Health Foundation funding and opportunities in 2023

Fellowships and networks

Sciana: The Health Leaders Network

The Sciana Network brings together senior health and health care leaders who share a commitment to shaping the future of health care, providing the space and time to share learning and take inspiration from an international context. Each cohort comprises up to 19 outstanding leaders, at least six each from Germany, Switzerland and the UK. Applications for the next round will be open in spring 2023. Find out more

THIS Institute Fellowships

THIS Institute (supported by the Health Foundation) is offering funding to talented postdoctoral researchers from diverse backgrounds to lead research on strengthening equity, inclusion and diversity in health care. Awards of up to £220k are available. Applicants will remain employed at their own organisation (UK university or other research-intensive environment) and will be part of a vibrant learning community. Apply by 8 March 2023. Find out more and explore previous improvement research projects

Florence Nightingale Award for Excellence in Healthcare Data Analytics

This award recognises practitioners in applied health care data analytics who have gone the extra mile in delivering innovative improvements in the health care system. The award is led by the Royal Statistical Society and supported by the Health Foundation. The fourth round of the award will open for applications in March 2023. Find out more

Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy and Practice

The Harkness Fellowships aim to produce the next generation of health policy leaders in participating countries. The scheme offers a unique opportunity to spend 12 months in the United States as a Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice. Run by the Commonwealth Fund, in collaboration with the Health Foundation and the National Institute for Health Research, fellowships are suitable for mid-career professionals, including government policymakers, academic researchers, clinical leaders, hospital and insurance managers, and journalists. The next call for applications for the 2024–25 fellowships will be announced in summer 2023. Find out more

Q community

The Q community is an initiative connecting people who have improvement expertise across the UK. There are over 4,500 members and the community continues to grow. Q’s mission is to foster continuous and sustainable improvement in health and care, creating opportunities for people to come together to share ideas, enhance skills and collaborate to make health and care better. Opportunities to join Q are open on a continuous basis. We welcome applications from people with improvement expertise based anywhere in the UK and Ireland. Join Q here

REAL Centre Research Fellowships

2023 will see us design and develop a new research fellowships programme to build capacity and diversity of thought in health economics. The fellowships will create cross-disciplinary opportunities for academics who wish to work more closely with the health and social care sectors. Watch this space for more information as our plans develop.

Health Anchors Learning Network

The Health Anchors Learning Network (HALN) is a UK-wide network for people responsible for, or interested in, anchor approaches in health (where organisations consciously use their resources to improve health and make a wider contribution to their local communities). The network is free and open to join for colleagues from health organisations and partners including local authorities or other public agencies, voluntary and community and social enterprise sector or educational or housing organisations. Sign up on the HALN website

Community of Practice for Social Care Analytics

We’re funding Future Care Capital to run this community of practice, helping to meet the urgent need for more effective data and analytics in social care. The community brings together data analysts, researchers, policymakers and other practitioners from across the private, public and charitable sectors, as well as people with lived experience of social care, with the aim of sharing ideas, building links and exchanging good practice. Find out more

Funding and research opportunities

Technology-enabled care programme

We’ll be launching a new £2m funding programme to explore how technology can enable new proactive and relational models of care at home and in the community. Running over 2 years, the programme will support scalable, user-led, tech-enabled approaches to care. The programme will open for applications in summer 2023.

Funding opportunities for members of the Q community

The Q community’s grant funding programme is jointly funded by the Health Foundation and the NHS, in partnership for digital health and care.

• In 2023 we’ll be launching our fifth round of Q Exchange funding, which will provide 20 teams with up to £40k each, supporting ideas voted for by the Q community that will generate insight and value for the health and care system. Applications will open for members of the Q community on 14 February 2023. Find out more
• Q members and partner organisations can also apply for up to £20k Supporting Q Connections funding for activities focused on supporting continued collaborative working at a time of intensified system pressure. Applications are open throughout the year. Find out more

Opportunities to tender for work during 2023

Current opportunities (closing soon)

• We are currently seeking a supplier to act as a scoping partner as we develop a new research programme exploring people, place and health – how health inequalities have been shaped over the long term by structural social, economic and political factors. We anticipate bids of up to £60k; responses are needed by 10 February. Read the full invitation to tender
• Q is currently seeking an evaluation partner to undertake an independent summative evaluation of Q. The total budget is £250k. Apply by 7 February. Read the full invitation to tender

Watch out for

We plan to commission work in the following areas during 2023. Watch out for updates in our newsletter and on our current opportunities page as formal invitations to tender are published:

• A research project that aims to analyse changes in the configuration, volume and mix of health and care services over time, and to identify key trends in terms of geography and deprivation in England. Open for tender in March 2023.
• A support partner for our new technology-enabled care programme. The support partner will help us deliver this exciting new innovation programme, which launches in 2023. Open for tender in spring 2023.
• An evaluation partner to undertake an independent developmental evaluation of our new technology-enabled care programme (with a total budget of £225k). Opening for tender in spring 2023.
• A supplier to synthesise findings and generate insights from historical Health Foundation funded research from 2012 to 2022 to support the Foundation as we move into our next strategic period. Opening for tender in February 2023.

Other ways to get involved

Health Equals

Be ready to help us make noise about the first high profile campaign from Health Equals, due to land in spring 2023. This will be a chance to increase understanding among the public, politicians and policymakers of the wider determinants that shape our health and what we can do to reduce health inequalities. Find out more about Health Equals

Thiscovery

Our partners at the Health Foundation-funded THIS Institute will be expanding their development of the Thiscovery platform this year, to rapidly crowdsource rigorous qualitative evidence across different health care topics. Explore opportunities to contribute your views and experience to projects

Use our resources and stay up to date

• Ensure you subscribe to our monthly email newsletter if you don’t already.
• Subscribe to our monthly podcast which interviews high-profile guests each month to discuss important issues affecting the future of health and care.
• Visit the website at any time to see all opportunities for funding, partnerships and fellowships currently open for application.
• Join the conversation about current health and care issues by following us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
• Watch out for our running programme of events and webinars, bringing practitioners and policymakers together to discuss issues impacting on health and care.
• We regularly publish new blogs, publications and long reads, presenting the knowledge and ideas gained from our research, improvement programmes and other areas of work.
• We’re constantly adding new content to our Evidence hub – What drives inequalities?

This content originally featured in our email newsletter, which explores perspectives and expert opinion on a different health or health care topic each month.