Before you apply
If you are interested in NIHR BioResource support for your study, you must contact us to discuss your application before submitting your proposal.
You can reach us by email at nbr@bioresource.nihr.ac.uk or call us on 0800 090 22 33.
We can help by, for example, with checking feasibility, or advising on any changes to your study ethics, before you submit an application. When you submit an application, it will be considered by our NIHR BioResource Steering Committee/Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). They must give their approval before the study can commence.
The BioResource seeks to keep costs for academic projects to a minimum. There are costs for industry which are guidelines and negotiated per study protocol.
Please note that, once a study is approved by the NIHR BioResource, then all local BioResource centres can potentially recruit locally to the study, as required.
Please apply using our application form.
For COVID study applications please use our COVID application form
Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Completed forms should be emailed to nbr@bioresource.nihr.ac.uk.
Application deadlines and process timing
Applications must be received by for review by:
- 18 January 2021
- 30 April 2021
- 9 September 2021
- 4 November 2021
Each NIHR BioResource Steering Committee meeting will consider a maximum of eight new applications. If the next NIHR BioResource Steering Committee meeting is full, or if we receive your application after the deadline, we will consider it at the next available meeting.
All applications will undergo feasibility checks before being passed to the Steering Committee for review. You will receive feedback within one month from the application deadline above.
Once your study is approved
If your application to the NIHR BioResource Steering Committee is successful, our team will ask you to complete two documents:
We cannot recruit participants until we have received these completed forms.
Please note that, before recruitment starts, we might ask you to amend your study paperwork, including Patient Information Sheet and Consent Form, to ensure that it complies with our Protocol and Standards.
You must ensure your study is approved to run at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and provide an R&D approval letter.
If you have any questions about the application process or need advice or help with amending study paperwork, please email nbr@bioresource.nihr.ac.uk
Data and sample fidelity
For most studies that recall NIHR BioResource participants, samples or data are selected using data already held.
We make every effort to ensure that our data and sample holding accurately represent the participants who have joined. However, there is still a very small chance that errors may have been made during sample-handling and/or data-extraction processes.
We advise you to check by a method of your choice any aspect of the data provided by the NIHR BioResource if it is critical to your research.
If, in the course of subsequent data analyses we discover any errors, we will notify relevant researchers.
Interested in BioResource data ?
Data-only requests are processed by our Data Access Committee and you should receive a response within a few weeks
Access our samples
If you think our samples can support your research, we can help