“The Research for Social Care (RfSC) call is inviting research proposals that will generate evidence to improve, expand and strengthen the way social care is delivered for people who draw on social care support and services, carers, and the public.

RfSC research is expected to have a high degree of involvement from relevant users of social care and social care practitioners throughout the research.

RfSC welcomes high-quality proposals from researchers and practitioners that are focused on:

• Social care needs and relevant outcomes (which could be quality of life, improvement of social care and other interrelated factors, as appropriate to the study, population etc.)
• Developing a more robust evidence base for current ways of working
• Developing and evaluating new ways of delivering social care
• Secondary data analysis, record linkage and reviews
• Research methods development
• Care users’ and carers’ circumstances and needs
• Those who deliver social care including unpaid carers and the staff and professionals involved in the delivery of social care e.g. social workers.

Applicants considering submitting a Stage 1 application may consider submitting an outline of their proposal for guidance before official submission. This is non-mandatory and purely aimed at helping potential applicants to engage with the requirements of the call (e.g. eligibility and remit). Outline proposals can be submitted using the pre-submission form. For other questions, contact rfsc@nihr.ac.uk

The deadline for submission of applications is 13:00 on 14 September 2022.”