas of research and back well-designed work which is imaginative, novel and acknowledges that the complexity of the issues involved often need multi-disciplinary approaches if they are to have real and positive impact. We provide a range of funding mechanisms and support a number of networks focused on ensuring that the outcomes of research projects and programmes are shared and turned into practical benefit in improving the health and social care of older people.
Our Strategic Framework sets out our values-led approach and, for each strategic plan period, we select a number of priority themes for support.
We are a signatory to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and explore as part of our application process how supervisors and research institutions support early career researchers (ECRs). We also want you to have clear ideas and plans to ensure that your work has real impact and that you are engaged with older people and will provide funding support for you to do so.
Resources for researchers
For more information, go to Vivensa Academy.
This is an inclusive body of researchers from across the range of disciplines and professions, and research-ready community organisations. The more who join, the more useful it will be.
Who can join?
- Current, former and prospective Vivensa Foundation academic and clinical research award-holders and applicants.
- Members of the UKRI-funded ageing across the lifecourse interdisciplinary research networks and relevant membership bodies such as the British Geriatrics Society and the British Society of Gerontology.
We are sometimes challenged that we don’t provide a contribution to the indirect costs of research (“overheads”). Charities fund the directly incurred costs of research in universities, in line with their mission and charitable objectives, and, if they have them, the wishes of their donors.
Charities may pay some directly allocated costs of research on a case-by-case basis, if these are in line with their charitable mission.
But universities also receive a contribution to research funded by charities through the Charities Research Support Fund (CRSF). The CRSF underpins charity investment in university research. It is an important component of the Quality-Related (QR) university funding across England (similar funds are provided in the devolved nations).
The CRSF enables universities that receive charity funding to recover some of the indirect costs that are not covered by charitable grants, such as estates, shared IT and administration overheads.
The Association of Medical Research Charities – AMRC (of which we are a member) has carried out some analysis which indicates that, using the 2022/23 TRAC data, universities achieved a recovery rate of 68.7% including the CRSF for charity-funded research (compared with 67.2% from the Research Councils and 74.8% from industry). For more information go to: Frequently asked questions on the charity research support fund (CRSF) | Association of Medical Research Charities. We acknowledge that this fund has come under increasing pressure as it has not been increased in line with inflation over the years and we are supporting the AMRC in its campaign to have this increased.
We are a signatory to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers.
As such, we publish a Funder Action Plan which is based on the defining principles of the Concordat: environment and culture, employment, and professional and career development. For each of the outlined Funder commitments, it describes the current situation, including policies we already have in place, as well as the changes we intend to make. The Research Grants Committee will keep it under review on behalf of the Trustees.
All of our Research Training Fellows, including those held jointly with our partners, and those supported by the PhD Studentship Fund are automatically invited to join our growing Academy of those who have chosen to develop a career in ageing-related research. Those appointed as research assistants on any of our Research Programme Grants may also join.
We hold at least one event each year, which is a great opportunity to get together and share experiences with other fellows who are at a similar career stage, and can facilitate virtual networking also.
To add yourself to the ECR mailing list, enter your details here:
Diversity is essential for excellence and increases the capacity to develop, innovate and grow. In respect of our research funding portfolio, we are committed to ensuring that the best researchers from a diverse population are attracted into research careers and supporting development of those careers. Therefore, we do expect applications to demonstrate credible and feasible plans to support the development of professional research careers in our areas of interest. Applications should include tangible examples of support to be given (e.g. training, mentoring etc.). It is also important to describe any wider institutional frameworks and support, which support researchers.
For example:
Athena SWAN: The Equality Challenge Unit (ECU)’s Athena SWAN award is a national charter mark that recognises the achievement of gender equality in higher education, encompassing representation, progression and success for all. It was originally established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, maths and medicine in higher education and research. In 2015 the charter was expanded to recognise work undertaken in arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law, and in professional and support roles, and for trans staff and students. Members who sign up to the charter are expected to apply for an Athena SWAN award, at Bronze, Silver or Gold level.
Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers: An agreement between funders and employers of research staff to improve the employment and support for researchers and research careers in UK higher education. It sets out clear standards that research staff can expect from the institution that employs them, as well as their responsibilities as researchers.
NHS England has published a good practice guide for engaging with under-represented groups to increase diversity in research participation. You can find it here.
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has developed an ethical toolkit, in the form of a series of prompts and questions, as a practical means for translating the ethical values and principles that the group argues should underlie ageing-related research and innovation. The aim of the framework is to help all those concerned with the development, conduct, and implementation of research relating to living well in older age to think through the ethical implications of their work.
For the full report, together with an interactive ethical framework and toolkit, which includes additional prompts and questions for both researchers/research teams and practitioners who work with older adults, go to the Nuffield Council’s website.
Vivensa Foundation is an endorsed funder under the Government’s Global Talent Visa scheme.
An endorsed funder is an organisation accepted by UK Research and Innovation as a prestigious funder of research and innovation. Each funder has an excellent track record of awarding funding to researchers with critical skills, following a rigorous peer review process.
Researcher eligibility
You can read more about whether you may be eligible and how to apply on the government’s website.
You will see in the guidance that amongst the documents you need to provide is confirmation of your grant or award. For some large funders, these will be made available via one of their databases, however, for smaller funders like the Dunhill Medical Trust, you must ask us for a letter of confirmation. Please email either your named grants officer or grants@vivensafoundation.org.uk.
As a charitable funder, it’s important to us that we can show that we are making progress towards achieving our charitable objectives: that we are making a difference/having impact, so a well-articulated and credible ‘pathway to impact’ remains an important part of an application to us. We recommend that you consider your impact plan early in your preparation, so that it informs the design of your research.
Impact from research can take many forms, including enhancing quality of life and health, influencing policy and practice, translating research into new products and services etc. Writing a ‘pathway to impact’ encourages you to think about what can be done and the stakeholders that need to be involved, from the outset, to ensure your research makes a difference. It also helps you articulate why your research is important and helps you to identify who could potentially benefit from your project, who could help you and what you can do to support this happening. You should avoid using generic statements and provide a credible impact plan, including specific examples of actions you will be taking to achieve the impacts described and the time-frame in which these are likely to occur.
Research Councils UK defines impact in the following ways:
- Academic impact: the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to academic advances, across and within disciplines, including significant advances in understanding, methods, theory and application.
- Economic and societal impacts: the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy. Economic and societal impacts embrace all the extremely diverse ways in which research-related knowledge and skills benefit individuals, organisations and nations by:
- fostering global economic performance, and specifically the economic competitiveness of the UK,
- increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy,
- enhancing quality of life, health and creative output.
Public engagement may be included as one element of your ‘pathway to impact’ – but this is not impact in itself. Engaging the public with your research can improve the quality of research and its impact, raise your profile, and develop your skills.
There are some great resources on the Fastrackimpact website and on the Research Whisperer’s blog.
Patient, carer and public involvement in research is defined as research that is done with or by patients, carers and the public and not to, about or for them. When we talk about ‘involvement’ we mean getting actively involved in the research process itself rather than being participants of the research.
This commitment is further reinforced by our strong support of the AMRC position statement on the importance of involvement in medical research, which highlights the crucial role of patient, carer and public involvement in medical research. We believe that meaningful involvement enhances the relevance, quality, and impact of research, ensuring that it better reflects the needs and priorities of the communities it aims to serve.
Patient, carer and public engagement is where information and knowledge about research is provided and shared. Examples of engagement include:
- an open day at a research centre where patients, carers and members of the public are invited to find out about research
- raising awareness of research through media such as television programmes, newspapers and social media
- sharing the findings of a study to research participants, colleagues or members of the public.
We fully support meaningful patient, carer and public involvement and engagement in the work that we fund.
The research protocol is an essential part of a research project. It is a full description of the research study and can be used to monitor the study’s progress and evaluate its outcomes. There are a number of websites providing guidance for preparing research protocols, depending on the study type.
SPIRIT (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for International Trials): provides evidence-based recommendations for the minimum content of a clinical trial protocol. SPIRIT is widely endorsed as an international standard for trial protocols.
PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses): PRISMA is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. PRISMA focuses on the reporting of reviews evaluating randomised trials, but can also be used as a basis for reporting systematic reviews of other types of research, particularly evaluations of interventions. Protocol guidance can be found here.
NHS Health Research Authority: provide guidance and templates for preparing research protocols for qualitative research and Clinical Trials of an Investigational Medicinal Product (CTIMP). There are also a number of other resources available to help with planning your research project.
NIHR Research Design Service (RDS): supports researchers to develop high quality research proposals for submission to national funders for applied health or social care research and NIHR funding programmes. There are regional RDS centres across England where advisers offer free and confidential advice for researchers, to help with several aspects of an application, including identifying and refining the research question and research methods (qualitative and quantitative).
Be aware of unconscious bias
We all have biases, what are yours? Be aware of them and consider the proposal objectively. Think about it outside of the context of your own field of research. Click here to read Understanding unconscious bias by the Royal Society
While we always include a full list of our grants in our Annual Reports and announce our lists of new awards via our News blog and social media, you may also search for grants we have awarded and related publications on Europe PMC.
Community innovators
We aim to inform and influence the collective understanding of “what works” and connect community-facing organisations who wish to develop innovative, evidence-informed and best practice ways of delivering care and support for older people with the research base. The primary way in which we do this, is by encouraging such organisations to join the Vivensa Academy. We have made a range of material available to members of the Academy from our Capability Development Programme covering a whole range of topics from developing financial sustainability for community organisations to how to go about working with the research community.
We are continuing to build our social investment portfolio and will consider social investment opportunities which are wholly or substantially aligned with our mission. We also provide opportunities for community organisations to collaborate with researchers in making grant applications.
We want to:
Develop innovative, cross-sector partnerships which are, or have the potential to be, transformational for the organisation or sector or transformational for the understanding of the subject matter. This may involve traditional grant funding models but also more innovative forms of finance as we set out in our Investment Policy Statement.
Support evidence-led, people-centred community programmes which make full use of the range of community assets – in particular, those which create age-friendly homes and living environments, connect older people to the wider community and/or enable them to stay in their own homes for longer.
Resources for community organisations
Charitable organisations are under increasing scrutiny from the public and funding bodies to demonstrate their impact and be accountable for their activities. Measuring and reporting on impact allows charities to better articulate the difference they are making to their beneficiaries and provides an evidence-base to help external stakeholders engage with and understand their work.
Good impact practice also supports staff and trustees in being more results-driven and allows for more effective strategic planning when working towards their vision. Understanding the impact of an activity/project highlights what your organisation is doing well and what it can improve upon. This allows for more effective allocation of limited resources in future activities. Therefore good impact practice fosters an organisational culture which supports constant evaluation and improvement, inspiring staff and trustees to work towards maximising their impact.
Outputs
The products, services or facilities that result from an organisation’s or product’s activities
Outcomes
The changes, benefits, learning or other effects that result from what the project or organisation makes, offers or provides
Impacts
The broader or longer-term effects of a project’s or organisation’s outputs, outcomes and activities
For more information go to Academy
Who can join?
Research-ready* community organisations working with older people.
* Community-led organisations which have previously been, or are currently, a co-applicant on a Vivensa Foundation-funded research grant, OR have a place on the Vivensa Foundation Capability Development Programme OR have an internally funded staff member with a research remit. Community organisations which are care homes must also have successfully joined the NIHR run Enabling Research in Care Homes (ENRICH) initiative and Research Ready Care Home Network.
In order to maximise the impact that your organisation can make it is essential that you have a plan in place for building its resilience and sustainability. This is particularly important for charitable organisations as they often face unpredictable external environments and need to be able to adapt to a changing social, political and economic backdrop, so that they can secure funding streams and continue delivering services to beneficiaries.
These top ten tips by The Kings Fund provide some guidance to charity leaders about how they can build resilience and sustainability, and provide a useful starting point for supporting and developing successful leadership in the charity sector.
A challenge for many charities is to recover the full cost of the services they deliver. Many draw a distinction between what they call core costs and project costs. However, by core, they’re often referring to the costs of delivering a core service, rather than the overhead, or fixed running costs, of their charity. So, if they’re applying for a project grant, they apply only for the direct costs involved in delivering it and don’t request full cost recovery (this includes an allowance for the overheads of running the organisation), so they won’t receive a contribution to their ongoing running costs.
Funders can be equally guilty of saying they “won’t fund core costs” when what they mean is that they are not in a position to make ongoing donations for unrestricted purposes to an organisation but WILL support specific projects to pilot a service or scale up activities, for example, and recognise that there are overheads involved in doing so and are prepared to contribute.
If this sounds confusing, read on. If not, congratulations, you’ve obviously been knee-deep in an Excel spreadsheet at some point or taken the course in accountant-speak…
With the tough operating environment charities find themselves in, how can they become more sustainable, have greater impact for beneficiaries, and manage the huge demand that exists for their services?
Barclays and Bayes Business School Centre for Charity Effectiveness (Bayes CCE) wanted to foster deeper, more insightful conversations around the key issues facing the sector. They wanted to really explore the issues in order to provide useful lessons for the future.
This led to the Charity Learning Series, set around six working lunch events across the UK. These conversations examined key topics that senior leaders in the charities sector identified as important to them through a poll at Barclays National Charities Day. Facilitated by industry experts with a passion for their own particular subject areas, these events allowed participants to really debate the key issues for the sector, with time to think and have nuanced conversations. This report is a result of those conversations on the six key topics identified:
- sustainability,
- efficiency,
- collaboration,
- risk appetite,
- reserves,
- innovation and scalability.
Download the full report here. Each of the key topics is examined in turn and finishes with some key questions for charity leaders and trustees to ask themselves.
The NHS five year forward view outlines a commitment to developing stronger partnerships with VCSE organisations as part of a ‘new relationship with patients and communities’, in many areas commissioners are not prioritising these relationships. Ever wondered what the commissioner’s perspective is on your services? Check out this report, commissioned by the Department of Health from the King’s Fund for some useful insights.
While we always include a full list of the grants we make in our Annual Reports and announce our new awards via our News blog and social media, we also publish summary details of any grants we make to community-based organisations via 360Giving. This is an initiative that aims to help UK funders publish their data in an open and standard format online. You can search for our grants and others like them on GrantNav.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. View a copy of this license.
This means the data is freely accessible to anyone to be used and shared as they so wish. The data must be attributed to the Vivensa Foundation.
We will consider a range of financial structures for our social investments, ranging from repayable grants to equity stakes and revenue participation agreements.
We will consider:
- Direct investment in a charity or social enterprise which is wholly or substantially aligned with our mission.
- Investment in a fund managed by another organisation, where the purpose of such a fund and its underlying businesses aligns wholly or substantially with our objectives. In this way, we can pool risk and spread it across several different investments. The managing organisation can also provide expertise in assessing and managing the financial and operational risks of the projects they support.
- Investment to support our strategic priorities for community-organisations. For example, investment in a reputable delivery organisation with national reach which is able to support smaller, locally-based community organisations.