Grant policies

Terms and Conditions of Awards

Please read our Grants Terms and Conditions.

Intellectual Property (IP) Policy

Please read our IP Policy.

Grants Privacy Policy

Please read our Grants Privacy Policy.

Grants Cost Policy

Please read our Grants Cost Policy for details on the types of cost can be requested.

Environmental Sustainability

Please read our statement on Environmental Sustainability.

Patient and public involvement and engagement

As a local funder, effective involvement and engagement of our community (patients and the public) in the work we fund is very important to us.

The UK Standards for Public Involvement provide detailed guidance to describe what good public involvement looks like and encourage greater consistency in research. This includes case studies, processes, procedures and values necessary to support suitable public and patient involvement. We recommend grant holders review this guidance before planning any involvement activities.

Patients and the public should ideally be involved and/or engaged in every stage of a project, from developing a proposal, through project delivery, to evaluation and dissemination.

Costs related to involvement and engagement within a project can be requested in an application and must be detailed in the finance section of the application form

If conducting lab-based research projects, please read the specific guidance for patient and public involvement.

Funding animal research

In some areas, research involving animals is essential to understand human health and develop new treatments. We do not take the decision to fund this research lightly. We use expert peer review to ensure that we fund only high-quality research where the use of animals is scientifically justified and there is no alternative.

We support the AMRC principles on the use of animals in research.

External peer-review and expert advisers

We use expert advisers – as part of our advisory panels or written reviewers – to provide impartial, objective and transparent assessments of grant applications as a part of our decision-making process. Advisers are asked to agree to a Code of Conduct which outlines our expectations regarding confidentiality and managing conflicts of interest. This supports the integrity and independence of our application review process.

Our Board of Trustees and Grants Committee are covered by a separate policy.

Confidentiality

• • All documents, correspondence and meeting discussions relating to applications are strictly confidential. This information must be kept and disposed of securely and must not be disseminated to or discussed with others outside the review process.
  • Expert advisers can expect that their comments will be treated in confidence by our staff. Grant applicants will receive anonymous versions of referees’ comments.
  • Expert advisers should refuse any requests for information or feedback and direct these to our Funding and Impact team.

Conflicts of interest  

Expert advisers are asked to declare any potential conflicts of interest with any application that they are invited to review. Declarations will be assessed to ensure the interest will not, or be perceived to, affect the impartiality of the assessment. Potential conflicts include (but are not limited to):

• • Professional relationship with any of the applicants (e.g. active or recent collaboration, acting as a mentor, etc.) or their host organisation.
  • Personal relationship with any of the applicants.
  • Financial interest in any part of the application.

Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)

Barts Charity is now a Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) signatory. When considering the track record of applicants in their fields and their suitability in delivering the proposed research, expert advisers are asked to consider the value and impact of all research outputs in addition to research publications.

Example research outputs include:

• • preprints
  • training
  • contribution to consortia
  • patents
  • sharing of key datasets
  • software
  • novel assays
  • reagents.

When considering research publications, expert advisers are asked to consider the overall scientific content of a paper over the journal or impact factor. They are also asked to consider a broad range of impact measures including qualitative indicators of research impact, such as influence on policy and practice.